Spina Bifida Association Announces Awards From First World Congress

on Spina Bifida Research and Care

Orlando, Florida - The Spina Bifida Association (SBA) recently concluded the First World Congress on Spina Bifida Research and Care in Orlando, Florida. During the Congress, numerous abstracts were reviewed in consideration for awards for the most significant original research contributions and three award papers were selected. In addition, renowned neurosurgeon Dr. David G. McLone from Children’s Hospital in Chicago was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in Spina Bifida.

Receiving the first place award was Benjamin Warf, MD from CURE Children’s Hospital of Uganda Center for Pediatric Neurosurgery for his work entitled Neurocognitive Outcomes for ETV/CPC (Comparison of Neurocognitive Outcomes and Ventricle Size in Myelomeningocele Infants Treated for Hydrocephalus by Shunting to Those Treated with Combined Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy/Choroid Plexus Cauterization).

Second place was awarded to C. Shekhar Mayanil, PhD from Children’s Memorial Medical Center in Chicago for his paper Implication of Bivalent Chromatin and Micorna as Potential Folic Acid Responsive Targets in Folate Mediated Resuce of Neural Tube Defects in Mouse Model of Spina Bifida which was presented during the Developmental Pediatrics sessions.

A third place award was given to Kenneth Peters, MD from Beaumont Hospital in Michigan for his urology abstract, One Year Clinical Outcomes with Lumbar to Sacral Nerve Rerouting in Spina Bifida.

Concluding the awards session, Robin Bowman, MD presented her colleague David G. McLone, MD, PhD with the Spina Bifida Association’s Lifetime Achievement award for his over thirty years of groundbreaking work in Spina Bifida.

The First World Congress on Spina Bifida Research and Care was an international event which brought together over 350 clinicians, medical professionals, and researchers in the area of Spina Bifida to discuss the future of care for this challenging and complex birth defect. For more information, please visit http://medicalconference.spinabifidaassociation.org.

The Spina Bifida Association is the nation’s only national voluntary health agency dedicated to serving the needs of the Spina Bifida Community. Its programs give hope and strength to more than 250,000 people whose lives are touched by this disabling birth defect. One of the SBA’s most vital functions is to communicate to the 65 million women of childbearing age the importance of daily folic acid intake to reduce the risk of neural tube defects such as Spina Bifida. For more information, visit www.spinabifidaassociation.org or call 800-621-3141.