Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has long been a leader in research.
Since before Albert Sabin perfected his oral polio vaccine in the 1950s and 1960s, researchers at the Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation have made breakthrough discoveries that have changed medicine forever. Following are some examples.
2000s
- Revealed the genetic underpinning to biliary atresia, the most common reason for liver transplant in children.
- Developed a genital herpes vaccine that was 75 percent effective in female patients during trials and may help prevent the spread of the virus from mother to newborn.
- A genetically engineered vaccine is the first to be proved effective in protecting newborns, in an animal model, against cytomegalovirus (CMV), the most common congenital viral infection in the United States.
- Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, even at extremely low levels, is associated with decreases in certain cognitive skills, including reading, math and logic, and reasoning in children and adolescents.
- The first study to show adverse consequences of blood lead levels below 10 micrograms per deciliter, the level that is currently considered 'acceptable.'
- Development of a new vaccine against rotavirus, a leading cause of death in infants and children worldwide.
1990s
- Discovery of a gene and identification of a key protein involved in the development of allergic diseases.
- Findings that parental obesity more than doubles a child's risk of obesity in adulthood.
- Discovery of flavohemoglobin's role in protecting bacteria from the body's immune system. May lead to a new generation of more effective antibiotics.
- Documentation that ATP depletion leading to end organ failure in shock can be pharmacologically delayed. Could improve the chances of surviving gunshots, car accidents and massive infections.
- Demonstration that immunization can be effective for treating, as well as preventing, genital herpes virus infection; and creation of a compound that appears to provide total protection against herpes virus transmission.
- Discovery that estrogen is an essential regulator of male adolescent growth and bone mineralization.
- Discovery of multiple enzyme defects in bile acid synthesis that cause liver failure -- now treatable.
1980s
- Identification and cloning of surfactant proteins, important for optimal surfactant replacement therapy. The introduction of artificial surfactant, used nationwide since 1989 to help improve lung function in premature babies, saves an estimated 2,000 lives a year in the United States.
1970s
- Identification of unique morphological features of Reye syndrome.
1950s / 60s
- Development of the Sabin oral polio vaccine, which has conquered polio in the western hemisphere.
- Development of the first artificial lung compounds (perfluorocarbons), now also used for assisted ventilation.
1940s / 1950s
- Seminal studies indicating the effects of environmental factors on prenatal development.
For more information about the Immunobiology Graduate Training Program at Cincinnati Children's and the University of Cincinnati, email barbara.burch@cchmc.org or call 513-636-1339.
