Immune Memory, Tuberculosis Screening, Nursing Lifetime Achievement

 

Researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia reveal the effects of acute myeloid leukemia on the immune memory of healthy cells, and doctors from around the world highlight the importance of tuberculosis screenings. Also in this week's news, the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses recognizes a nurse with a lifetime achievement award, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has inducted Yi Xing, PhD, into its 2025 class of AIMBE College of Fellows. Read on to find out more.

Nurse Scientist Receives Prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award

The Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) awarded their most prestigious honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award, to Diane Spatz, PhD, RN-BC, FAAN, a nurse scientist at CHOP and Professor of Perinatal Nursing and the Helen M. Shearer Professor of Nutrition at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, for her tremendous contributions to human milk and breastfeeding research.

"I am so honored to receive this Lifetime Achievement Award from AWHONN," said Dr. Spatz in the Penn press release. "I dedicate this award to all the families I have had the privilege of caring for and the students and nurses I have taught, mentored, and learned from. I am proud to be an AWHONN member and to receive this honor."

Dr. Spatz is an internationally recognized expert on lactation and breastfeeding, having authored and co-authored more than 265 peer-reviewed publications. She developed CHOP's Breastfeeding Resource Nurse training and education program and has served on the Congressional Taskforce for Research Specific to Pregnant and Lactating Women, along with a World Health Organization Taskforce on donor milk and milk banking.

Congratulations to Dr. Spatz!

Read more in this Penn news brief.

AIMBE Inducts Yi Xing, PhD, to 2025 Class of College of Fellows

The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) inducted Yi Xing, PhD, into its 2025 class of AIMBE College of Fellows for his outstanding contributions to the computational biology and genomics of RNA regulation, and their applications to human biology and medicine.

Dr. Xing is the Francis West Lewis Endowed Chair in Computational and Genomic Medicine, the Executive Director of the Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics, and the Director of the Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine at CHOP.

In his laboratory, Dr. Xing develops innovative computational methods and genomic technologies to study RNA regulation in health and disease. His current research also aims to develop RNA-targeted precision diagnostics and therapeutics, particularly for childhood cancers and rare genetic disorders.

AIMBE Fellows represent the top 2% of medical and biological engineers, and include the most accomplished engineers in academia, industry, education, clinical practice, and government.

Congratulations to Dr. Xing!

Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells Alter Immune Memory of Healthy Cells

For the first time, researchers from CHOP have found that healthy stem cells retain altered immune memory after being exposed to cancerous acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells. The findings were published in the journal Cancer Letters.

"Our findings open the door to potential new treatments for pediatric patients," said Peter Kurre, MD, a senior study author and Co-leader of the Comprehensive Bone Marrow Failure Center. "Like immune reprogramming for CAR-T cell therapy, we could harness the stem cell immune memory response in a beneficial way, possibly reducing the risk of chronic inflammation and other long-term health issues."

Building upon an initial study published in Leukemia that found AML cells could trigger inflammation in long-lived stem cells, researchers sought to understand the long-term effects of inflammation on blood and immune cells. They designed a preclinical model that combined healthy blood-forming stem cells with genetically modified cells that can develop into AML and enter remission.

Exposure to AML cells resulted in a change to healthy stem cell genetic activity, demonstrating a "reprogramming" effect for long-term inflammation, even when a cancer goes into remission, which could lead to serious health issues in other organs.

Learn more in this CHOP news brief.

Researchers Emphasize Importance of Severe Acute Malnutrition in TB Screenings

In time for World Tuberculosis (TB) Day March 24, researchers from CHOP and around the world published commentary emphasizing an unmet need in the diagnosis of TB in children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM). Their work was published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.

"Tuberculosis is the world's deadliest infectious disease," said co-author and Medical Director of the Global Health Center at CHOP, Andrew Steenhoff, MBBCh, DCH. "Every year, March 24 is observed as World TB Day, and this year, we, as a group of pediatricians from many countries across the world, are highlighting children with severe acute malnutrition."

Active TB screening strategies typically focus on close contacts of those diagnosed with pulmonary TB and children living with HIV, but children with SAM are increasingly being identified as a third high-risk group.

The authors noted parallels between co-prevalent child TB and SAM, and TB and HIV co-infection, such as a higher prevalence of TB, poor detection rates, and worse outcomes for TB disease. These similarities raise critical research questions for TB diagnosis in children with SAM that current diagnostic practices for children with HIV could shed light on.

"[Children with SAM] are at extremely high risk of tuberculosis but have been neglected as a priority group," Dr. Steenhoff said. "Now is the time for us to develop better TB diagnostic tests in all children and especially in children with severe acute malnutrition."

Researchers called on pediatricians and nutrition and child health programs to incorporate expanded TB case finding strategies to better support and care for the SAM population.

CHOP Researchers Receive Smoking Treatment Accreditation Recognition

Pictured from left to right: Jeritt Thayer, PhD; Alex Fiks, MD, MSCE; Brian Jenssen, MD MSHP; and Jan Ramachandran, MS, MPH

The Health Promotion Council awarded CHOP researchers with Smoking Treatment Accreditation Recognition (STAR) for their work integrating a clinical decision support (CDS) tool called eCEASE that helps connect families to tobacco cessation services within CHOP's Primary Care Network.

"We are uniquely positioned as healthcare providers not only to support our patients but also to make a positive impact on their families as a whole," said Brian Jenssen, MD, MSHP, an investigator in Clinical Futures, a Research Institute Center of Emphasis. "Our goal is to ensure that healthcare providers utilize evidence-based practices and innovative tools during a critical time in their patients' lives when lifelong habits begin to form."

Dr. Jenssen and his research team, including Alexander Fiks, MD, MSCE, Jeritt Thayer, PhD, and Robert Grundmeier, MD, studied smoking cessation outcomes of parents after introducing a CDS to electronic health record workflows during pediatric appointments. They developed eCEASE to identify parents who smoke, motivate parents to stop smoking, and connect parents with treatment options. Researchers continue to study eCEASE as a model for improved integration of CDS tools in electronic health record workflows.

Learn more in this Research in Practice blog post.

ICYMI

Catch up on our headlines from our March 21 In The News:

• Trailblazing Oncologist Dr. Audrey Evans Immortalized in Biopic
• Innovative CHOP Cancer Researchers Elected to AACR Academy's 2025 Class of Fellows
• Social and Healthcare Inequities Associated with Recurring Violent Injury in Children
• Preclinical Study Findings Suggest Novel Gene Therapy Could Improve Metachromatic Leukodystrophy Treatment

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