Department of Pediatrics

Michael Brady, MD, Chair

Based at Children’s Hospital in Columbus, the Department of Pediatrics has 221 full-time faculty and 59 part-time faculty representing 22 pediatric subspecialty disciplines. In affiliation with Children’s Hospital, the Department has an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited residency-training program that accommodates 76 pediatric and 30 internal medicine/pediatric residents. In addition, 186 residents from other training programs (e.g., emergency medicine, family practice) in the Columbus area completed pediatric rotations at Columbus Children’s Hospital in 2006. Also last year, all of the 206 third-year medical students and 153 fourth-year medical students at Ohio State received their pediatric training at Columbus Children’s Hospital. Research activities in the Department are conducted under the auspices of Columbus Children’s Research Institute.

Ongoing Research Programs

The laboratory group led by Lauren Bakaletz, PhD, is making progress toward understanding the molecular microbiology of non-typeable Hemophilus influenza. Her group has established a robust infrastructure to conduct preclinical studies for developing an otitis media vaccine.
In 2006, Jerry Mendell, MD, and colleagues in the Center for Gene Therapy initiated the first-ever phase I trial of AAV-based gene therapy for Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy. Other innovative molecular approaches for prevention and treatment of this fatal disorder are under way in the Center.
Keith Yeates, PhD, and colleagues continue their multi-center clinical investigations of recovery and outcome of pediatric traumatic brain injury.
The laboratory of Christopher Walker, PhD, leads a national effort to understand the immunobiology of hepatitis C using a variety of innovative models.
The Center for Injury Research and Policy under Gary Smith, MD, is dedicated to understanding the epidemiology, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and biomechanics of pediatric acute injury. Much of the Center’s work impacts public policy.

Research Accomplishments of 2006

Advancing gene and cell-based research from the laboratory to potentially life-saving clinical use is a key priority for the Center for Gene Therapy. Using innovative molecular approaches, investigators including Center Director Jerry Mendell, MD, are analyzing and translating genetic manipulations to prevent and treat devastating childhood diseases such as the various forms of muscular dystrophy. In 2006, the Mendell group initiated the first-ever pediatric gene therapy trial for Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy using an adenoassociated virus-based vector.
A paper published in the journal Molecular Microbiology by Lauren Bakaletz, PhD, and her lab group identified for the first time a molecular mechanism by which non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI) resists being destroyed by antimicrobial peptides. The paper is titled “The non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae Sap transporter provides a mechanism of antimicrobial peptide resistance and SapD-dependent potassium acquisition.” The researchers determined how NTHI requires a Sap (sensitive to antimicrobial peptides) system to keep the bacterium from being killed by antimicrobial peptides. Their findings also describe how a Sap transporter provides the necessary function in NTHI to survive against the body’s innate immune response.
In a publication titled “MAP kinase phosphatase 1 controls innate immune responses and suppresses endotoxic shock,” Yusen Liu, PhD, and his team from the Center for Perinatal Research explored the role of MAP kinase phosphatase (MKP)-1 in animal models of inflammation. Liu compared gene-targeted Mkp-1 mice with wild-type mice in their response to LPS. The study, published in the Jan. 23, 2006, edition of The Journal of Experimental Medicine, showed that Mkp-1 knockout mice produced dramatically more proinflammatory cytokines and consequently developed severe low blood pressure, multiple organ failure and an increased chance of death. In addition to increasing how Mkp-1 serves as a crucial downregulator of endotoxic shock and inflammation, these findings may also provide a target for drug therapy.
Work in the laboratory of Rachel Altura, MD, titled “Dissecting the role of endothelial survivin- (delta)Ex3 in angiogenesis,” identified the splice variant, Survivin xEx3, as a prominent regulator of angiogenesis (blood vessel formation), which is key to physiologic and pathophysiologic processes such as wound healing, vascular disease and neoplasia. This was published in the journal Blood.
Joan Durbin, MD, PhD, and colleagues published “Protection against respiratory syncytial virus by a recombinant Newcastle disease virus vector” in the Journal of Virology. The team examined the weak stimulation of innate immune responses to RSV and explored the possibility of boosting the immune response by delivering the virus through an alternative viral vector system, notably the Newcastle disease virus (NDV). NDV is an attractive vector because of the lack of pre-existing immunity in the human population and, importantly, it has been proven safe in humans. Durbin’s findings indicate that the RSV F protein is more immunogenic when presented by NDV-F than by RSV alone.