RESEARCH OVERVIEW
division accomplishments
RHEUMATOLOGY International Accomplishments // Collaborating with Seattle Children’s Hospital, Edward Giannini, MSc, DrPH, showed that aggressive treatment early in the disease course leads to better therapeutic responses and outcomes in juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Michael Henrickson, MD, MPH, published a comprehensive evaluation of the pediatric rheumatology workforce. An institution-wide initiative led by Michael Barnes, PhD, created a biobank for tissues and DNA expected to have 750,000 samples before the end of the year; the bank will be used for research. The continuing efforts of Susan Thompson, PhD, and colleagues led to discovery of a gene important for juvenile idiopathic arthritis.
Since the start of the Schmidlapp Women Scholars Program, 12 of the scholars have been promoted, two to professor and three awarded tenure. SCHMIDLAPP CENTER Schmidlapp Program // Since the start of the Schmidlapp Women Scholars Program, 12 of the scholars have been promoted, two to professor and three awarded tenure. The scholars have published 435 papers since their naming as scholars, and have received nine NIH R01 grants, four NIH K Awards and 10 foundation grants for a total of $17 million in direct costs. This is an eleven-fold return on investment, indicating the success of this program. Undergraduate Support // Faculty and parents of undergraduates supported by the Schmidlapp Program have donated more than $72,000 to support our future women researchers and clinicians, with over $16,000 raised this fiscal year. Office for Faculty Development // The Office for Faculty Development (OFD) has provided a variety of seminars, networking opportunities, and career development resources for faculty members. A total of 1,163 faculty attended an OFD event in FY12. In addition, mentorship programs, a strategic plan for recruitment and retention of women and minority faculty members, and two leadership programs have been launched in the past year.
74 // C I N C I N N AT I C H I L D REN’S RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Work with Micro-RNA’s Leads to Important Findings // Nan Shen, MD, has revealed many of the details of how small RNA, or micro-RNAs, control the production of particular inflammatory mediators known as cytokines. His research has important clinical implications for treating immune and autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, allergy and asthma. Cincinnati Children’s was named an
NIH FUNDED MEMBER
Center for Autoimmune Genomic Etiology Joins eMERGE Consortium // The efforts of John Harley, MD, resulted in Cincinnati Children’s being named an NIH-funded
member of the eMERGE (electronic MEdical Records eMERGE Network and GEnomics) Network. The project is a consortium of biorepositories linked to electronic medical records data for conducting genomic studies. We are helping lead the national initiative to use genetic data with electronic medical records to deepen our understanding of childhood diseases and to usher in an era of personalized medicine. OF THE