Media Coverage

The Buffalo News’ free newsletter “Buffalo Next” interviewed Allison Brashear, MD, MBA, dean of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, about the upcoming 2022 Robert Guthrie Symposium on June 28. The event, focused on newborn screening and metabolic disorders, features speakers from across the country. Brashear said, “I'd like to see the Jacobs School being seen as a leader in pediatric research and the Robert Guthrie Symposium being one of the key cornerstones of bringing in amazing speakers from the outside but also featuring our own researchers.” The article also includes comments from physician Taosheng Huang, MD, PhD, a clinical genetics expert recruited to UB in 2020.

Rappler republished a piece by Sourav Sengupta, MD, MPH, assistant professor of psychiatry and pediatrics in the Jacobs School, about choosing the right type of mental health therapy. “In thinking about what kind of therapy you might benefit from most, consider how you tend to approach and solve problems in your daily life,” he wrote. “Just as important as the type of therapy is how well you connect with your therapist. Finding a good match can be a challenge. A recommendation from people you know and trust, such as your friends or primary care provider can help point you in the right direction.” The Pittsburgh Courier also published the story, which originally appeared in The Conversation.

Spectrum Local News spoke to Sourav Sengupta, MD, MPH, assistant professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, about parents talking to their children about the mass shooting in Buffalo. "We don't want to be using a lot of adult words and concepts,” he said. “We really want to try to get down to their level and communicate in a way that they're going to understand. It usually means sometimes not giving a lot of details.”

The Buffalo News reported on the baby formula shortage and quoted Steven Lipshultz, MD, chair of pediatrics at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, who recommended that for a child older than 6 months old and otherwise healthy, using in the short-term whole pasteurized milk or buying donor breast milk as a substitute. “It becomes really important for those families particularly concerned and anxious to reach out to their child’s pediatrician because we are here to support families,” Lipshultz said. “It’s a serious problem. The anxiety is real and it’s increasing.”

WKBW reported on the increase in children being diagnosed with autism, possibly due to delayed diagnoses during the pandemic and interviewed Michelle Hartley-McAndrew, MD, clinical associate professor of pediatrics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and director of the Children’s Guild Foundation Autism Spectrum Disorder Center at Oishei Children’s Hospital, who said that in 2020, the center had referrals for 594 children and in 2021 it received 1,371 calls for an autism evaluation.

Numerous media outlets, including Crains Business Insurance, published the announcement that Susan Baker, MD, PhD, professor in the Department of Pediatrics, has joined the Scientific Advisory Board of Else Nutrition Holdings. The company focuses on developing innovative, clean and plant-based food and nutrition products for infants, toddlers, children and adults.

Trial Site News reports that Mark Hicar, MD, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics at the Jacobs School, received a $100,000 Infectious Disease Society of America grant to investigate links of Alzheimer’s disease to infectious diseases

Niagara Frontier Publications published a UBMD Pediatrics guest editorial urging parents to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. The story quotes UBMD Pediatrics President Steven Lipshultz, who is also A. Conger Goodyear professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics in the Jacobs School. “We’ve seen a range of symptoms among children, from very mild to serious illness, even requiring hospitalization,” said Lipshultz. “That’s why we recommend the vaccine for children ages 5 years and older to protect them.”

WGRZ interviewed Sourav Sengupta, assistant professor of psychiatry and pediatrics in the Jacobs School, on a report on whether technology disconnects us with nature. "It does! You know, and I'd say, even more than that I think it disconnects us from other people. And as part of that, I think a lot of that is mediated from an increasing disconnection from nature," he said.

WBFO broadcast a story about reports from New York City of dramatic increases in hospitalizations of children with COVID-19 and quoted Shamim Islam, clinical associate professor of pediatrics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, who said that unvaccinated children are the predominant proportion of children who are being admitted to the hospital with COVID-19.

Augusta Free Press reported on an NIH grant to Virginia Tech that is designed to explore how a low cost intervention called episodic future thinking might help people with Type 2 diabetes; Len Epstein, SUNY Distinguished Professor and chief of behavioral medicine in the Department of Pediatrics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, is a collaborator on the grant. 

Medical Xpress covered UB research which demonstrates that dexrazoxane, which is administered to pediatric cancer patients in order to curb the cardiotoxicity of a key chemotherapy drug, has no adverse impacts on these patients, even nearly 20 years later. “The longer term effects of dexrazoxane had not been previously established, due to the short time it has been in clinical practice since the late 1990s,” said Steven E. Lipshultz, senior author on the paper and A. Conger Goodyear Professor and Chair of Pediatrics in the Jacobs School. “This is why this paper is so important, because it examines, for the first time, these longer term effects of dexrazoxane.”

Karl Yu, a clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at the Jacobs School at UB, told WKBW the increase of local COVID-19 cases in schools is because vaccination rates are the lowest among children. "If the vaccine were going anywhere, it would be going to those people who didn't have prior vaccination or infection with COVID-19. Children happen to be the largest group of this," Yu said. The story was reposted by Yahoo! News.

The Buffalo News reports that as local COVID-19 cases continue to rise among children, area health professionals are urging parents to get their kids vaccinated. “What we find is that parents are accepting this quite well, recognizing that it’s probably the best and most comprehensively tested vaccine ever given to children. It’s a dose reduction of a vaccine that’s been given to over a billion people," said Steven E. Lipshultz, chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB.

HealthDay reported on preliminary results of a study by Giulia Martone, a fellow in the Department of Pediatrics, and Xiaozhong Wen, associate professor of pediatrics, both in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, that found that introducing eggs to babies early can help prevent egg allergies. “Current evidence suggests that early introduction of egg during infancy, followed by consistent and frequent feedings, seems protective against development of egg allergy,” Wen said.