Scholars@Duke

• Background
• 

  Education, Training, & Certifications

  • Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellowship, Pediatrics, Duke University 2007 - 2010
  • Pediatric Internship & Residency, Pediatrics, Duke University 2003 - 2006
  • M.D., University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey 2003
• 

  Previous Appointments & Affiliations

  • Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Hematology-Oncology, Pediatrics 2016 - 2020
  • Medical Instructor in the Department of Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Hematology-Oncology, Pediatrics 2010 - 2016
  • Clinical Associate in the Department of Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Transplant and Cellular Therapy, Pediatrics 2006 - 2007
• Research
• 

  Selected Grants

  • A Phase 1 study of 9-ING-41, a Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 Beta (GSK-3b) inhibitor awarded by Actuate Therapeutics 2021 - 2025
  • An Open-Label, Dose Escalation, Efficacy, and Safety Study of CLR 131 in Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults with Select Solid Tumors, Lymphoma, and Malignant Brain Tumors (CLOVER-2) awarded by Cellectar Biosciences, Inc. 2021 - 2023
  • MS Clinical Trial: DUOC awarded by The Marcus Foundation 2020 - 2023
  • High Fidelity Diffusion MRI for Children with Cerebral Palsy in Stem Cell Therapy awarded by National Institutes of Health 2017 - 2023
  • Marcus Foundation Phase II MSC ASD awarded by The Marcus Foundation 2019 - 2022
  • A Phase III Study of 131I Metaiodobenzylguanidine (131I-MIBG) or Crizotinib Added to Intensive Therapy for Children With Newly Diagnosed High-Risk Neuroblastoma (NBL) awarded by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia 2020 - 2022
• 

  External Relationships

  • CryoCell International
  • Sino Cell Technologies
• Publications & Artistic Works
• 

  Selected Publications

  • Academic Articles

    • Sun, Jessica M., Laura E. Case, Colleen McLaughlin, Alicia Burgess, Natalie Skergan, Sydney Crane, Joan M. Jasien, Mohamad A. Mikati, Jesse Troy, and Joanne Kurtzberg. “Motor function and safety after allogeneic cord blood and cord tissue-derived mesenchymal stromal cells in cerebral palsy: An open-label, randomized trial.” Dev Med Child Neurol, July 10, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.15325.
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    • Sun, Jessica M., Laura E. Case, Mohamad A. Mikati, Joan M Jasien, Colleen McLaughlin, Barbara Waters-Pick, Gordon Worley, Jesse Troy, and Joanne Kurtzberg. “Sibling umbilical cord blood infusion is safe in young children with cerebral palsy.” Stem Cells Transl Med 10, no. 9 (September 2021): 1258–65. https://doi.org/10.1002/sctm.20-0470.
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    • Sun, Jessica M., and Joanne Kurtzberg. “Stem cell therapies in cerebral palsy and autism spectrum disorder.” Dev Med Child Neurol 63, no. 5 (May 2021): 503–10. https://doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.14789.
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    • Zhang, Lijia, Susan Ellor, Jessica M. Sun, Chunlei Liu, Joanne Kurtzburg, and Allen W. Song. “DTI Tract-Based Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping: An Initial Feasibility Study to Investigate the Potential Role of Myelination in Brain Connectivity Change in Cerebral Palsy Patients During Autologous Cord Blood Cell Therapy Using a Rotationally-Invariant Quantitative Measure.” J Magn Reson Imaging 53, no. 1 (January 2021): 251–58. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.27286.
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    • Sun, Jessica M., Geraldine Dawson, Lauren Franz, Jill Howard, Colleen McLaughlin, Bethany Kistler, Barbara Waters-Pick, Norin Meadows, Jesse Troy, and Joanne Kurtzberg. “Infusion of human umbilical cord tissue mesenchymal stromal cells in children with autism spectrum disorder.” Stem Cells Transl Med 9, no. 10 (October 2020): 1137–46. https://doi.org/10.1002/sctm.19-0434.
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    • Dawson, Geraldine, Jessica M. Sun, Jennifer Baker, Kimberly Carpenter, Scott Compton, Megan Deaver, Lauren Franz, et al. “A Phase II Randomized Clinical Trial of the Safety and Efficacy of Intravenous Umbilical Cord Blood Infusion for Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” J Pediatr 222 (July 2020): 164-173.e5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2020.03.011.
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    • Carpenter, Kimberly L. H., Samantha Major, Catherine Tallman, Lyon W. Chen, Lauren Franz, Jessica Sun, Joanne Kurtzberg, Allen Song, and Geraldine Dawson. “White Matter Tract Changes Associated with Clinical Improvement in an Open-Label Trial Assessing Autologous Umbilical Cord Blood for Treatment of Young Children with Autism.” Stem Cells Transl Med 8, no. 2 (February 2019): 138–47. https://doi.org/10.1002/sctm.18-0251.
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    • Leckey, Bruce D., John M. Carney, Jessica M. Sun, and Elizabeth N. Pavlisko. “Novel intronic DICER1 variation associated with pleuropulmonary blastoma in two siblings.” Bmj Case Rep 12, no. 1 (January 20, 2019). https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2018-227391.
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    • Murias, Michael, Samantha Major, Scott Compton, Jessica Buttinger, Jessica M. Sun, Joanne Kurtzberg, and Geraldine Dawson. “Electrophysiological Biomarkers Predict Clinical Improvement in an Open-Label Trial Assessing Efficacy of Autologous Umbilical Cord Blood for Treatment of Autism.” Stem Cells Transl Med 7, no. 11 (November 2018): 783–91. https://doi.org/10.1002/sctm.18-0090.
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    • Sun, Jessica M., and Joanne Kurtzberg. “Cell therapy for diverse central nervous system disorders: inherited metabolic diseases and autism.” Pediatr Res 83, no. 1–2 (January 2018): 364–71. https://doi.org/10.1038/pr.2017.254.
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    • Sun, Jessica M., Allen W. Song, Laura E. Case, Mohamad A. Mikati, Kathryn E. Gustafson, Ryan Simmons, Ricki Goldstein, et al. “Effect of Autologous Cord Blood Infusion on Motor Function and Brain Connectivity in Young Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial.” Stem Cells Transl Med 6, no. 12 (December 2017): 2071–78. https://doi.org/10.1002/sctm.17-0102.
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    • Dawson, Geraldine, Jessica M. Sun, Katherine S. Davlantis, Michael Murias, Lauren Franz, Jesse Troy, Ryan Simmons, Maura Sabatos-DeVito, Rebecca Durham, and Joanne Kurtzberg. “Autologous Cord Blood Infusions Are Safe and Feasible in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Results of a Single-Center Phase I Open-Label Trial.” Stem Cells Transl Med 6, no. 5 (May 2017): 1332–39. https://doi.org/10.1002/sctm.16-0474.
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    • Sun, Jessica M., Gerald A. Grant, Colleen McLaughlin, June Allison, Anne Fitzgerald, Barbara Waters-Pick, and Joanne Kurtzberg. “Repeated autologous umbilical cord blood infusions are feasible and had no acute safety issues in young babies with congenital hydrocephalus.” Pediatr Res 78, no. 6 (December 2015): 712–16. https://doi.org/10.1038/pr.2015.161.
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    • Sun, Jessica M., and Joanne Kurtzberg. “Cord blood for brain injury.” Cytotherapy 17, no. 6 (June 2015): 775–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcyt.2015.03.004.
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    • Englander, Zoë A., Jessica Sun, Jessica Laura Case, Mohamad A. Mikati, Joanne Kurtzberg, and Allen W. Song. “Brain structural connectivity increases concurrent with functional improvement: evidence from diffusion tensor MRI in children with cerebral palsy during therapy.” Neuroimage Clin 7 (2015): 315–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2015.01.002.
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    • Page, Kristin M., Adam Mendizabal, Brigid Betz-Stablein, Stephen Wease, Kevin Shoulars, Tracy Gentry, Vinod K. Prasad, et al. “Optimizing donor selection for public cord blood banking: influence of maternal, infant, and collection characteristics on cord blood unit quality.” Transfusion 54, no. 2 (February 2014): 340–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/trf.12257.
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    • Englander, Zoë A., Carolyn E. Pizoli, Anastasiya Batrachenko, Jessica Sun, Gordon Worley, Mohamad A. Mikati, Joanne Kurtzberg, and Allen W. Song. “Diffuse reduction of white matter connectivity in cerebral palsy with specific vulnerability of long range fiber tracts.” Neuroimage Clin 2 (2013): 440–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2013.03.006.
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    • Sun, Jessica, June Allison, Colleen McLaughlin, Linda Sledge, Barbara Waters-Pick, Stephen Wease, and Joanne Kurtzberg. “Differences in quality between privately and publicly banked umbilical cord blood units: a pilot study of autologous cord blood infusion in children with acquired neurologic disorders.” Transfusion 50, no. 9 (September 2010): 1980–87. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1537-2995.2010.02720.x.
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    • Benjamin, Daniel K., P Brian Smith, M Jessica M. Sun, M Dianne Murphy, Debbie Avant, Lisa Mathis, William Rodriguez, Robert M. Califf, and Jennifer S. Li. “Safety and transparency of pediatric drug trials.” Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 163, no. 12 (December 2009): 1080–86. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpediatrics.2009.229.
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    • Sun, J. M., T. Driscoll, V. K. Prasad, S. Parikh, P. Szabolcs, J. Kurtzberg, and P. L. Martin. “Unrelated Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation is an Effective Therapy for Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome.” Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation 15, no. 2 (February 2009): 76–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbmt.2008.12.234.
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    • Baker-Smith, Carissa M., Daniel K. Benjamin, Henry G. Grabowski, Elizabeth D. Reid, Barry Mangum, John V. Goldsmith, M Dianne Murphy, et al. “The economic returns of pediatric clinical trials of antihypertensive drugs.” Am Heart J 156, no. 4 (October 2008): 682–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2008.05.001.
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  • Book Sections

    • Sun, J. M., and J. Kurtzberg. “Cord Blood Transplantation in Hematological and Metabolic Diseases.” In Translating Regenerative Medicine to the Clinic, 285–95, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-800548-4.00019-X.
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    • Sun, J. M., and J. Kurtzberg. “Emerging uses of cord blood in regenerative medicine-neurological applications.” In Cord Blood Stem Cells Medicine, 167–77, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-407785-0.00013-X.
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    • Sun, J. M., and J. Kurtzberg. “Umbilical cord blood transplantation.” In Neonatal Hematology: Pathogenesis, Diagnosis, and Management of Hematologic Problems, Second Edition, 328–36, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511978135.021.
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  • Conference Papers

    • Sun, J. M., L. E. Case, C. McLaughlin, N. Skergan, J. M. Jasien, M. Mikati, J. Troy, and J. Kurtzberg. “UMBILICAL CORD BLOOD AND CORD TISSUE MESENCHYMAL STROMAL CELLS IN CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY.” In Cytotherapy, 23:S106–7, 2021.
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    • Murias, Michael, Samantha Major, Scott Compton, Jessica Buttinger, Jessica M. Sun, Joanne Kurtzberg, and Geraldine Dawson. “1.31 The Utility of Electroencephalogram (EEG) Beta Power as a Moderator of Treatment Response in ASD Clinical Trials Involving Young Children.” In Journal of the American Academy of Child &Amp; Adolescent Psychiatry, 57:S145–S145. Elsevier BV, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2018.09.046.
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