Doctor gets grant to study environmental impacts and disabilities

NUTLEY — A Nutley-based physicianscientist has received a National Institutes of Health grant to be part of a nationwide study of how environmental factors affect children with a variety of disabilities.

The two-year, $5.6 million grant to Dr. Judy Aschner and team is part of the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, a massive national cohort started seven years ago, according to a press release from Hackensack Meridian Health.

The new funding will continue the long-term ECHO research of Aschner, who is the chair of pediatrics at Hackensack University Medical Center children’s hospital, a professor of pediatrics at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine and physician-in-chief for Hackensack Meridian Children's Health.

The grant, entitled “Enriching ECHO Cohorts with High-risk Pregnancies and Children with Disabilities (Enriching ECHO)” will advance disability inclusivity in ECHO research by studying children with a spectrum of disabilities, and by leveraging existing data from ECHO participants with disabilities.

The scientific premise of Aschner and her team is that psychosocial environmental exposures such as social determinants of health, stress, social environment, and discrimination and modifiable personal factors, including parenting style, social supports, and mental health, impact the physical and emotional health of children with disabilities.

Aschner and team believe the observations will result in definable outcomes of function, well-being, and participation in community and family life.

“Our hypothesis is that we can identify specific environmental factors associated with better-than-expected positive health outcomes along the continuum of disability to typical development,” said Aschner.

Beginning in January 2024, pregnant women will be recruited before the 20th week of gestation from the high-risk obstetric practice at Hackensack University Medical Center and Prentice Women's Hospital at Northwestern University with seven years of follow up of the women and their children at the Joseph M Sanzari Children’s Hospital at HUMC and Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.

Depending on the results of the first two years, the grant could bring further funding for five more years, with a poten- tial total of $32 million over seven years.

The national ECHO program focuses on five key pediatric outcomes with a high public health impact:

• Pre-, peri-, and post-natal outcomes;

• Upper and lower airway health;

• Obesity;

• Neurodevelopment;

• And positive health.

ECHO’s first phase was funded from September 2016 to August 2023 and included more than 69 cohorts in 31 NIH awards with over 41,000 participants.

Aschner has been a principal investigator with a cohort of the ECHO study since 2016. She was the principal investigator for the ECHO-DINE (Developmental Impact of NICU Exposures) award in ECHO cycle 1 consisting of four preterm cohorts originally recruited when in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at eight hospitals in the US.

This cohort will continue to be followed for another seven years in ECHO Cycle 2.

Understanding the effects of environmental exposures on child health and development is a major objective of ECHO. The study capitalizes on existing participant populations and supports approaches that can evolve with the science and take advantage of the growing number of diverse participants, enhanced stakeholder engagement and technological advances.

“This is a major national study with incredible longitudinal importance,” said Dr. Ihor Sawczuk, FACS, president of Academics, Research, and Innovation at Hackensack Meridian Health, founding chair of the Hackensack Meridian Health Research Institute, and associate dean of Clinical Integration and professor and chair emeritus of Urology at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. “The work of Dr. Judy Aschner is a credit to both that national study, and to our organization.”

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NJ Transit celebrates 40th anniversary with scenic trip, historic locomotives

NJ Transit is planning a historic rail weekend that will include classic locomotives and a scenic trip to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

To kick off events on Sept. 30, NJ Transit and The United Railroad Historical Society of NJ are partnering to operate a special excursion train titled the “40th Anniversary Express.”

Riders can purchase a ticket to travel down memory lane on the Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coast Lines in a special train with historic and conventional equipment, recreate the “South Amboy engine change” and ride the Bay Head loop track in a unique railroad experience.

Tickets are on sale at URHS.org.

Then, on Oct. 1, all members of the public are invited to historic Hoboken Terminal for a special display of NJ Transit’s heritage decorated locomotives. This event is free.

“This special weekend is an amazing and fun way to honor NJ Transit’s rich history and gives the public an exclusive look at our railroad’s heritage,” said New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner and NJ Transit Board Chair Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti.

“This historic rail weekend invites passengers, families, and enthusiasts to join NJ Transit in a unique experience that transcends time,” said NJ Transit President & CEO Kevin S. Corbett.

The special excursion train on Saturday, Sept. 30 will travel between New York, Bay Head and Hoboken, over sections of all three of NJ Transit’s major legacy commuter systems: the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the Erie Lackawanna Railroad.

It will be hauled first by NJ Transit’s Pennsylvania Railroad heritage locomotive, wrapped in a historic livery to represent the many GG1 locomotives that hauled commuters in New Jersey from the 1930s to the 1980s.

Participants will get to witness a recreation of the famous “South Amboy engine change,” which is a ritual that occurred at South Amboy station for decades until 1988.

The second portion of the trip will be hauled by F40 diesels, the F40 being the first model locomotive purchased by NJ Transit as part of its major renewal in the agency’s early years.

Participants will also have a unique opportunity to travel around the Bay Head loop track and take a break for a catered lunch at the station. The trip will then resume the journey back through Newark Penn Station and then depart for historic Hoboken Terminal to end the day.

The following day, Sunday Oct. 1, NJ Transit will display all of its heritage decorated locomotives celebrating 40 years of NJT Rail Operations.