Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute announces the recipients of the fall 2025 internal funding opportunities. Manne Research Institute provides internal grant and award opportunities to a faculty member or other person who has principal investigator-eligible status to develop projects that will lead to a highly competitive extramural application for sustained research support within 18 months of receiving the award. Funding opportunities vary depending on the year and cycle. Pediatric research at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago is conducted through Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute.
Arun Gosain, MD
Division Head, Plastic Surgery, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago; Children's Service Board Chair in Pediatric Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Lurie Children’s; Professor of Surgery (Pediatric Surgery), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Award type: Proposal Revision Award
Amount funded: $100,000
Project title: Digital Twins to Predict and Optimize Skin Growth and Flap Design in Pediatric Tissue Expansion
Project summary: Dr. Gosain will work with his team headed by research scientist Joanna Ledwon, PhD, to use the funds from the Proposal Revision Award to perform a pilot study using a porcine model and computational modeling to investigate the optimal protocol for skin recruitment and flap design. The work will support Dr. Gosain’s goal to establish a digital twin framework to forecast and optimize expander shape, placement, and flap design for reconstructive purposes, specifically focusing on expansion properties in children.
Gustave Falciglia, MD
Attending Physician, Neonatology, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago;
Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Neonatology), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Award type: Accelerator Award: Innovate2Impact Commercialization Fund
Amount funded: $49,000
Title: Precision Nutrition for Critically Ill Infants in the NICU
Amy Fang, MD, MPH
Attending Physician, Cardiac Anesthesiology, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago; Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology (Pediatric Anesthesiology), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Award type: Schreiber Family Center GROW to 5 Grant
Amount funded: $32,000
Project title: Using Biomarkers to Assess the Relationship Between Neurological Injury and Cerebral Autoregulation
Project summary: Neonates and infants who undergo open heart surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass to repair congenital heart defects experience neurological injuries that lead to long-term morbidity and impaired neurodevelopmental outcomes. Some of these injuries are a result of ischemia (lack of oxygen to an organ or tissue due to reduced blood flow) from hypoperfusion (reduction in blood flow). The Schreiber Family Center GROW to 5 Grant will support Dr. Fang’s study to determine if three biomarkers—glial fibrillary acidic protein, tau, and neurofilament light chain—can be used to assess the relationship between neurological injury and cerebral autoregulation, a physiologic mechanism that maintains a stable blood flow to the brain. The goal of the study team is to use the pilot data generated from this study to conduct a randomized multicenter trial using cerebral autoregulation tools to develop personalized blood pressure management strategies for patients undergoing congenital cardiac surgery.
Marie Heffernan, PhD
Scientific Director of Quantitative Research, Smith Child Health Catalyst, Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute; Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Award type: Schreiber Family Center GROW to 5 Grant
Amount funded: $100,000
Project title: Parent Overstimulation Pilot Study
Project summary: The Schreiber Family Center GROW to 5 Grant will support Dr. Heffernan’s project to explore how parent overstimulation is connected to parent and child mental health, well-being, and relational health with a focus on young children, and create and validate a survey tool to assess parent overstimulation that can be used in clinical, community, and research contexts. The phenomenon of overstimulation for parents has not been characterized in literature, so Dr. Heffernan’s goal is that the creation of this survey tool will encourage future research to further understand and mitigate the impacts of parent overstimulation. The results will support the study team’s future research to develop and assess a single-session intervention to reduce parent overstimulation, which they will measure using the tool developed in the proposed Parent Overstimulation Pilot Study.
Rajesh Kumar, MD
Interim Division Head, Allergy and Immunology, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago; Professor of Pediatrics (Allergy and Immunology), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Award type: Schreiber Family Center GROW to 5 Grant
Amount funded: $99,000
Project title: Genes, Soy Isoflavones, and Virus—Preventing Airway Remodeling, Asthma, and Wheezing
Project summary: Dr. Kumar studies the role of PAI-1 variants in asthma development and morbidity, specifically, the associations of these variants with risk of exacerbation in established asthma and risk of asthma development in combination with early life viral illness. His work has shown that soy isoflavones decrease the risk of asthma exacerbation by 75 percent in patients with the PAI-1 genotype. The Schreiber Family Center GROW to 5 Grant will support a pilot project to allow for preliminary data to show that on demand treatment with soy isoflavone improves epithelial integrity and decreases Th2 airway responses if dosed with onset of illness. This would establish the viability of on-demand treatment for early life wheezing respiratory viral illness which may modulate acute outcomes and potentially impact the development of asthma associated changes in the developing airway.
Michelle Macy, MD, MS
Attending Physician, Emergency Medicine, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago;
Director, Mary Ann & J. Milburn Smith Child Health Outcomes, Research and Evaluation Center, Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute;
Mary Ann and J. Milburn Smith Research Professorship for the Director of Child Health Research, Lurie Children’s;
Professor of Pediatrics (Emergency Medicine), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Callie Kaplan, MPH, DrPH Candidate
Senior Research Scientist, Smith Child Health Catalyst, Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute
Award type: Schreiber Family Center GROW to 5 Grant
Amount funded: $47,000
Project title: Building a Community-Academic Research Partnership Through Exploring the Costing and Effects of Intervention Layering in a Community-Based Maternal and Early Childhood Program
Project summary: The Schreiber Family Center GROW to 5 Grant will support Dr. Macy and Ms. Kaplan to build a community-academic research partnership between New Moms, a Chicago-based non-profit that supports early relational health to strengthen maternal and child health outcomes, and Smith Child Health Catalyst at Manne Research Institute, a service core that leverages mixed methods and data-driven strategies to advance pediatric research. Maternal stress during the prenatal and early childhood periods is a critical determinant of maternal and child health outcomes. While evidence supports the effectiveness of individual interventions in mitigating adverse maternal and child health experiences, there is limited research on the impact and cost-effectiveness of layered interventions. The grant will support a social return on investment analysis of New Moms’ comprehensive care model to quantify social and economic benefits and evaluate the effects of intervention layering and dosage on maternal stress using validated measures and multivariate modeling. The grant will also lay the foundation for future externally funded collaborative studies.
Divakar S. Mithal, MD, PhD
Attending Physician, Neurology, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago; Founders’ Research Scholar in Neurocritical Care, Lurie Children’s; Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Neurology and Epilepsy), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Award type: Visionary Award
Amount funded: $75,000
Project title: Modeling Stepwise Decline in a Preclinical Murine Model of Mitochondrial Disease
Project summary: Patients with primary mitochondrial diseases—genetic disorders caused by defects in mitochondrial function—often experience long periods of clinical stability that are abruptly disrupted by episodes of acute decline in neurologic condition cause by an acute illness. The cadence of this clinical course is termed “stepwise” decline. Current preclinical studies using animal models of mitochondrial disease focus on the genetic component and model neither the acute decline nor the stepwise pattern, thereby limiting the translational validity of therapeutic research in mitochondrial disease. The Visionary Award will support Dr. Mithal’s work to develop and validate a preclinical model that mimics human primary mitochondrial diseases more closely. Successful development of this model promises to transform the ability to study the progression of mitochondrial diseases and, ideally, increase the yield of translational research.
Leena Mithal, MD
Attending Physician, Infectious Diseases, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago; Neal, Kathleen, and Adam Kulick Endowed Research Scholar, Lurie Children’s; Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Disease), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Award type: Accelerator Award: Innovate2Impact Commercialization Fund
Amount funded: $40,000
Title: Advancing Management of Early Onset Neonatal Sepsis Through Novel Cord Blood Diagnostics
John James Parker, MD, MS
Attending Physician, Division of Advanced General Pediatrics, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago; Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine, and Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Award type: Schreiber Family Center GROW to 5 Grant
Amount funded: $100,000
Project title: Stakeholder Engagement for Enhancing Father Involvement and Child Health Outcomes Research
Project summary: To address the growing public interest in understanding practical approaches to promoting child health by fostering father involvement in childcare, Dr. Parker and his team will create an advisory board called the Fatherhood Advisory Board and composed of key stakeholders that will guide the design and interpretation of analysis that measure the associations of father-involvement profiles with longitudinal child health outcomes. The study will use data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study and Lurie Children’s electronic health records. Combing stakeholder-guided longitudinal data analysis from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study with current trends of fathers’ presence within Lurie Children’s will allow Dr. Parker to create a more complete understanding of father involvement to support the development of interventions to promote family wellness early in childhood.
Mehul V. Raval, MD, MS, MBA
Division Head, Pediatric Surgery, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago; Orvar Swenson Founders’ Board Chair in Pediatric Surgery, Lurie Children’s; Professor of Surgery (Pediatric Surgery) and Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Award type: Interdisciplinary Colloquia Award
Amount funded: $5,000
Project title: Strengthening Pediatric Surgical Care through Cross-Disciplinary Implementation Research
Project summary: Multidisciplinary collaboration among implementation scientists and surgical providers is essential in supporting best practices in pediatric surgery and strengthening team capacity to translate evidence rapidly and effectively into practice. The Interdisciplinary Colloquia Award will support Dr. Raval and his team’s effort to coordinate a three-hour symposium on implementation research with a focus on children’s surgery to help identify shared challenges, cross-cutting strategies, and opportunities to adapt and scale successful approaches across settings. The symposium will bring together national leaders in pediatric surgery, experts in implementation science, and researchers from Lurie Children’s, Northwestern University, and partner institutions with experience applying implementation science principles in surgical settings.
Kelly Regan-Fendt, MD, PhD
Attending Physician, Edwards Family Division of Genetics and Rare Diseases, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago; Assistant Professor, Pediatrics (Genetics, Genomics, and Metabolism), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Award type: Kenneth C. Griffin Research Catalyst Award
Amount funded: $100,000
Project title: CerTra Syndrome Novel Biomarker Discovery and Natural History Study
Project summary: CerTra syndrome (CERT1-related disorder) is an ultra-rare neurogenetic disorder with an estimated 60 cases worldwide. There are no available treatments, but research shows that CerTra syndrome represents a compelling model as an emerging class of treatable genetic diseases. A gap in the development of novel therapeutics for rare genetic diseases is the availability of established natural history study data and biomarkers of disease. In response, Dr. Regan-Fendt’s proposed work represents the first natural history study of CerTra syndrome to define disease progression and clinical end points for future clinical trials, including a novel blood-based biomarker assay.
Lindsay Schwartz, MD, MS
Attending Physician, Hematology, Oncology, Neuro-Oncology, and Stem Cell Transplantation, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago; Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Hematology, Oncology, and Stem Cell Transplantation), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Award type: Catalyst’s Spark Award
Amount funded: $100,000
Project title: Measuring and Contextualizing Substance Use in Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Patients
Project summary: Adolescent and young adult cancer patients are more likely to smoke/vape nicotine and/or cannabis compared to their cancer-free peers. These behaviors worsen treatment toxicity, increase risk of recurrence, and undermine long-term survivorship care. Nearly all existing data are quantitative and derived from studies not designed to examine substance use in adolescents and young adults, leaving gaps in our understanding of why these patients continue to use these substances and what might help them quit. Dr. Schwartz’s project aims to generate early stage, actionable evidence to guide development of a future cessation intervention, tailored specifically for adolescent and young adult cancer patients. Resulting data will provide the scientific foundation needed for a future National Cancer Institute R21/R01 trial focused on tailored, patient-centered substance cessation strategies for adolescent and young adult cancer patients.
Arun Sharma, PhD
Director, Pediatric Urological Medicine and Surgical Research,
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Stanley Manne
Children’s Research Institute
Award type: Accelerator Award: Innovate2Impact
Commercialization Fund
Amount funded: $100,000
Title: Targetable Nanotherapeutics to Treat Intestinal Inflammation
Allison Sherling, APRN-NP, CPNP-PC
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Urology,
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Award type: Accelerator Award: Innovate2Impact
Commercialization Fund
Amount funded: $40,000
Title: Health Hive: A Digital Medical Home Designed for Kids
For the fall 2025 cycle, candidates were allowed to submit proposals for the following award categories.
- Accelerator Award: Innovate2Impact Commercialization Fund aims to bridge the gap between innovation ideas and successful commercialization by supporting the development of medical device, therapeutic/diagnostic, or digital health technologies at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago with awards ranging from $25,000 to $100,000.
- Catalyst’s Spark Award is a one-year award for up to $100,000 to support novel population health, implementation science, or community-engaged research.
- Grainger Research Awards are supported by the Grainger Research Initiative in Pediatric Emergency Medicine. These awards are designed to support innovative projects in pediatric emergency medicine and generate preliminary data for larger grant applications. Awards range from $3,000 to $50,000.
- Interdisciplinary Colloquia Award is a one-year award for up to $5,000 to bring together multi-disciplinary investigators from Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Northwestern University to share scientific knowledge and envision future research related to children’s health research.
- Kenneth C. Griffin Research Catalyst Award is a one-year award for up to $100,000 to support novel preclinical and translational research conducted by early-career researchers.
- Program Accelerator Award is a one-year award for up to $75,000 to support planning and development of program project-related applications expected to lead to a submission within 18-24 months of the start of funding.
- The PACCRI Spark Challenge Grants aim to catalyze high-risk, high-reward multidisciplinary research
that can transform outcomes for acutely ill and injured children. These grants are designed to support
bold ideas that challenge conventional paradigms and accelerate the development of impactful
solutions in pediatric acute and critical care. - Proposal Revision Award is a one-year award for up to $100,000 to support the preparation of a revision and resubmission of an application for federal research support.
- Schreiber Family Center GROW to 5 Grants are supported by the Schreiber Family Center for Early Childhood Health and Wellness and allow for the collection of pilot data that will increase the competitiveness of extramural proposals for R, P, and U-series awards. Awards range from $50,000 to $150,000.
- Scientific Advocacy Award is one-year award for up to $1,000 per year to advocate for children’s health research at the regional and national level and raise the stature of Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago investigators in scientific advocacy.
- Visionary Award is a one-year award for up to $75,000 to support potentially paradigm shifting research.
