Children’s National and Virginia Tech launch new pilot awards to advance children’s health research
Working together to study the genetic causes of Down syndrome are (from left) Meike van der Heijden, an assistant professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, and Kuangfu Hsiao, a principal investigator at the Center for Neuroscience Research at the Children’s National Research Institute. In addition, Erin Gloag, an assistant professor of biomedical sciences and pathobiology at Virginia Tech, and Andrea Hahn, an attending physician in infectious diseases at Children’s National Hospital, will focus on the underlying causes of persistent lung infections.
Researchers with Children’s National Hospital and Virginia Tech have joined to improve children’s health through new collaborative research projects focused on brain circuit changes in Down syndrome and persistent lung infections in cystic fibrosis.
Two cross-institutional research teams will launch the projects with joint Virginia Tech–Children’s National pilot awards, according to Catherine Bollard, MBChB, MD, senior vice president and chief research officer at Children’s National, and Michael Friedlander, executive director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute (FBRI) at VTC and Virginia Tech vice president for health sciences and technology.
The $100,000 each awards funded equally by Children’s National and FBRI were selected through a competitive process, with proposals reviewed by a committee of Virginia Tech and Children’s National researchers whose expertise aligned with each project area.
“These pilot awards are about moving promising ideas toward real-world impact — advancing discoveries that can ultimately improve health and care for children and families,” Bollard said.
“When we bring together the strengths of Virginia Tech and Children’s National, we can tackle complex problems in new ways,” Friedlander said. “This partnership is built to accelerate collaborative multi-disciplinary science and turn collaboration into real world breakthroughs.”
Meike van der Heijden, an assistant professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, and Kuangfu Hsiao, PhD, a principal investigator at the Center for Neuroscience Research at the Children’s National Research Institute, will study cerebellar function in trisomy 21, the genetic cause of Down syndrome.
Cerebellar differences are common in Down syndrome, but researchers don’t fully understand how those changes affect brain signaling and everyday skills like movement and speech.
The team will build on recent work in a trisomy 21 pre-clinical model and test whether intensive treadmill training can improve motor control, a practical, noninvasive approach with therapeutic potential.
Andrea Hahn, MD, MS, an Attending Physician in Infectious Diseases at Children’s National Hospital, and Erin Gloag, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, will explore how therapies that modulate the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conduction regulator (CFTR) are reshaping the approach to treating chronic lung infections by targeting the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis.
In cystic fibrosis, bacteria can settle in the airways and cause ongoing infections that are hard to clear, in part because they can form sticky biofilms that help them survive and resist treatment.
By pairing Children’s National strengths in long-term patient sampling and genomic analysis with Virginia Tech expertise in biofilm biology, the researchers aim to understand why these infections remain difficult to eliminate and identify new paths to improve long-term lung health.
Bollard and Friedlander said they look forward to following the progress of the projects, which reflect a shared commitment to advancing impactful, team-based research.
