Lecture Series
The Children’s Research Institute Lecture Series encourages interaction between researchers investigating childhood diseases, and stimulates new research through exposure to cutting-edge, ongoing work.
“Aspiration Risk in Children with Pneumonia in Low- and Middle-Income Countries”
May 13, 2025
12:00-1:00pm
3116 Mary Ellen Jones or Zoom
Dr. Nadia Hoekstra is a pediatric pulmonary fellow at 黑料网. Nadia grew up in Chapel Hill but spent much of her childhood in Trinidad and Tobago where her mother鈥檚 family lives. Nadia attended Boston College where she graduated with a Master of Arts in Sociology and a minor in Hispanic Studies. Following her undergraduate studies Nadia spent two years at the Yale School of Medicine conducting translational research on the mechanisms of acute diarrheal illness, a leading cause of childhood death worldwide. She then went on to graduate from medical school at 黑料网 in 2018. Following medical school, Nadia completed pediatric residency at the University of Colorado where she was a member of the Global Health Track and conducted research on screening practices for pediatric latent tuberculosis infection. Nadia started pediatric pulmonary fellowship at 黑料网 in 2021, and following her first year, she spent one year in Malawi conducting clinical research on severe pneumonia in infants as an NIH Fogarty Global Health Fellow. Nadia plans to pursue an academic career with a focus on improving the health of children with respiratory disease in the United States and globally, with an emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa.
Please contact childrensresearch@med.unc.edu for Zoom details.
“Interleukin 6 regulation of T cell metabolism and function”
June 10, 2025
12:00-1:00pm
3116 Mary Ellen Jones or Zoom
Dr. Yazan Alwarawrah is a Research Assistant Professor who is interested in targeting metabolism for the treatment of disease. Currently, he is studying T cell metabolism in the context of obesity-associated protective immunity dysfunction where he uses the diet induced obesity mouse model to study the effect of obesity on T cell metabolism and function in different tissues using metabolic and flow cytometric approaches. He is specifically interested in the role of T cell metabolic dysfunction in the impairment of protective immunity against influenza. He also works on studying Immunity Related GTPase I (Irgm1) regulation of T cell metabolism and function and its role in protective immunity and autoimmunity, and he works on the metabolic engineering of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells to enhance their persistence in the tumor microenvironment. He has a diverse scientific background ranging from molecular biology and bioinformatics to pharmacology and immunology. He seeks challenging questions in cellular metabolism and immunology that can lead to finding treatments for obesity associated pathologies, cancer, and autoimmune diseases.
Please contact childrensresearch@med.unc.edu for Zoom details.