In celebration of Black History Month, On the Pulse spoke with Dr. Yolanda Evans, an adolescent medicine specialist at Seattle Children’s, about simple yet powerful ways we can encourage and teach kids to become activists in their community what this month means to her.
Engage your kids in conversation
It starts with role modeling and engaging in conversation.
“As a family, I encourage having conversations with your kids around differences and embracing differences,” Evans said. “Instead of ignoring or not talking about issues about inequalities and injustices, allow for dialogue and speak in terms appropriate to their age level.”
Evans suggests using books as conversation starters.
“Antiracist Baby is a great book,” Evans said. “There are also other kids’ books that highlight African American contributors which are educational and foster positive role models.”
The human brain has over 400 miles of total vasculature, yet little is known about the tiny capillaries that make up much of this intricate labyrinth. Understanding how this vast network regulates blood flow in the brain could hold the key to new treatments for neonatal and childhood neurologic conditions, such as stroke and hypoxia, and issues of aging like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
While the human brain has over 400 miles of total vasculature, little is known about the tiny capillaries that make up much of this intricate labyrinth of blood vessels critical for delivering oxygenated blood and nutrients to billions of brain cells.
According to Dr. Andy Shih, a principal investigator in the Center for Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, understanding how this vast network regulates blood flow in the brain could hold the key to new treatments for neonatal and childhood neurologic conditions, such as stroke and hypoxia, and issues of aging like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
“Insufficient blood flow contributes to many of the common neurologic problems seen in children and adults,” he said. “Yet, because we can’t see the capillaries, which measure about 1/10th the thickness of hair, with in vivo clinical imaging techniques, determining how blood travels through this densely packed bed of vessels has remained elusive.”
Wanting to get a closer look, Shih and fellow scientists, Dr. Andree-Anne Berthiaume and Dr. David Hartmann, applied special techniques called two-photon imaging and optogenetics to isolate and study brain capillaries in animal models. Their findings published today in Nature Neuroscience describe the dynamics that govern capillary blood flow in the brain and have broad implications for future avenues of brain research. Read full post »
Zenashe (pictured on left) and her two children pick up food and other supplies at one of the Seattle Children’s Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic pickup locations in August.
When the economic and social impacts of the coronavirus pandemic began taking root in early spring 2020, the team at Seattle Children’s Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic (OBCC) immediately anticipated the devastation and hardship it would bring.
“From the start, we recognized that the families we serve were being disproportionally negatively impacted by the virus itself, and its effects,” said Arlesia Bailey, senior director of community health and development at OBCC.
The Therapeutics Cell Manufacturing facility at Building Cure translates laboratory discoveries into real-world treatments.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Feb. 5 approved Bristol Myers Squibb’s Breyanzi, a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy used to treat adults with certain types of large B-cell lymphoma who have not responded to or who have relapsed after standard treatments.
The approval was supported by research at Seattle Children’s, including the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product, patient product manufacturing for Juno Therapeutics’ TRANSCEND trial, and data from the Pediatric Leukemia Adoptive Therapy (PLAT-02) clinical trial. In the PLAT-02 clinical trial, 93% of patients with relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia achieved initial remission, and about 50% were still in remission one year after therapy. Read full post »
On New Year’s Eve of 2019, Sierra Landman learned she was pregnant with her first child.
“We were so excited,” Landman said. “Then we learned that something wasn’t right with our baby’s heart.”
Nevaeh Landman was born on September 10, 2020 at Madigan Army Medical Center with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and immediately rushed to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where she would stay for the next several days.
Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is when the left side of the heart is not fully developed. It is a rare and serious birth defect. Babies with HLHS need surgery in the first weeks of life. They will have a series of surgeries to redirect blood flow through their heart.
In December 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) for COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. This was hailed as a turning point in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Still, many people are hesitant about these new vaccines for a variety of reasons, and the proliferation of misinformation can make it difficult to know what to believe.
The Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award recognizes an NFL player for his excellence on and off the field. Every year, each NFL team nominates one player from their team who has had a significant positive impact on his community. This year, Russell Wilson was nominated for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award, and at Seattle Children’s we wanted to say congratulations and share how much Wilson means to us. Read full post »
Seattle Children’s is dedicated to becoming an anti-racist and equitable health organization.
To realize this vision, we’ve adopted a long-term comprehensive plan with our Anti-Racism Organizational Change and Accelerated Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Plan. This plan was designed with the guidance and support from our patients, workforce, community and trusted expert leaders on anti-racism work, equity, inclusion and diversity over the last year.
Ezra Anpo (right), here with his sister Aria, participated in a research study investigating a liquid biopsy approach to providing a genetic diagnosis in children with lymphatic malformations.
Doctors at Seattle Children’s are investigating whether a simple liquid biopsy containing a small amount of fluid from a patient may someday provide an easier route to a genetic diagnosis in children with vascular or lymphatic malformations.
The work is a collaborative effort led by Dr. James Bennett, a clinical geneticist and co-director of the molecular diagnostic laboratory at Seattle Children’s and Dr. Jonathan Perkins, an otolaryngologist and director of the Seattle Children’s Vascular Anomalies Program. Liquid biopsy offers an alternative to the more invasive surgical biopsies required – when a genetic, or molecular diagnosis, is needed to help guide a patient’s treatment.
“We can now provide a specific genetic diagnosis for a lot of vascular malformations,” Bennett said. “That’s important for families for a variety of reasons with one being it’s just extremely healing and powerful to know the reason why your child has these differences.” Read full post »
Pictured from left to right: Yu Chen, Malika Hale and Christopher Thouvenel of the Rawlings lab at Seattle Children’s Research Institute.
For close to a decade the labs of Dr. David Rawlings at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and Dr. Marion Pepper at the University of Washington have collaborated on a project studying the immune response in malaria infections.
As the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the U.S., they turned their expertise and the techniques pioneered for malaria to a new line of inquiry: Did mild infection from the new coronavirus stimulate the immune system to generate antibodies that would offer future protection from the virus? And if so, could they engineer those neutralizing antibodies in the lab to develop potent new therapeutic options?
Rawlings, the director of the Center for Immunity and Immunotherapies at Seattle Children’s and a professor of pediatrics at UW, discusses their encouraging findings now published in Cell. Learn why he says their research is good news for efforts to control COVID-19 and what’s next for his lab. Read full post »
In celebration of Black History Month, On the Pulse spoke with Dr. Yolanda Evans, an adolescent medicine specialist at Seattle Children’s, about simple yet powerful ways we can encourage and teach kids to become activists in their community what this month means to her.
On New Year’s Eve of 2019, Sierra Landman learned she was pregnant with her first child.
