MOLECULAR AND GENETIC APPROACHES TO CHILDHOOD DISEASES

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This application requests support for a Child Health Research Center (CHRC) at Stanford University School of Medicine. The scientific mission of the proposed CHRC is to bring together the junior and senior faculty of the Department of Pediatrics and faculty members from other departments who have related interests, in order to facilitate the application of cellular, molecular and genetic methods to unresolved problems in child health. Leadership of the program will be provided by Dr. Harvey Cohen, the chairman of the Department of Pediatrics, and Dr. Ann Arvin, Associate Chair for Academic Affairs. The primary objective of the CHRC is to support the research of younger investigators who have clinical training in pediatrics in order to enhance their opportunities to investigate basic mechanisms of childhood diseases. Our premise is that this new generation of pediatric investigators has an essential contribution to make to the future of pediatric practice. With the guidance of their senior colleagues, these investigators must have appropriate early career experiences to make the "bench to bedside" concept into a reality for children. This objective will be addressed through the creation of three primary research affinity groups, to consist of the Program in Immunology and Transplantation Biology, the Program in Genetics and Cancer Biology and the Program in Developmental Biology. Senior, mid-level and junior faculty will participate in these programs according to their individual research interests. Junior faculty from each program will be eligible to compete for New Project Development Awards designed to help them achieve necessary expertise in basic scientific research. The second objective of the CHRC is to create a Pediatric Core Laboratory. CHRC funds will be used to administer a functional, interactive technical support facility with appropriate educational programs and to buy essential equipment for common use. This facility will be designed to serve the needs of department faculty at all stages of career development, acting as a resource for education about new scientific technology and its applications to biomedical research and as a mechanism for joint purchase and shared use of the very costly equipment needed for this work. This request for CHRC support is being made at a unique time in the history of our Department of Pediatrics and is based on a major new institutional commitment to the growth of basic research programs related to child health. Resources have been provided that will permit recruitment of at least ten laboratory-based junior faculty during the five year period that coincides with CHRC support and extensive, newly remodelled laboratory space has been assigned to pediatrics. The academic programs of the Department of Pediatrics are associated with the new Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital, a resource which makes our environment ideal for the direct transfer of advancements in pediatric research to improving the health of children.