Newborn Medicine | Research

The division currently maintains over $1,000,000 in direct cost grant support through individual grants to faculty (i.e., not including program project or training grant support).

Research in the division can be divided into three areas: molecular and cellular regulation of development, whole organ physiology and clinical investigation. Research interests of our faculty include:

Molecular and cellular regulation of development:

• regulation of lung development by forkhead transcription factors;
• the role of glypicans in central nervous system development;
• mechanisms by which selectins regulate intereactions of platelets with white cells and vascular endothelium;
• the roles of chaperone proteins in regulation of T cell function.

 Whole organ physiology:

• the regulation of airway patency during infancy; role of cardiac glycogen in sudden infant death syndrome.

Clinical investigation:

• haplotype analysis of families with infants affected with surfactant protein B deficiency;
• estimation of gene frequency of surfactant protein B deficiency; evaluation of methods for assessment of vulnerability of developing brain to perinatal injury;
• positron emission tomography scanning of infant lung to evaluate response to surfactant replacement therapy.

Future Directions

The division anticipates continuing its commitment to understanding molecular and cellular regulatory mechanisms during development, mechanisms or whole organ regulation during development, and understanding the mechanisms and treatment of surfactant protein B deficiency. In addition, the Division anticipates expanding its use of population-based data to understand mechanisms of disease in pregnant women and infants.