Seed Grant Awardees

2026 Faculty Awardees

Benjamin al-Haddad, PhD

Assistant Professor, Division of Neonatology

“SKoIRM: Screening kinesiology of infants at risk of movement disorders”

This research aims to lay the groundwork to eventually develop a smartphone-based tool that can identify babies at risk for cerebral palsy and developmental delays by analyzing how they move in their first months of life. By studying infants in both Minnesota and Uganda, we're working to create an affordable, accessible way to catch developmental problems early—when interventions can make the biggest difference in a child's lifelong abilities. Currently, many at-risk babies aren't identified until they're toddlers, missing crucial windows for therapy that could improve their motor skills, independence, and quality of life. This work matters to Minnesotans because early identification means more children reaching their full potential, fewer families facing unexpected challenges, and reduced long-term healthcare and special education costs in our communities. Ultimately, a simple video tool could help families in both urban hospitals and rural clinics ensure their babies get the support they need as early as possible.

Kristin Elgersma, PhD, DM, MN, RN

Assistant Professor, School of Nursing

"Investigating the utility of brain-derived exosomes and clinical magnetic resonance imaging to assess nutrition, neuroinflammation, and brain iron status for infants with critical congenital heart disease"

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common birth defect, affecting about 1 in 100 infants. Up to half of children with CHD face developmental challenges, but the underlying causes remain unclear. This project will explore whether brain inflammation and low brain iron could contribute to neurodevelopmental risk in CHD. Using cutting-edge technology from the MIDB Translational Hub, we will study brain-derived extracellular vesicles (BDEVs) – small particles in the blood that carry signals from brain cells – and measure markers of brain inflammation and brain iron found within these BDEVs. We will also analyze brain MRI scans already collected during routine CHD care to see if these same markers can be detected through imaging. Our findings could pave the way for new interventions that help children with CHD grow up with healthier brains.

Charles Lewis, MD

Assistant professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

"Functional network topography and cortical inhibition mechanisms of negative urgency in youth with suicidal thoughts and behaviors”

Impulsive behavior experienced during negative emotions is associated with risk for suicide, the second-leading cause of death in young people.  However, little is understood about how brain changes during adolescence underlie impulsivity and suicidal thoughts and behaviors, which become significantly more common during the teenage years.  Our project will use state-of-the-art tools – resting-state functional MRI scans and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) – to measure brain physiology related to impulse control in adolescents aged 13-21 who have depression and prior suicidal thoughts or behaviors.  This research will help us to understand how individual differences in adolescents’ brain networks correspond to differences in behaviors like impulsivity that contribute to suicide risk.  By gaining a greater knowledge of how brain development affects behavior in youth with suicidal thoughts and behaviors, we will be able to design and test future treatments customized to individual adolescents’ brains, with the aim of reducing risk for suicide and promoting healthy development.

Gianna Rea-Sandin, PhD

Assistant Professor, Division of General Pediatrics & Adolescent Health

“Uncovering the genetic and environmental mechanisms of the intergenerational transmission of self-regulation from parent to adolescent youth”

This study will assess Minnesota twins and their families to better understand how genes and the environment shape children’s ability to manage emotions, stay focused, and make healthy choices. These skills, called self-regulation, help children navigate their everyday lives, such as learning in school and building strong family and peer relationships. By considering both genetics and the family environment, we can better identify which aspects of children’s lives foster healthy development. Our ultimate goal is to generate knowledge that can promote the well-being of children and families across Minnesota.

2026 Trainee Awardees

Emily Kuhn

“Increasing access to OCD and anxiety healthcare in rural communities”

There is a significant gap in the availability of specialized mental health care in rural America. This project will test the feasibility and effectiveness of using existing Project ECHO infrastructure through the University of Minnesota to train providers in rural communities to recognize, diagnose, and treat anxiety and OCD.

Miriam Kornelis

“Development of an inclusive and accessible grammatical language assessment”

Adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome demonstrate difficulties with morphosyntactic comprehension (i.e., understanding grammatical features), but we lack evidence-based interventions that target this skill. To develop effective interventions for receptive morphosyntax, we first need quality tools that measure this skill in reliable and valid ways. In the current study, we will develop and evaluate the psychometric properties and clinical utility of a novel receptive morphosyntactic measurement tool which can then be used to evaluate interventions targeting morphosyntax.

Bene Ramirez

“Precision confidence mapping guided low intensity focused ultrasound stimulation of pain networks in post-treatment sickle cell disease”

This project will create a precision brain-mapping dataset in people with sickle cell disease who live with chronic pain. Using resting-state fMRI paired with a new analytic approach, Precision Confidence Mapping (PCM), we will identify individualized subcortical thalamic targets within the Somato-Cognitive Action Network (SCAN). We will deliver low-intensity focused ultrasound to these subject-specific SCAN nodes and track pain-related outcomes before and after the session to test feasibility and generate early evidence for a larger, personalized neuromodulation trial.

Sanju Koirala

“Examining the role of salience network in processing naturalistic socio-emotional stimuli"

Prior work has shown that individuals with depression exhibit expanded cortical territory within the salience network, though the functional significance of this finding remains unclear. This project examines whether negative socio-emotional stimuli recruit a larger spatial extent of activation, particularly within an individually defined salience network, using precision fMRI in healthy adolescents. By testing whether negativity-biased processing is preferentially concentrated within the salience network, we aim to identify a potential neural mechanism of vulnerability before the onset of affective disorders in youth.

Holly Sullivan-Toole

“Deep phenotyping of incentive motivation as a critical step toward understanding adolescent anhedonia"

Anhedonia, a reduced interest or pleasure in rewards, is a serious mental health symptom that often emerges in adolescence and is difficult to treat. Characterizing the specific reward behaviors that are disrupted in adolescent anhedonia will provide mechanistic insight into how anhedonia emerges and can inform treatments. With this seed grant, I will (a) develop a 'deep phenotyping' testing battery to assess reward behaviors across multiple dimensions, and (b) examine the development of these reward behaviors in normative adolescent development and in youth with anhedonia.