Biplab Dasgupta, PhD, MBA and Mary Lauren Neel, MD, MSCI were awarded Center Pilots, while Neal Laxpati, MD, PhD and Andrey Tikunov, PhD received Junior Faculty Focused awards. Congratulations to all four investigators as they embark on their projects!

Dr. Reisner (senior author), Laura Blackwell, PhD, and team published a review in Neurosurgery Clinics of North America. The article highlights how caring for children with severe brain or spinal cord injuries requires approaches very different from those used in adults.

CCNR is excited to announce the recruitment of Deborah Luessen, PhD, who joined us at Emory in September 2025 from Vanderbilt University. Dr. Luessen investigates how early-life drug exposure disrupts cortical physiology and how these impairments contribute to neuropsychiatric disease and cognitive deficits. She is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and is a K99/R00 awardee.

• The Gershon Lab, in collaboration with the Chandler Lab, received a DOD award titled “Macrophage-delivered amino acid degraders for GBM therapy.” Their study proposes to develop an entirely new type of therapy for glioblastoma.
• Dr. Gershon and a group of international collaborators published new findings in Nature Communications. The study shows that a protein called Netrin-1 helps Sonic‑Hedgehog medulloblastomas grow and blocking it could make treatment more effective.

Dr. Raper (senior author) and team published new findings in Neurotoxicology and Teratology on the neurocognitive effects of general anesthesia exposure during infancy. Using a rhesus macaque model, they found that sevoflurane exposure resulted in changing peripheral levels of inflammatory markers, which have been linked to cognitive impairments.

Dr. Gombolay’s study, “The Role of T cells in anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis,” seeks to identify features to guide treatment in autoimmune encephalitis to improve outcomes. It also seeks to identify novel therapeutic targets that could help people with other neuroinflammatory diseases, including multiple sclerosis.

Congratulations to Dr. Patil on his first grant! Dr. Patil’s study, “Establishing Epigenetic markers in Neurofibromatosis,” will help uncover speed of aging in a Neurofibromatosis type 1 population and generate novel biomarkers for plexiform neurofibromas.

CCNR is excited to announce the recruitment of Chrystian Junqueira Alves, PhD, who joined us at Emory in July 2025 from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Junqueira Alves investigates how neural stem cells sense and transduce mechanical forces to regulate cell fate and migration. He is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and is a K01-funded investigator.

Dr. Palasis received the 2025 President’s Award from the American Society of Pediatric Neuroradiology (ASPNR). The award recognizes her extraordinary contributions to education, mentorship, and professional service in pediatric neuroradiology. She played a pivotal role in organizing the society’s first annual scientific meeting, which has since become a major international event. 

In a paper published in Nature, Dr. Maitre and team shared results from a donor-funded study in collaboration with the Cerebral Palsy Foundation. The study found that a new kind of treatment developed for parents who use websites and social media lowers parenting stress and increases knowledge for families of children 0-3 with motor delays, no matter where they live in the country.

This project is a combined effort between members of Emory/Children's radiology and the Madabhushi lab at Emory. The team plans to leverage unappreciated information from MRI scans of brain tumors to make clinically important predictions about the tumors, to help guide therapy.

Dr. LaPlaca's research is focused on traumatic brain injury and concussion, concentrating on sources of heterogeneity and clinical translation. Specifically, she is working on biomarker discovery, role of the glymphatic system, and novel virtual reality neurological assessments.