Study Sections & Special Emphasis Panels (SEPs)

The NICHD Scientific Review Branch (SRB) manages eight study sections within the Child Health and Human Development (CHHD) Integrated Review Group (IRG) to review applications relevant to NICHD. In some cases, SRB convenes SEPs with expertise in a specific area of science to review applications.

The following information describes each IRG study section and the NICHD SEPs, including links to rosters, meeting schedules, and other information.

Scientific Review Officer: Chi-Tso (Joseph) Chiu

The CHHD-H study section addresses topics such as biobehavioral bases of intellectual and developmental disabilities, social development, cognition, language, at-risk development, health and behavior, emotion, basic human behavior, socioeconomic context, culture, child abuse and neglect, neuropsychology, memory, attention, service delivery, attitudes, basic animal behavior, and policies related to these topics.

Access the roster and meetings for the Biobehavioral and Behavioral Sciences Study Section.

Scientific Review Officer: Jolanta M. Topczewska

The CHHD-C study section addresses topics such as biological bases of intellectual and developmental disabilities, molecular genetics, developmental genetics, developmental immunobiology, early embryonic development, teratology, cellular endocrinology, gene expression and therapy, developmental neurobiology, organogenesis, gastrulation, embryonic patterning, embryogenesis, cell biology, and cellular physiology and function.

Access the roster and meetings for the Developmental Biology Study Section.

Scientific Review Officer: Helen Huang

The CHHD-K study section addresses topics such as clinical aspects of plasticity; recovery and adaptation; limb and joint mechanics; coordination, balance, and mobility; functional impairment and disability; rehabilitative engineering; orthotics, prosthetics, and assistive devices; therapeutic exercise; secondary consequences of disabilities; behavioral and psychosocial adjustment to disease, injury, and chronic disability; functional assessments; and outcomes, participation, and societal barriers for individuals with disabilities.

Access the roster and meetings for the Function, Integration, and Rehabilitation Sciences Study Section.

Scientific Review Officer: Kimberly L. Houston

The CHHD-M study section addresses topics such as the relationships among health, health-related behavior, and environmental processes, conditions, and contexts; the effects of policy, neighborhood, community, school, cultural, parenting, and family influences on individual health, health-related behaviors, and health disparities; health conditions and behaviors, such as fitness, risky sexual behavior, substance use, violence, treatment-seeking, and adherence; health promotion, disease and injury prevention, health communication and education; and access to and use and delivery of health services.

Access the roster and meetings for the Health, Behavior, and Context Study Section.

Scientific Review Officer: Luis E. Dettin

The CHHD-B study section addresses topics such as pregnancy, labor, preeclampsia, lactation, placental function, reproductive immunology, and HIV acquisition.

Access the roster and meetings for the Obstetrics and Maternal-Fetal Biology Study Section.

Scientific Review Officer: Anita Szajek

The CHHD-A study section addresses topics such as neonatology, perinatology, endocrinology, metabolism, nutrition and growth, pharmacology, epidemiology, pediatric critical care, pediatric infectious disease, and pediatrics (including congenital anomalies).

Access the roster and meetings for the Pediatrics Study Section.

Scientific Review Officer: Christiane M. Robbins

The CHHD-W study section addresses topics such as marriage and family; mortality and morbidity; immigration; internal migration; population distribution; economic demography and labor force; ethnography; population and environment; and social, economic, and demographic aspects of fertility and contraception, sexual behavior, policy, child well-being, transition to adulthood, child abuse and neglect, disability, AIDS/HIV/sexually transmitted diseases, race and ethnicity, health, neighborhoods, geographic information systems, and culture.

Access the roster and meetings for the Population Sciences Study Section.

Scientific Review Officer: Jagpreet S. Nanda

The CHHD-R study section addresses topics such as reproductive biology, reproductive endocrinology, reproductive neuroendocrinology, reproductive genetics, andrology, gynecology, contraception, infertility, pelvic floor disorders, gametogenesis, fertilization, implantation, preimplantation embryo development, germ cell biology, embryonic stem cell biology, animal cloning, and sex determination.

Access the roster and meetings for the Reproduction, Andrology, and Gynecology Study Section.

Scientific Review Officer: Varies based on the panel

The SRB convenes SEPs with expertise in specific areas of science to review certain applications.

Access rosters and meetings for NICHD's SEPs.