October 5, 2009
Hopkins Children's faculty and affiliated researchers have received more than
$3,000,000 in federal economic stimulus grants from the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) for projects that include everything from research on the molecular
biology of Marfan syndrome to support for a Baltimore Diabetes and Research
Training Center. The funds are drawn from the $787-billion federal economic
stimulus package, the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which
includes $100 billion in science and technology spending.
To date, Johns Hopkins University has received 269 Recovery Act-funded
grants. At Hopkins Children's, among the recipients of these NIH-awarded grants
is Harry "Hal" Dietz, a human geneticist and pediatric
cardiologist studying Marfan syndrome. Marfan syndrome is a disorder of the
body's connective tissues, associated with skeletal, ocular, and cardiovascular
complications including death due to ruptured aortic aneurysms. Dietz was
awarded $283,133 in NIH stimulus funding for studies that focus on the use of
animal models to identify circulating biomarkers of aortic disease and to map
modifying genes that can protect against cardiovascular disease.
Also in pediatric cardiology, Associate Professor Allen Everett received more than $460,000 to study and
identify markers of primary pulmonary artery hypertension in children and
adults, to help improve outcomes.
In the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Ravit Boger received funding to investigate cytomegalovirus
(CMV) infection, which while potentially devastating to newborns when
transmitted during pregnancy to the fetus is often asymptomatic in the
population. The hope, says Boger, is that a better understanding of the virus's
molecular mechanisms will lead to a new strategy for the development of drugs to
treat CMV and even a vaccine against the virus.
Additional funding was awarded to Bill Guggino, director of the Cystic Fibrosis Research
Development Program at Johns Hopkins and vice chair of Pediatrics, for his
15-year study of the CI- channel and regulatory functions of the cystic fibrosis
transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene, potentially, he says "to
therapeutically alter the switching mechanisms that determine CFTR's fate." And
he has received a second grant to study the normal and abnormal regulation of
calcium with hopes of finding new ways to treat autosomal dominant polycystic
kidney disease.
Pediatric nephrologist Susan Furth was granted $329,400 to determine the risk factors
for an accelerated decline in renal function in children with chronic kidney
disease, as well as related impairments of brain function and cardiovascular
disease.
Chief of the Division of Metabolism at Hopkins Children's, Fredric Wondisford received $277,045 in supplemental funding
to support the Baltimore Diabetes and Research Training Center. The funding will
support purchases of equipment for biomedical cores and provide funding for
pilot and feasibility research projects for junior faculty. The center is
designed to encourage endocrinology and diabetes research and foster
collaboration between investigators at Johns Hopkins and the University of
Maryland.
Vice Chair of Quality and Safety at Hopkins Children's, Marlene Miller received nearly $800,000 toward improving
childhood immunization rates using electronic health records. "Successful
completion of this project will inform the National Institutes of Health,
providers, patients, payers, policymakers and the public how to maximize the
impact of electronic health records to improve immunization rates among
school-aged children," she writes.
Two faculty affiliated with Hopkins Children's were awarded nearly $1,000,000
to test interventions that broaden the scope of palliative care to include
children and adolescents with chronic diseases. Directed by Gail Geller, professor in the Departments of Medicine and
Pediatrics and the Bioethics Institute, and Cynda Rushton, associate professor in the Department of
Pediatrics, the School of Nursing and the Bioethics Institute, this project is
designed to "improve the quality of care and instill a new vision of hope for
children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and Sickle Cell Disease by integrating
the principles and practices of palliative care into the training of the
clinicians who care for them," they write. The project includes the creation of
"trigger" videos and training programs that will be implemented and evaluated
nationally.
This article originally appeared on the Johns Hopkins
Children’s Center website. Reposted with permission.
