MOLECULAR CELL BIOLOGY IN PEDIATRIC RESEARCH

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We propose to develop a Child Health Research Center to allow young pediatric faculty to develop basic science research skills which will be applied to the study of important health problems in children. The central theme of the Center will be the application of the principals and technics of molecular cell biology to the investigations of a broad range of clinical pediatric problems. The Center will be composed of 16 clinical faculty (10 MD, 1 MD/PhD and 5 PhD) and 13 basic science faculty (11 PhD, 2 MD), all of whom are well funded established investigators. The clinical faculty are drawn from Pediatrics 15, Medicine 1, and the basic science faculty from Microbiology/Immunology 7, Anesthesiology (Biophysiology/Biophysics 2, Biochemistry 1), Cell Biology 2 and Physiology/Biophysics 1. This faculty has had extensive interaction in the past in both research and training. The clinical faculty is heavily weighted in infectious disease and immunology and the basic sciences in microbiology because of their past productivity in research and training. Though we plan to develop young faculty investigators in the natural history, pathogenesis and treatment of congenital and perinatal infections and other pediatric infections (viruses, bacterial, protozoa, mycoplasma, chlamydia) and in immunology (developmental, general and immunogenetics) we will not concentrate exclusively in these areas. We will develop investigators who study various organ systems diseases using state of art molecule cell biology approaches. In this way our Center will support balanced pediatric research using the central theme of Molecular Cell Biology as a link. To conserve funds for research projects we will utilize established and shared pediatric laboratories as well as 5 established multidisciplinary Center Core laboratories. A scientific director from the pediatric faculty will be appointed who will help assess these laboratories and assess their use and value, as well as providing training and technical assistance to the young faculty. He along with the Program Director and Principal Investigator and an Advisory Committee will oversee the selection of candidates for research support and the functioning of the Center. There is a large pool of young faculty from different disciplines who can be candidates for Center support and 19 others we plan to recruit in the next three years. Already 12 of the current young faculty (from 7 subspecialties) are involved in research with the Center's proposed faculty.