The Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at St. Louis Children's Hospital provides comprehensive care for infants, children and adolescents with gastrointestinal, liver, pancreatic and nutritional disorders. Its full-time staff is supported by extensive experience in diagnostic and therapeutic services, and special training.
The Division conducts a well-funded and active basic and clinical research program that studies disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, liver, pancreas, and nutrition. Projects include studies of the pathogenesis of biliary atresia, acute liver failure, application of decision analysis to the diagnosis of neonatal liver disease, hepatic regeneration and steatosis, gastrointestinal and nutritional manifestations of cystic fibrosis, treatment and pathogenesis of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease, bacterial colonization and persistence in mammalian hosts, the etiology of childhood diarrhea, growth and migration of neurons and ganglia into bowel during development, and natural history of functional symptom complexes in children.
The Division also oversees an NIH-funded, three-year fellowship program designed to educate and equip outstanding young physicians for academic careers in pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition. The Division's goal is to combine a sound understanding of the principles of clinical pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition with the pursuit of excellence in fundamental research so that fellows become outstanding consultants, teachers, and independent researchers.
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Provide high-quality, comprehensive care for infants, children and adolescents with common and complex gastrointestinal, liver, pancreatic and nutritional disorders. The Division is committed to enhancing our understanding of these disorders through basic and clinical research programs.
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Provide a supportive environment to train academic pediatric gastroenterologists.
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Educate community physicians, families, pediatric house staff, and medical students about gastrointestinal disorders.
Dr. Heuckeroth was a Markey Trust Scholar, was a recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, received the Miles and Shirley Fiterman Foundation Basic Sciences Research Award of the American Gastroenterological Association, and recently won the Glaxo Wellcome Institute of Digestive Health Research Award.
Dr. Keating was the Murray Davidson Awardee of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1997. He has also received the 2002 Distinguished Service Award of the Washington University Medical Center Alumni Association, the 2004 Distinguished Service Award of the North American Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, and the Washington University Alumni Association 2005 Distinguished Faculty Award.
Dr. Rothbaum was awarded the Physician of the Year by the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America in 1998, and the Goldstein Teaching Award of the Washington University School of Medicine in 2005.
Dr. Rudnick received the American Digestive Health Foundation Research Scholar Award (2000) and Children's Digestive Health & Nutrition Foundation Investigator Development Award (2001), was named a Scholar of the Child Health Research Center of Excellence in Developmental Biology at Washington University School of Medicine (2000), and received a March of Dimes Basil O'Connor Award in 2004.
Dr. Palermo received the Howard Hughes Clinical Investigator Faculty Award in 2001.
Dr. Turmelle has been awarded an Advanced Hepatology Fellowship from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.
Conferences and Symposia
The Division organized and hosted the First International Symposium for Schwachman's Disease. Together with the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America and the American Liver Foundation, the Division sponsors annual educational programs for families with children affected by inflammatory bowel disease and pediatric liver disease respectively.
In conjunction with the Digestive Diseases Research Core Center the Division sponsors a yearly conference on digestive diseases, which includes local and invited speakers with expertise in the topic for that year's conference, and invites three outside speakers a year to give a lecture at the Gastroenterology Research Conference.