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Twelve Emory faculty were named today to Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers list for 2025, joining the ranks of the world’s most productive and influential scholars. Clarivate, a British-American scientific data and analytics firm, compiles its list based on a worldwide search for scientists and academics with the highest level of scholarly activity — including research papers ranked among the top 1% most cited in their fields — but the selection criterion goes beyond a simple count of published papers or citations. Instead, the firm uses a multilevel method to gauge a scholar’s recognition from a wide-ranging international network of other authors, looking for a lengthy, continuous record of new findings rather than reviews of past discoveries. The analysis is based on a rolling eleven-year period of citations.
Congratulations to our 2025 Atlanta Pediatric Scholars K12 Program awardees, Jairo Fonseca, MD and Nabil Saleem, MD!
The Atlanta Pediatric Scholars Program (K12HD072245; PI: Shari Barkin, MD) is funded by The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and is administered and supported by Emory University Department of Pediatrics and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. This program is a mentored institutional career development program for senior fellows and junior faculty who have recently completed postgraduate clinical training in pediatrics and are committed to launching an independent basic science research career. The program provides a dedicated period of career development including didactic coursework, mentored research training and 75% protected research time towards the pursuit of independent extramural research funding.
Dr. Fonseca’s project, “Impact of TGF‑β on Pediatric HIV Reservoir Establishment and Latency Reversal Strategies,” seeks to uncover new strategies for curing pediatric HIV by studying the immune molecule TGF-β's role in creating and maintaining hidden HIV reservoirs and reducing the effectiveness of latency-reversing drugs. His project mentor is Ann Chahroudi, MD, PhD. Dr. Fonseca is an Instructor, Pediatric Infectious Diseases in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Dr. Saleem’s project, “Engineering Chemotherapy Resistant CAR T Cells for Acute Myeloid Leukemia,” explores a new way to treat aggressive childhood leukemia (AML) by combining CAR T-cell therapy with chemotherapy, aiming to make CAR T cells resistant to chemotherapy drugs, in order to allow both treatments to work together and improve remission rates for children with hard-to-treat AML. His project mentor is Sunil Raikar, MD. Dr. Saleem is a Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellow at the Emory University School of Medicine and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta pulmonologists Rachel Linnemann, MD, and Brittany Truitt, MD, recently published research resulting in improvements in Georgia’s statewide newborn screening (NBS) process for cystic fibrosis (CF).
“This project has led to multiple changes at the state level in CF NBS follow-up processes with the goal of improving timely diagnosis,” said Dr. Linnemann.
In the first study, Drs. Linnemann and Truitt characterized children with CF born in Georgia who were missed by NBS or had delayed diagnosis despite positive NBS. Nearly 5% of children with CF had a false negative NBS, and most delayed diagnoses were related to challenges with sweat testing. They furthermore found that minoritized children make up 43% of missed and 44% of delayed diagnoses, making Black and Hispanic infants at higher risk compared to non-Hispanic White infants. Their findings were recently published in the International Journal of Neonatal Screening.
In a second related study, the duo examined CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene variant frequencies and NBS genetic test performance for people with CF currently receiving care in Georgia. Compared to Georgia's current 39 variant panel, they found that larger variant panels would improve case detection and timeliness of diagnosis due to increased detection of two gene variants. These findings were also recently published in the International Journal of Neonatal Screening.
Center for Cystic Fibrosis and Airways Disease Research (CF-AIR)
A new study led by researchers at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta shows that childhood cancer survivors who engage in long-term survivorship programs and receive a personalized survivorship care plan (SCP) live longer than those who do not.
Published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the research provides the first evidence that survivorship care plans, when integrated into comprehensive pediatric survivorship programs, are associated with significantly improved survival. The multidisciplinary study was co-led by Sharon M. Castellino, MD, MSc, professor and pediatric oncologist at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and researcher at Winship Cancer Institute.
“Our study shows that when childhood cancer survivors are engaged in survivorship care through tools like a survivorship care plan, they experience better overall and event-free survival,” says lead author Xu Ji, PhD, MSPH, researcher at Winship Cancer Institute and associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. “This underscores how critical survivorship care is for supporting the long-term health and well-being of survivors.”
Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center (Aflac)
Research and Epidemiology for Adolescent and Child Health (REACH) Center
Thanks to a significant grant from the late Bernie Marcus and The Marcus Foundation, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta announced the opening of the Marcus Center for Cellular Therapy. Through cutting-edge clinical trials, the center will facilitate the manufacturing and delivery of cellular and gene therapies, which are some of the most novel treatments available to patients with diseases resistant to standard care protocols. Children’s anticipates the lab will significantly shorten wait times for cellular and gene therapy by allowing patients to receive the therapies in-house at Arthur M. Blank Hospital, and that it will help expedite Children’s-led research examining new uses for cellular and gene therapy.
Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center (Aflac)
Marcus Center for Cellular Therapy
Emory School of Medicine celebrated Faculty Recognitions Week during October 27-31, 2025. The week recognized faculty accomplishments and excellence in patient care, research, education, and innovation. We are grateful for the talent and dedication of our faculty and congratulate them on their accolades!
Hanna Alemayehu, MD, FACS, FAAP, has been named Director of Surgical Research at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. In this position, she will advocate for and drive innovation in surgical research by representing all pediatric surgical subspecialties and anesthesiology.
Dr. Alemayehu joined Children’s in 2022. Her focus has been on growing the pediatric surgery research portfolio by building a sustainable infrastructure aligned with our research mission and vision. She is passionate about expanding collaborative research opportunities and mentoring residents, fellows, students and advanced practice providers. She has spearheaded the establishment of new clinical programs, including a Pectus Clinic and a Robotic Surgery Program.
Her research is driven by clinical questions and focused on surgical outcomes. Top areas of interest include neonatal surgical illnesses such as NEC, SIP, meconium obstruction of prematurity, congenital esophageal anomalies, as well as acquired biliary disease in children of all ages. Her projects center on these clinical interests, with a particular emphasis on health equity, simulation, innovation and applications of artificial intelligence.
Research and Epidemiology for Adolescent and Child Health (REACH) Center
Children’s has named Roshan P. George, MD, Division Chief of Nephrology. Dr. George has been Interim Division Chief of Nephrology since January. Dr. George initially came to Children’s and Emory as a Fellow in July 2010. Since then, she has been Director of the Kidney Transplant Transition Program, Medical Director of Transplant Quality for Solid Organ Transplantation and Program Director for the Pediatric Nephrology Fellowship Program. She is also Chair of the national Member Education Committee and Co-chair of the national Training Program Director's Committee for American Society of Pediatric Nephrology, Past-Chair of the Pediatric Community of Practice for American Society of Transplantation, and serves on the Membership and Professional Standards Committee (MPSC) of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.
Center for Gastroenterology, Endocrinology, & Nutrition Innovation (GENI)
Children's Center for Immunity and Applied Genomics (CIAG)
Emory University School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics has created the Division of Behavioral and Mental Health to provide an academic home for faculty aligned with the Behavioral and Mental Health program at Children’s. Dr. John Constantino leads the Division, which includes three sections:
Pediatric Psychology, led by Bonney Reed, PhD, ABPP
Integrative and Community Care, led by Laura Dilly, PhD, ABPP
Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, led by David O’Banion, MD
Congratulations to Dr. Constantino, the section leaders, and all faculty members of the Division of Behavioral and Mental Health.
Children's Center for Neurosciences Research (CCNR)
Marcus Autism Center
Pediatric Technology Center (PTC)
The Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Technology Center at Georgia Tech (PTC) has named a new co-lead for its work in Data Science, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence (Pillar 1)—Lauren Steimle, PhD, MSE. Dr. Steimle will co-lead Pillar 1 with Naveen Muthu, MD, who has been a co-lead since July 2024.
Dr. Steimle is the Harold R. and Mary Anne Nash Early Career Professor and an Assistant Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) at Georgia Tech. Her research focuses on the application of operations research and machine learning to improve medical decision-making and population health.
Pediatric Technology Center (PTC)
