News

• Dr. Sonia Grandi (right) gave a workshop on target trial emulation for maternal and child health research at the University of Montreal. 

• Lucy Zhao and Olivia Novosel (Med Students) presented their research at the University of Toronto Medical Student Research Day on February 5th. 

Lucy’s poster is titled: Maternal hypothyroidism during pregnancy and cardiometabolic outcomes in offspring: a cohort study

Olivia’s poster is titled: Factors associated with medication use in the preconception and perinatal period among women with autoimmune disorders: a systematic review

Olivia in front of her poster.

• Our newest lab member, Dr. Aida Glembocki (MSc Student, Pediatric Pathology Fellow), had two research abstracts accepted by the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology’s 114th Annual Meeting.
• Lauren Tailor (PhD Student) successfully defended her PhD thesis proposal.

Congrats Aida and Lauren! 

• The BIONIC study (BIOlogic drug safety and effectiveness interNational pharmacoepidemiologIC study in pregnant women with autoimmune disorders and asthma and their children), led by Dr. Sonia Grandi (SickKids) and Dr. Cristina Longo (University of Montreal), has onboarded 9 Patient Partners with lived experience to join its Advisory Committee.

• Dr. Sonia Grandi (Principal Investigator), Yanara Marks (Research Coordinator), and Kate Mather (Patient Partner Advisor) gave a joint talk entitled “Bridging contemporary methods and a patient-centered approach to inform the safety of medication use in pregnancy for maternal and infant outcomes” at the Child Health Evaluative Sciences lunch seminar (CHES Rounds) at SickKids.

Kate (left), Dr. Grandi (middle), and Yanara (right) in front of their presentation at SickKids.

See more details on the Talk Poster

• PhD student, Sabrina Chiodo, presented her work at the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research (SPER) conference on June 18th, 2024. 

Sabrina is pictured presenting her poster entitled “Patterns of aspirin use for preeclampsia prevention in an ethically diverse population-based cohort of women in Canada” – great work Sabrina!

• PhD Student, Lauren Tailor, won the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, a prestigious national scholarship that supports doctoral students who demonstrate outstanding leadership skills and scholarly achievements.
• PhD Student, Sabrina Chiodo, won the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral Award (CGS D) to support her doctoral study.

Congratulations Lauren and Sabrina! 💕

• SickKids Principal Investigator, Dr. Sonia Grandi, won the Rising Star Award from the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiological Research. ✨

• She also won the Canadian Foundation for Women’s Health (CFWH) General Research Grant for her project “BIOlogic drug use to inform a National pharmacoepidemiologIC safety study in pregnant WOMEN (BIONIC-WOMEN).”

Congratulations Dr. Grandi for two great achievements in a row!

• Dr. Sonia Grandi (Senior Author) and PhD student Sabrina Chiodo (First Author) published “Emulating a Target Trial in Perinatal Pharmacoepidemiology: Challenges and Methodological Approaches”, an Invited Review in Current Epidemiology Reports which is currently in press.

• The SickKids Research Institute Retreat was held on November 23, 2023 at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto. Congratulations to the IMPOWER Lab who tied for first place for the most posters submitted within CHES!

SickKids Principal Investigator (PI), Dr. Sonia Grandi with PhD candidate Sabrina Chiodo (top left), in front of their poster entitled “Methodological considerations for the design of target trials to estimate the safety and effectiveness of medications used in pregnancy”.

Research coordinator, Yanara Marks (top middle), in front of her poster entitled “Barriers and facilitators to using R for Health Technology Assessment: Focus Group Results”.

Research student, Renee Fajardo (top right), in front of her poster entitled “Adverse infant and childhood outcomes following maternal exposure to biologics for the treatment of autoimmune disorders: A systematic review”.

PhD candidate, Lauren Tailor (bottom left), in front of her poster entitled “Validation study of an aspirin (ASA) prophylaxis variable for preeclampsia prevention” which previously won Best Poster!

Research student, Lucy Zhao (bottom middle), in front of her poster entitled “Maternal hypothyroidism and subsequent cardiometabolic outcomes in children: a systematic review and meta-analysis”.

PhD candidate, George Stefan (bottom right), in front of his poster entitled “Development and validation of a prediction model for 10-year risk of hypertension in women of reproductive age”.

• PhD student, Lauren Tailor’s research entitled “Validation study of an ASA prophylaxis variable for preeclampsia prevention” was selected as a Spotlight Poster Presentation at the 39th International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology and Therapeutic Risk Management (ICPE 2023) in Halifax, Nova Scotia – what a great accomplishment, Lauren!​

• PhD student, Sabrina Chiodo, received the Ontario graduate scholarship 2023–2024. Congratulations Sabrina!

• SickKids Summer Research (SSuRe) student, Lucy Zhao presented her work at the SSuRe Symposium on August 16, 2023. The SSuRe program supports university students conducting research in a laboratory or clinical setting at SickKids under the supervision of a Research Institute scientist. 

Lucy is pictured presenting her poster entitled “Maternal hypothyroidism ​and cardiometabolic outcomes in offspring: a systematic review and meta-analysis” – well done Lucy!

• PhD student, Lauren Tailor, presented her project “ASA prophylaxis for pre-eclampsia prevention: validation within a large administrative dataset” as a poster at the first Annual Canadian Mother-Child Cohort Meeting at Congrès de l’Acfas in Montreal, Quebec.​

• PhD student, Lauren Tailor, presented her work “Validation study of an ASA prophylaxis variable for pre-eclampsia prevention” at the virtual Society for Perinatal and Pediatric Epidemiologic Research Student Symposium.