Four new research awards announced today by the Children’s Discovery Institute have pushed the Institute’s investment in novel pediatric research programs to more than $7.5 million since 2006. This year alone, the Institute has awarded $3 million in grants to 13 investigators.
The Children’s Discovery Institute, a partnership between St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, was created in 2006 to focus resources at both institutions on the most pressing childhood illnesses and diseases. Generous donors have funded the Institute’s endowment and continue to support its important work.
The four new awardees join more than 29 primary investigators and collaborators currently partnering on Institute projects.
One of the new awardees is Dr. Thomas Ferkol, an associate professor of pediatrics, cell biology and physiology at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Ferkol will lead a multidisciplinary investigation of the role of cilia in common childhood lung diseases such as asthma and cystic fibrosis. Cilia are the hair-like projections that move fluid and mucous over the airway surface. His collaborators include faculty in the Schools of Engineering, Arts and Sciences and Medicine at Washington University, as well as researchers at the Danforth Plant Science Center.
Another grant will enable pediatric oncologist Dr. Josh Rubin to complete trials on existing drug compounds that have shown great therapeutic effect in mouse-bearing malignant pediatric brain tumors. Dr. Rubin's research in the fundamental mechanisms of tumor formation has led him to believe that certain drugs already in clinical trial for other diseases may also be useful in treating children with malignant brain tumors.
Proteomics – the discipline that studies the entire compliment of proteins in an organism – is the subject of a grant to help create a new “Core Resource” to serve Children’s Discovery Institute partners. Recent advances in spectroscopy instrumentation and software have enabled scientists to identify and characterize thousands of proteins in very small samples of human fluids and tissues. The Institute is funding a portion of the total costs to bring this new technology to Washington University. Dr. Reid Townsend, who directs the Washington University Proteomics Center, will manage the new Core. Proteomics is a key step in the development of methods to predict disease outcome, and can lead to individualized therapies and preventions.
“This partnership between the Children’s Discovery Institute and the Washington University Proteomics Center is a cost-effective way to secure a clear commitment to dedicated time and resources for our Institute investigators,” said Dr. Alan Schwartz, the Children’s Discovery Institute’s executive director and interim scientific director. Dr. Schwartz is also the Harriet B. Spoehrer Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics; Professor of Developmental Biology; and Pediatrician-In-Chief, St Louis Children's Hospital.
Rounding out the list of new grant awardees is Dr. Amir Toib, an Israeli pediatrician currently in cardiology training at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University Medical School. Dr. Toib will receive the “Jill and Martin Sneider Fellowship”. This annual fellowship was established to support a visiting foreign national health care professional who is studying at the Children’s Discovery Institute’s Congenital Heart Disease Center, and who intends to return to his or her home country to teach or practice. Dr. Toib will ultimately return to Israel as an academic pediatric cardiologist.
The Children's Discovery Institute is a research partnership between St. Louis Children's Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. It aims to accelerate cures for childhood disease through four targeted centers: the McDonnell Pediatric Cancer Center; the Center for Musculoskeletal and Metabolic Diseases; the Center for Pediatric Pulmonary Disease; and the Congenital Heart Disease Center. Washington University School of Medicine is ranked the number three medical school in the country by U.S.News & World Report. Child magazine and U.S.News rank St. Louis Children's Hospital among the best children's hospitals in the country. For more information about the Children's Discovery Institute, visit childrensdiscovery.org