Child Health Research Center

Louis J. Muglia, M.D., Ph.D., Program Director

The Department of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine has received a five year renewal (2006-2011) of its designation as a Child Health Research Center of Excellence by the National Institutes of Health. This Center, supported by a $2 million grant, is using models developed at the Center to study pathology of diseases that affect children. With this center, which focuses on human developmental biology, we have the ability both to understand the pathology of the diseases, as well as to evaluate new treatments that eventually will benefit children.

The goal of the Center for Child Health is to use the advances of modern basic science and clinical medicine to improve our understanding of normal developmental events and those abnormalities of development that continue to result in injury, handicap and death. The mission of this Center has great relevance for the health and welfare of infants, children and adolescents, their growth and development, and their opportunities to achieve full potential as adults.

We are focusing the research mission of the Center on understanding the molecular events controlling normal growth, differentiation and development, and the genetic or acquired factors producing aberrant development in man. Thus, our long-term goal is to apply basic science technology to improve our understanding in management of clinical problems affecting human growth and development.

Washington University faculty are internationally recognized for their research into the causes of prematurity, respiratory distress syndrome of the lungs and normal and abnormal development of the infant's cardiovascular system; the etiology and prevention of sudden infant death (SIDS); the development of the gastrointestinal tract, brain and diseases; the susceptibility and pathogenesis of infectious diseases and abnormalities of the child's immune system, and the etiology and treatment of diabetes and disorders of growth and growth control.

Among the most pressing needs at the interface of basic biology and clinical medicine is the translation of basic science advances into the practice of clinical medicine, especially in the area of child health. With the establishment of the Center for Child Health, the working dialogue between basic biologists and clinician scientists in child health has been significantly enhanced. This Center with its focus on human developmental biology will enable us to both understand the pathology of diseases, as well as evaluate new treatments that eventually will benefit children.

Please contact Louis J. Muglia, M.D., Ph.D. for more information.