Michael Brady, MD, Chair
Pediatrics faculty are based at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Research is organized into multidisciplinary Centers of Emphasis and overseen by The Research Institute, whose mission is to enhance the health of children by engaging in high-quality research. Centers of
Emphasis are in place for biobehavioral health, cardiovascular medicine, cell and developmental biology, cancer, clinical and translational research, gene therapy, injury research and policy, innovation in pediatric practice, mathematical medicine, molecular and human genetics, microbial pathogenesis, perinatal research, and vaccines and immunity. National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to The Research Institute reached $27.9 million in 2007; total external awards hit $49.3 million, placing Nationwide Children’s in the top 10 in NIH dollars received by freestanding children’s hospitals. Faculty published more than 500 scholarly works in 2007. A major initiative was to enhance clinical and translational research at the hospital and in partnership with The Ohio State University campus by participating in a Clinical and Translational Science Award application.
Ongoing Research Programs
- An investigative team led by Lauren Bakaletz, PhD, continues to study pathogenic mechanisms operational in the polymicrobial disease, otitis media. A long-term goal is to develop methods to treat or, preferably, to prevent otitis media.
- Jerry Mendell, MD, and his collaborators in the Center for Gene Therapy have a sophisticated clinical and translational research program aimed at treating Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy by novel methods, including adeno-associated viral (AAV)-based gene therapy.
- Chris Walker, PhD, in the Center for Vaccines and Immunity continues his work on the immunopathogenesis of hepatitis C, a major human pathogen that may be acquired perinatally. A major focus is understanding how immune responses are subverted in this serious persistent virus infection of the liver.
- The research group led by Gary Smith, MD, in the Center for Injury Research and Policy seeks to increase scientific understanding of the epidemiology, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and biomechanics of injuries through translational research.
- Investigators in the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice are studying techniques to improve the health of children and their families through research on novel methods of delivering health services in the community. These methods include computer and information technologies as well as statistical and communication techniques.
Research Accomplishments of 2007
- Chack-Yung Yu, DPhil, and his group described copy number variation of complement C4 and its associated gene polymorphisms in patients with systemic lupus erythematosis
(SLE), their family members and healthy controls. Multiple copies were statistically associated with a reduced susceptibility, while reduced copy number was associated with an increased susceptibility. The work showed how gene copy number variation and its related polymorphisms are associated with susceptibility to a complex human disease.
- Veronica Vieland, PhD, director of the Battelle Center for Mathematical Medicine, also directs the Data Coordinating Center for the Autism Genome Project Consortium. Along
with multiple international collaborators, Vieland and Chris Bartlett, PhD, from Nationwide Children’s Hospital, published a paper in Nature Genetics that mapped autism risk loci and chromosomal rearrangements in the largest linkage scan performed in the autism spectrum disorder patient population to date. The group’s work implicated chromosome
11p12-p13 and neurexins, respectively, among other candidate loci.
- Jeff Bridge, PhD, a newly recruited faculty member in the Center for Innovation in Pediatrics Practice, was the lead author on a manuscript published in JAMA titled: “Clinical Response and Risk Reported Suicidal Ideation and Suicide Attempts in Pediatric Antidepressant Treatment: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.” This manuscript assessed the efficacy and risk of reported suicidal ideation/suicide attempt of antidepressants for treatment of multiple pediatric psychiatric disorders. The work concluded that benefits appear to be much greater than risks from suicidal ideation/suicide attempt across all indications.
- The Center for Gene Therapy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is led by investigative neurologist Jerry Mendell, MD. In 2007, this group completed its first phase I trial of adenoassociated viral (AAV)-based gene therapy for treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy and continued its first-of-a-kind multicenter clinical trial of newborn screening for this disorder. The group also successfully competed for an $8 million U54 grant from the NIH to identify and refine strategies for circulatory delivery of the dystrophin gene.
- The Center for Biobehavioral Health studies outcomes of traumatic and chronic illnesses in children. Diseases being studied include inflammatory bowel disease, childhood cancer and traumatic brain injury. An especially productive program in 2007 was the research team of Cynthia Gerhardt, PhD, which published more than 10 manuscripts focused on risk and resilience factors associated with family adjustment to bereavement and childhood chronic illnesses such as cancer. Gerhardt’s work, a multisite project designed
to evaluate the psychosocial functioning of siblings and parents following the death of a child from cancer, is funded by an R01 from the National Cancer Institute and several
other collaborative grants.
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