National Institutes of Health

Childhood obesity prevention

NIH R01 grant funds study of physical activity and binge eating in children

Heather Carroll — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 18:12:51 +0000

NIH R01 grant funds study of physical activity and binge eating in children Heather Carroll Mon, 09/14/2026 - 14:12

Early signs of binge eating can emerge as children enter adolescence, signaling risk for eating disorders. 911�� researcher Tyler Mason is investigating whether physical activity could improve self-regulation and, in turn, reduce that risk.

Tyler Mason, associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies. Photo provided.

With a five-year, R01 grant from NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health, Mason will use wearable technology and other real-time assessments to study children during a pivotal developmental window, with the goal of better understanding how eating disorders develop and how to intervene earlier.

Mason, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at the College of Public Health, is leading the project with co-principal investigator Kathryn Smith, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Dallas.

“Many people overeat, but we’re focused on what is called ‘loss of control eating’—that sense that you can’t stop eating and feel like you have to continue,” Mason said. “The loss of control is the part that can be distressing and associated with eating disorders.”

Previous research has linked physical activity with improved mood and cognitive functioning, aspects of self-regulation that can influence eating behavior. “If physical activity improves aspects of self-regulation, then perhaps it could reduce overeating because of loss of control,” Mason said.

Over three years, researchers will study 200 children in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area starting at ages 10 to 12, a phase when several factors converge: puberty begins, autonomy grows in eating choices, and physical activity tends to decline while sedentary behavior increases.

The study will capture both long-term changes and moment-to-moment shifts in participants’ lives. Garmin wristbands will measure physical activity, while smartphone-based cognitive tests and real-time surveys will track self-regulation, emotions, cravings, and eating behavior. Participants will also undergo functional MRI (fMRI) scans and clinical interviews assessing eating disorder symptoms.

The approach builds on Mason’s work as director of the BREAD Lab at 911��, short for Biobehavioral Research on Eating and Appetite Dysregulation, within the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies.

With the National Institutes of Health study, Mason said the goal is to find ways to intervene earlier in problematic eating by understanding whether and how physical activity plays a role, including how its effects unfold in daily moments.

In addition to Mason and Smith, the research team for the study—titled “Biobehavioral Mechanisms of Activity and Loss of Control Eating in Children”—includes Shan Luo, Genevieve Dunton, and Megan Herting of the University of Southern California.

Thumbnail photo by golubovy via Adobe Stock

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Nutrition Research

Childhood Obesity

CPH research

NIH grant funding

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In the George

Key Takeaways

A five-year NIH R01 grant will fund 911�� researcher Tyler Mason’s study of physical activity, self-regulation, and binge eating in children.
The study will follow 200 children starting at ages 10 to 12, examining long-term changes and moment-to-moment behaviors in daily life.
The research could inform new approaches to eating disorder prevention, including whether and how physical activity could reduce the risk of losing control of eating.

This research supports the Grand Challenge Initiative's goal of improving human health, well-being, and preparedness

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National Institutes of Health Javits Award to bolster building the brain’s blueprint

Nathan Kahl — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 18:20:03 +0000

National Institutes of Health Javits Award to bolster building the brain’s blueprint Nathan Kahl Thu, 07/23/2026 - 14:20

The goal of Giorgio Ascoli’s three decades of research is to gain a more complete understanding of one of science's most complex systems: the human brain. And this year the 911�� professor of bioengineering and neuroscience received one of the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) most prestigious recognitions for established investigators.

Giorgio Ascoli. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

Ascoli's long-running program was selected for an NIH Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, providing seven years of support and additional funding to advance his research into the structure and function of the brain.

The award is especially significant for 911��, as Ascoli's is the first Javits Award recipient at the university. The award is reserved for a small number of exceptionally highly rated research proposals; the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the institute that supports Ascoli's research, only gives this distinction to a handful of grants each year.

Ascoli's proposal received a priority score in the top 3 percent of all applications reviewed. The Javits recognition converts Ascoli’s funding from what is categorized at NIH as an R01 grant—and which he has successfully renewed since 1999—into an R37, giving a longer timeline and more security. “Because there is a more extended time frame, it really gives the lab a chance to think longer term. I can now take research risks that I could not normally take.”

His work focuses on the intricate structures that allow nerve cells to communicate with one another. Unlike most cells in the body, neurons possess elaborate branching structures that extend from the cell body. These structures receive and transmit signals, creating vast networks through which the brain processes information.

Ascoli compares the structures to a blueprint. "If you're an engineer and you're given a machine and you want to understand how this machine works, the best thing that you can get is a blueprint," he said.

For decades, Ascoli's lab has charted the diversity and organization of these neuronal structures, creating quantitative models of the brain's cellular architecture. A central outcome of that work is NeuroMorpho.Org, a publicly accessible database that collects and standardizes data on the structure of neurons from research groups around the world.

“The impact of our research goes beyond the typical impact of a single lab, which is publications, discoveries, etc. This reaches out more broadly and with longer-term consequences for scientific research,” he said. Researchers worldwide contribute data, which are standardized, annotated, and made freely available for anyone to download, analyze, and use in computational models.

The Javits-supported research will build on that foundation by combining neuroinformatics, computational neuroscience, and the study of learning and memory. Ascoli and his team will use data-driven computational models to simulate brain networks and investigate how their structure supports the brain's ability to learn and retain information.

A particular focus is the hippocampus, a region of the brain closely associated with learning and memory. The work aims to better understand how the architecture of neural circuits contributes to different forms of memory, including conscious memories of events and experiences.

The research could help scientists make predictions about how the brain functions and then test those predictions experimentally. The approach also reflects the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of modern neuroscience, bringing together biology, computer science, engineering, and data science.

“Never before has the neuroscience community had access to so much data and such mighty computational resources for analysis and modeling,” he said. “We are tantalizingly close to making exciting breakthroughs in the century-old quest to link neural architecture to cognitive function.”

The Javits Award will give Ascoli and his team additional time and resources to continue building his brain blueprint, one neuron and one connection at a time.

In This Story

Giorgio Ascoli

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Neuroscience

Bioengineering

Michael S. Bloom, PhD, MS, FACE

Maternal obesity linked to 64% increase in childhood obesity risk

Mary Cunningham — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 15:16:36 +0000

Maternal obesity linked to 64% increase in childhood obesity risk Mary Cunningham Mon, 06/22/2026 - 11:16

The roots of childhood obesity may begin in the womb.

New research led by the 911�� College of Public Health found that children whose mothers entered pregnancy with obesity were 64% more likely to become overweight or obese by age 3. Excessive weight gain during pregnancy was associated with a 39% increase in that risk.

Participant in 911��'s cohort of NIH's Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO). Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

“Our findings suggest that childhood obesity risk may not develop in a single, uniform way, but maternal health before and during pregnancy may play a larger role than many people realize,” said study lead author Hua Min, associate professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy.

Different pregnancy-related weight factors appeared to matter at different stages, with excess pregnancy weight gain more closely linked to infant weight and maternal obesity more strongly associated with weight later in toddlerhood.

Researchers also found that excess pregnancy weight gain was common, affecting about four in 10 mothers in the study.

Published in the International Journal of Obesity, the research is among the largest and most ethnically diverse U.S. longitudinal studies to examine how maternal weight may influence obesity risk in early childhood. Researchers tracked nearly 3,000 mother-child pairs, using data from a Northern Virginia birth cohort participating in the National Institutes of Health’s Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program.

The 911�� research team included Michael S. Bloom of the Department of Global and Community Health, and Grace Lawrence, Alma Fuller and Kathi C. Huddleston of the School of Nursing.

Why this matters

Researchers in 911��'s cohort of NIH's Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO). Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Childhood obesity remains one of the most pressing health challenges in the United States. The study notes that nearly 90% of children with obesity at age 3 will continue to be overweight or obese into early adulthood. Those early patterns can carry long-term consequences, increasing risks for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic health problems.

Researchers say the findings reinforce the importance of maternal health before and during pregnancy—not just for pregnancy outcomes, but also for a child’s long-term health trajectory. The findings also suggest that obesity risk may develop differently across populations, with patterns varying among demographic groups.

Study details

Findings were based on the First Thousand Days of Life Study, a Northern Virginia birth cohort participating in the ECHO Program, which examines how early-life experiences affect child health. 911�� was selected as an ECHO research site in 2019.

Researchers enrolled 2,899 mother-child pairs in Northern Virginia between 2012 and 2019, following families from pregnancy through age 3.

Key findings include:

Children whose mothers were obese before pregnancy were 64% more likely to be overweight or obese by age 3.

For every one-point increase in maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), childhood overweight/obesity risk increased by about 4%.

Children whose mothers gained excessive weight during pregnancy were about 39% more likely to be overweight or obese by age 3.

About 41% of mothers in the study gained more weight during pregnancy than recommended by national guidelines.

Excess weight gain during pregnancy showed stronger links to higher weight earlier in infancy, while maternal weight before pregnancy became more strongly associated with higher child weight later in early childhood.

The associations between maternal weight factors and childhood obesity differed between Hispanic and non-Hispanic families, suggesting that obesity risk may develop differently across populations.

Key Takeaways

Maternal obesity and excessive pregnancy weight gain were both linked to higher childhood obesity risk.
Researchers found obesity risk patterns varied across developmental stages and demographic groups.
An NIH-supported 911�� study followed nearly 3,000 Northern Virginia mother-child pairs from pregnancy through age 3.

In This Story

Dr. Kathi Huddleston, PhD, MSN

Topics

Maternal Health

Child Health

Maternal Child Health

911�� biosciences doctoral student turns setbacks into NIH research opportunity

Katarina Benson — Thu, 14 May 2026 17:13:58 +0000

911�� biosciences doctoral student turns setbacks into NIH research opportunity Katarina Benson Thu, 05/14/2026 - 13:13

Beginning a PhD is rarely straightforward. Beginning one just as the world shuts down adds an entirely new dimension to adaptability. For 911�� biosciences PhD student Matthew Lefkowitz, that quality would come to define his doctoral journey.

Lefkowitz at the National Institutes of Health. Photo provided

He entered the program in fall 2019 and had only just begun settling into graduate life when the COVID-19 pandemic brought research across the world to a halt. Laboratories closed, projects paused indefinitely, and traditional academic timelines dissolved almost overnight.

Rather than waiting for things to return to normal, he adapted.

With laboratory access limited, Lefkowitz shifted his focus to coursework. Over the next two years, he completed 52 graduate credit hours. As the pandemic continued to disrupt traditional research pathways, 911�� supported him in pursuing external research opportunities.

After months of persistence, he secured a position at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), becoming a pre-doctoral Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) Fellow. There, he worked across two institutes: the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS).

The experience placed him in a highly interdisciplinary environment that brought together biology, computational science, and translational research—an ideal fit for his background.

“It combined problem-solving with the opportunity to work on challenges where there isn’t already a clear answer. That made it feel like a natural fit for my interests in math and science,” he said.

At the core of his doctoral work is the study of rare neuromuscular disorders, particularly congenital muscular dystrophy. Using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning, Lefkowitz’s research aims to better understand disease mechanisms and improve predictions of clinical outcomes, which is an especially complex challenge in the context of rare disease research.

While his interest in neuromuscular disease is informed, in part, by his own experience living with a rare neuromuscular disorder, he is equally motivated by the broader impact this work could have on improving diagnosis and care for patients facing similar conditions.

“The biggest challenge in the field right now is making sense of very small patient populations, which is often the case with rare diseases. When you’re working with such limited data, it becomes much harder to predict outcomes or draw reliable conclusions from what clinicians are observing.”

Before beginning his doctoral studies at 911��, Lefkowitz applied to PhD programs nationwide. Despite strong academic credentials and a biomedical engineering degree from Virginia Tech, he faced widespread rejection.

The challenge, he said, stemmed from his training emphasis in mathematics, systems thinking, and problem-solving rather than extended wet-lab experience—skills that are highly valuable in interdisciplinary research.

911�� saw potential others overlooked.

“Mason didn’t just look at what I hadn’t done,” he said. “They saw the potential of what I could do.”

Since joining 911�� and later gaining experience at the NIH, Lefkowitz said he has grown significantly as both a researcher and an independent scientist.

“I grew in ways I couldn’t have imagined, especially in learning how to advocate for myself,” he said. “You have to take initiative and make those resources work for you. That meant learning to speak up, to position myself in the spaces where science is happening. That experience gave me a level of confidence I didn’t have before.”

Throughout his doctoral journey, mentorship has played a critical role. Lefkowitz credits School of Systems Biology faculty, including Ancha Baranova and Alessandra Luchini, as well as members of his doctoral committee, for providing guidance during pivotal moments.

“The difference was trust. Mason trusted me to figure things out and supported me while I did,” he said. “A PhD doesn’t teach you how to avoid challenges. It teaches you how to respond to them.”

Lefkowitz would like to thank the members of his dissertation committee, including his director and co-chair, Carsten G. Bönnemann, Chief of Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Diseases of Childhood Section at NINDS; chair, Ancha Baranova; and committee members, Donald Lo, Director of the Therapeutic Development Branch at NCATS; and 911��’s Alessandra Luchini and Lance Liotta.

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Emily Ihara, PhD, MSW, FGSA

$3 million NIH grant funds national study of Medicare Advantage’s benefit expansion into social supports

Taylor Thomas — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 12:47:22 +0000

$3 million NIH grant funds national study of Medicare Advantage’s benefit expansion into social supports Taylor Thomas Thu, 02/26/2026 - 07:47

Today, more than half of older Americans receive their Medicare coverage through private Medicare Advantage plans. In 2020, that program made a sweeping policy shift, allowing those plans to offer supplemental benefits beyond traditional medical care, including groceries, meal deliveries, utilities, transportation, pest control, and air filters.

Jeah Jung, professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy. Photo provided

Now, with an approximately $3 million R01 grant from the National Institute on Aging, 911�� health economist Jeah Jung will lead a national study to evaluate whether those benefits reduce adverse health events and improve functional outcomes.

“Health-related social needs, such as food security, housing quality, reliable transportation, and social support, are increasingly recognized as important contributors to individuals’ health,” said Jung, a professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy. Despite the wide rollout of the new initiative to meet those needs, she said, “there is currently no information or evidence of how many people are using it, how they’re using it, and whether it’s actually bringing the intended outcomes.”

As of 2025, 55% of Medicare beneficiaries, or 34.4 million Americans, were enrolled in Medicare Advantage, the private alternative to traditional Medicare. According to Jung’s data analysis, more than 30% of Medicare Advantage plans adopted non-medical supplemental benefits by 2025. Meanwhile, she found that more than 90% of dual-eligible special needs plans—serving low-income beneficiaries enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid—adopted the benefits.

“This is a really large-scale initiative by Medicare to address unmet social needs and see whether that helps maintain and improve beneficiaries’ health outcomes as well,” Jung said. “With an investment of this size, we want to see evidence on how it’s working and who it’s reaching so the policy can be refined in the future.”

Using secure Medicare administrative data, Jung’s five-year project will examine whether the availability of non-medical benefits is associated with changes in emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and whether patient can remain in their homes and communities rather than enter nursing homes. The study will also analyze who uses the new benefits, and whether uptake differs by demographics, such as race, ethnicity, sex, health risks, and area-level socioeconomic factors.

The project will also include contributions from Emily Ihara, professor and chair of the Department of Social Work in the College of Public Health. Researchers from Oregon Health and Science University and Dartmouth College are serving as co-investigators.

In This Story

Jeah Jung, PhD, MPH

Key Takeaways

A $3 million National Institute on Aging grant will fund a national study of Medicare Advantage’s benefit expansion into social supports such as food assistance, transportation, and other non-medical benefits.
Led by 911�� health economist Jeah Jung, the five-year study will use Medicare administrative data to examine whether these benefits reduce emergency visits, hospitalizations, and nursing home entry.
The findings will provide national evidence on who is using these benefits and whether this large-scale federal effort is working as intended.

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GCI-Grand Challenge Initiative

911�� team earns $2.1M to study seizure dynamics

tdonnel — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 15:06:52 +0000

911�� team earns $2.1M to study seizure dynamics tdonnel Tue, 01/13/2026 - 10:06

In This Story

John Cressman

Parag Chitnis

Remi Veneziano

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a 911�� research team $2.1 million to create a system that could revolutionize the study of seizures.

The project combines the expertise of Parag Chitnis and Remi Veneziano (Department of Bioengineering), and Rob Cressman (Department of Physics and Astronomy) to develop an imaging and sensing system for identifying areas of the brain with potassium ion dysregulation.

“Potassium is one of those ions that actually inhibits activation of cells. If there's a dysfunction in those ions, you get runaway signaling. A seizure is an example of that,” said Cressman, who has studied epilepsy since his postdoctoral work. “We’re trying to develop tools that help us understand that better.”

From left, Parag Chitnis, Rob Cressman, and Remi Veneziano. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding.

When the biocompatible nanosensors, made of DNA and light-sensitive dye, encounter a local change in potassium concentration, they change their shape resulting in a change in their near-infrared fluorescence signal.

“We want to detect even very small changes in potassium,” said Veneziano, whose work involves synthesizing new nanomaterials from DNA particles, proteins, and lipids. “The system we’ve built is modular, versatile, and highly sensitive.”

These signals can be mapped in real-time using a near-infrared imaging device to understand dynamic changes in ion concentration.

One of the most promising applications is image-guided surgical intervention for epilepsy. By pinpointing seizure foci through potassium mapping, surgeons may be able to perform precise tissue ablation, removing only the affected areas.

“If you can identify the focus and remove that part of the tissue, you can sometimes stop the seizures,” said Cressman.

The four-year NIH-funded project, previously funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), builds on years of research supported by 911��’s Center for MedTech Innovation.

“This grant allows us to translate our NSF-funded feasibility work into real-world applications,” said Chitnis, who studies brain-body interactions using light and ultrasound. “We’re not just studying disease—we’re building tools that could guide future interventions.”

The toolkit will be tested across multiple platforms—from cell cultures to brain slices to intact mammalian models—allowing researchers to study bioelectrical activity at various scales.

The team also sees potential for assessing functional recovery after traumatic brain injury. Scar tissue can disrupt potassium regulation, and the nanosensors may help identify regions at risk of developing seizure foci. As the research progresses, the team hopes to open new pathways for understanding and treating complex brain disorders.

Topics

Bioengineering

College of Engineering and Computing

College of Science

National Science Foundation

Kyeung Mi Oh, PhD, MSN, RN, FAAN

With NIH grant, 911�� researcher refines AI storytelling tool for dementia care

Taylor Thomas — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 12:50:12 +0000

With NIH grant, 911�� researcher refines AI storytelling tool for dementia care Taylor Thomas Tue, 10/28/2025 - 08:50

In This Story

For people living with early memory loss, recalling and sharing life stories can be a powerful act. It’s the idea behind “reminiscence therapy,” an approach for treating dementia that uses personal memories to boost mood, cognition, and connection.

Kyeung Mi Oh. Photo provided.

Now, 911�� nursing professor Kyeung Mi Oh is working to make that therapy more accessible for diverse communities. She’s serving as co-principal investigator on a new $2.9 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to refine the LifeBio Memory app, an artificial-intelligence platform that helps older adults capture their memories and share them with caregivers.

Earlier versions of the LifeBio Memory app have reached nursing homes and assisted-living facilities nationwide, with residents showing greater engagement and fewer symptoms of depression. The new phase brings the app into community settings—with older adults living at home with a caregiver—and expands to multiple languages and cultural contexts, including English, Spanish, and Korean.

A nurse scientist with expertise in gerontology, Oh leads the project’s community-based research arm. “We want to see how storytelling technology can improve quality of life and relationships for both the older adult and the caregiver,” she said. “When people talk about their past, they often smile. It strengthens social support and emotional closeness.”

Over the next three years, Oh’s team—including co-principal investigator Lisbeth Sanders, founder and CEO of LifeBio Inc.—will conduct usability testing followed by a randomized controlled trial with 84 caregiver–care recipient pairs.

While LifeBio’s engineers refine the app’s AI features, such as automatically generating digital life-story books and multimedia “memory videos,” Oh is studying what happens when people use it. The research will examine psychosocial outcomes such as loneliness, depression, and relationship quality, alongside overall quality of life.

“We’re working to make LifeBio Memory accessible for people of different languages and cultural backgrounds, so older adults can tell their life stories in their own voices,” Oh said. “By adapting the platform with AI to reflect cultural nuances, we hope to help a wide range of adults with early memory loss stay connected to family and caregivers, improve their quality of life, and ease feelings of loneliness or depression that can speed cognitive decline.”

If the project is successful, researchers say it could offer a widely scalable, affordable tool for dementia support that’s available for people to use in their own homes and in their own languages.

Topics

Dementia

Aging

Older Adults

Artificial Intelligence

Nursing Faculty

grants

NIH grant funding

911�� researchers awarded $4.65 million NIH grant to explore chronic knee pain

ckearney — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 21:31:42 +0000

911�� researchers awarded $4.65 million NIH grant to explore chronic knee pain ckearney Tue, 09/30/2025 - 17:31

For millions of Americans, chronic musculoskeletal pain is a daily reality that makes even simple activities like walking across a room, playing with grandchildren, or just getting through a workday feel daunting. At 911��, researchers at the Center for Advancing Systems Science and Bioengineering Innovation (CASSBI) are leading a new $4.65 million National Institutes of Health-funded R01 study to better understand what shapes those experiences, and how to improve care.

Photo by Getty Images

“Like many people all over the world, I have known close family members living with unexplained chronic pain,” said the project’s lead investigator Siddhartha Sikdar, professor of bioengineering and director of CASSBI. “I have seen firsthand how frustrating it can be to navigate a disjointed health care system that often does not prioritize patient voices. That’s why I’m so excited about this project. It prioritizes understanding each person’s lived experience of pain, so we can come up with better guidelines for personalized management of chronic pain.”

Chronic musculoskeletal pain is one of the world’s most common—and least understood—health conditions. It refers to ongoing pain in soft tissues of the neck, shoulders, back, hips, arms, or legs. Lower back and knee pain are leading causes of disability worldwide, disrupting work, family life, and well-being.

Despite its prevalence, the condition is poorly understood. Pain perception is difficult to measure, and each individual’s experience of chronic pain is unique. Findings on currently available diagnostic tests paint an incomplete, and sometimes misleading, picture of the underlying problems. Too often, people with chronic musculoskeletal pain encounter fragmented care, misdiagnoses, or treatments that are expensive, invasive, and ineffective. Many report feeling dismissed or unheard.

The research team will work to solve this problem by studying how physical, biological, emotional, and social factors come together to shape the daily experience of living with chronic knee pain. They will look at whether analyzing multiple symptoms over time can help identify important turning points in a person’s pain journey, and how each individual’s particular mix of stress, biology, and movement plays a role in achieving maximal potential for function.

Siddhartha Sikdar. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding.

Over the next four years, the team will recruit participants with chronic knee pain who are receiving treatment at Optimal Motion, a community-based physical therapy clinic. For one year, participants will be followed closely, with data collected every three months on their biomechanics, physical function, biological health, and psychosocial well-being. A smartphone app will also allow participants to share daily reflections, giving researchers an unprecedented look into the lived experience of chronic pain.

“Chronic pain is not just about an abnormal finding in a single body part,” Sikdar explained. “It’s an individual, day-to-day experience that cuts across physical, emotional, and social dimensions.”

Improving chronic pain management without overreliance on opioids and other medications with harmful side effects is a critical priority for addressing the ongoing public health crisis of opioid and other medication misuse, addiction, and overdose in America. Better understanding the factors that shape pain could lead to more effective personalized care and help reduce the devastating ripple effects of medication misuse and addiction.

This study is different from traditional pain research in three important ways. First, it uses a whole person focus. Instead of viewing knee pain only as a local problem in the joint, the team is taking a holistic approach that considers the entire person and the many factors influencing their pain. Second, it puts patient voices at the center. By using advances in large language models, researchers will analyze patient narratives, stories, and reflections, capturing rich perspectives often overlooked by conventional assessments. Third, it will track change over time. Rather than relying only on one-time snapshots, the study will follow patients’ pain experiences as they shift from day to day and month to month.

The interdisciplinary project will involve medical scientists, community-based medical professionals, engineers, data scientists, neuroscientists, and CASSBI’s chronic pain advisory board of patient advocates and community-based practitioners. 911�� faculty collaborators include:

Kevin Lybarger, assistant professor, Department of Information Sciences and Technology, College of Engineering and Computing (expertise: artificial intelligence, natural language processing)
Secili DeStefano, adjunct faculty, Department of Health Administration and Policy, College of Public Health (expertise: physical therapy)
William Rosenberger, Distinguished University Professor, Department of Statistics, College of Engineering and Computing (expertise: statistics)
Seiyon (Ben) Lee, assistant professor, Department of Statistics, College of Engineering and Computing (expertise: statistical modeling of complex data)
Samuel Acuña, research assistant professor, Institute for Digital Innovation, Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact (expertise: rehabilitation engineering, human-centered product design)
Cameron Nowzari, associate professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering and Computing (expertise: robotics)
Lynn Gerber, MD, professor emerita, medical doctor, Inova Center for Integrated Research (expertise: rheumatology, internal medicine, rehabilitation)

The team is also partnering with the University of Wisconsin–Madison and community-based providers such as Optimal Motion.

The project supports NIH’s interest in advancing the understanding of individual differences in pain with a whole person approach to personalized medicine. It also aligns closely with CASSBI’s mission to bring together scientists, engineers, health care professionals, and community members to drive real-world medical innovation.

For more than a decade, 911�� researchers at CASSBI have been working across disciplines to better understand chronic pain and this new study builds on that legacy with fresh tools, new partnerships, and functional outcomes that reflect wha patients have expressed is important to them .

“Pain is a uniquely personal perception and experience,” said Sikdar. “Our goal is to listen more closely, understand more fully, and translate those insights into better care guidelines and treatments. Ultimately, it’s about helping people get back to living their lives.”

Find more innovation on the CASSBI website

Grand Challenge Initiative

Explore 911��’s Grand Challenge Initiative addressing the greatest threats to humanity’s ability to live a peaceful, healthy, prosperous, and just existence.

In This Story

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College of Engineering and Computing

GCI-Grand Challenge Initiative

Dr. Kathi Huddleston, PhD, MSN

911�� public health researchers enter new phase of NIH funded research

sbrown79 — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 15:22:40 +0000

911�� public health researchers enter new phase of NIH funded research sbrown79 Thu, 09/11/2025 - 11:22

Scientists, nurses, and researchers in 911��’s College of Public Health (CPH) have successfully progressed to the third phase of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) program studying a broad range of early life exposures on child health.

The NIH grant provides more than $157 million in awards for Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO), and 911�� will receive $1.35 million annually until 2030 to conduct the study.

ECHO researcher working with one of the participants in the Population Health Center. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding.

911�� is one of 45 research sites across the country gathering longitudinal data on more than 30,000 children; 1,059 of those children are enrolled in 911��’s ECHO program. The research is conducted in 911��’s Population Health Center, the only clinical site in Virginia.

“For this phase of ECHO, we’re gathering information on novel chemical exposures, preconception behaviors, early exposures, and the consequences of regional and social determinants of health,” said Kathi Huddleston, PhD ’08, principal investigator and CPH associate professor. “Following our large and diverse ECHO population will enhance the ability to go from society to biology to more positive health outcomes.”

911�� faculty and students working on the project include alumni Grace Lawrence, PhD ’18, Daisy Posada, MA ’18, Megan Bayne, MA ’18, Shiva Zarean, BS ‘24, and Alma Fuller, Lynda Ashie, and Bruna Mayen, a senior biology major who also acts as the project and lab manager.

The project has followed these families since their 2012 to 2019 pregnancy.

“Many of the families sharing their health information to help the next generation include 911�� alumni,” Huddleston added.

While the project tracks changes in child health over time, the study had to adapt during the pandemic when researchers moved to remote data collection. Since then, ECHO has been instrumental in advancing remote research study activities.

ECHO researcher working with one of the participants in the Population Health Center. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding.

“When the kids were babies, we received surveys and sample kits in the mail to provide teeth and hair samples that we would send back. Now we come into the center once a year for check-ups,” said Susy Ashkar, a mother of three boys, ages 9, 6, and 4, who participate in the ECHO study.

“After quality assurance and review determined the validity and veracity of the data, we are now continuing many of these remote practices to decrease the study burden on our families,” said Huddleston.

This has added to Mayen’s role as lab manager as she collects teeth and hair samples as well as basic anthropometric measurements to assess the health and well-being of our children as they grow.

“As a biobank, we provide high-quality, well-documented biological samples ensuring they remain viable and uncontaminated, for long-term preservation under controlled conditions so they can be used for future analyses, thereby serving as a research-enabling platform that advances science,” said Mayen.

“From the research we’ve conducted during this phase, we can see that groups of children who share a common characteristic or experience. For example, those born in the same year give us the advantage to see development and change over time, help identify patterns, trends, and predictors. All that is possible because of the work we do every day in collecting biospecimens, anthropometrics, and many surveys in the participating ECHO families,” Mayen said.

“We have tapped on a wonderful resource of families willing to share of their time to help science to improve population health, and in that act are demonstrating to their children that citizen science matters,” Huddleston said. “I can’t wait to see some of these young ECHO participants enroll at 911�� and bring with them that spirit of public health.”

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Community Engagement

population health center