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Immune and
Inflammatory Disease Research in Children |
 
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Children's
Hospital
of Orange County
Research Institute |
Jeffrey
S. Buzby,
Ph.D.
Principal Investigator |
Division of
Pediatric Hematology/Oncology,
David Geffen School
of Medicine at UCLA |
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Research Focus:
Many of these diseases are classified as
"orphan or rare"
(<200,000 cases in U.S.) by the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) , and are not subject to the exhaustive research
of more prevalent diseases. However, they can occur more frequently
in children, often with lifelong
consequences.
Questions:
What
immunological traits are unique to newborn infants & young children?
Why are these
traits different than in older children & adults?
How could these
traits contribute to immune & inflammatory diseases in newborns & young children?
What are the
molecular biological bases for these developmental variations?
How can this
immunological knowledge be applied to discovering new therapeutic
treatments for these childhood diseases?
Strategy:
Our research focuses primarily on
understanding the vulnerabilities of newborn infants in their response to
severe infection or injury. Since
the neonatal immune and
coagulation systems are not yet completely mature,
newborn infants, especially those born pre-term, are often susceptible to
life-threatening complications. By
comparing cells from newborns and adults, we have discovered some key genetic variations in the neonatal responses triggered by
infection. Of particular interest are differences found in the
regulation of
tissue
factor, a cell-surface protein expressed in response to inflammation
that initiates the coagulation
cascade. Most
exciting is a new study analyzing CHOC NICU patients to detect genetic
similarities in the immune or coagulation systems of the most critically ill
infants. Identifying these
inherited vulnerabilities may allow us to protect newborn infants at risk for
infectious or bleeding complications.
Teamwork:
The Immune
& Inflammatory Disease Research Group is an interdisciplinary consortium
of the CHOC
Research Institute. It includes collaborations between research
faculty representing nearly all CHOC
Pediatric Subspecialties, the UCLA
School of Medicine Core Facilities, and the following CHOC
Laboratories:
Hemostasis/Thrombosis
Center for Genetic Analysis
& Molecular Medicine
Neurosciences
National Human Neural Stem Cell Resource
Metabolic
Disorders
Biomedical
Optics
Cord
Blood/Bone Marrow Transplantation
CHOC
Research Opportunities:
Latest Update: 10:03 AM -0700, April 15, 2008.
site visits since Dec. 6, 2005 launch.
Thank you!
