Welcome to Research Horizons
Explore highlights of the exciting research happening at Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation with Research Horizons. Each issue features recent studies published by Cincinnati Children's investigators. By combining cutting-edge research and education with the best in pediatric care, we are striving to improve the lives of children and families everywhere.
Included in this issue are highlights from the 2005 Research Foundation Annual Report.
In addition, you will find the following feature stories that highlight some of our many world-class researchers:
Kidney failure has long been a particularly dangerous condition, in large part because its symptoms often do not show until the disease has progressed beyond the point of treatment. Cincinnati Children's researcher Prasad Devarajan, MD, is working to find a way to predict kidney failure much earlier, before it becomes deadly. [more]
Septic shock, or sepsis, is an infection that activates a person's entire immune system into overdrive. It sets off a chain reaction of events that can ultimately lead to uncontrolled inflammation in the body. The infection can affect a patient's temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, white blood cell count and lung function. [more]
Determining the best course of treatment for an infant with hearing loss depends on a wide range of variables. Foremost among these is how severe the hearing loss will be as the child gets older. Until recently, this crucial piece of information has been largely impossible to predict. [more]
Scientific evidence indicates that pharmacogenetics, the study of how people's genetic make-up affects their response to medicines, could one day change the way physicians practice medicine. Genetic pharmacology promises to provide genetic information that, with state-of-the-art technology, can help clinical practitioners choose and dose medication that best meets the needs of the individual patient. [more]
New findings by Gurjit Khurana Hershey, MD, PhD, have revealed insights into the genetic components of asthma and allergies and how treatments affect or could affect disease outcomes. Children who suffer from acute asthma attacks share a genetic profile that appears to be unique to these children, according to a Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology study by Dr. Hershey. [more]
Why will one child develop juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) and not others, even within the same family? And once diagnosed with JRA, why do some children respond well to common medications — and others don't? [more]
Although its technologies are incredibly advanced, the Computational Medicine Center (CMC) supports the fundamental mission that Cincinnati Children's has pursued for more than a hundred years. [more]
