Research Annual Report, 2011-12

From the Director

Arnold W. Strauss, MD
Our challenge: How do we create breakthroughs in scientific discovery and medical treatment?
We believe it takes the courage to ask difficult questions, the creativity to develop ideas, the intellect and talent of our faculty and staff, and the discipline and dedication to continue our history of scientific discoveries. This is how we have produced the breakthroughs that have benefited children over the 85 years since the founding of our Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation (CCRF). This year’s research report summarizes the work of our exceptional research divisions. More detail is available online. In selected stories, we profile the efforts of a few extraordinary scientists and clinicians who have joined forces to tackle some of the most perplexing childhood diseases.
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Scientific Advisory Council

Administrative Staff

Research Committee Members of the Board of Trustees

Research Highlights

We appointed 68 new investigators to the Research Foundation, bringing our total to 631 full- and part-time faculty.
We received $107 million in funding from the NIH, placing us once again among the nation’s top-funded pediatric research institutions.
Overall, we received more than $173 million in research funding, a nearly 13 percent increase from last year.
Our faculty published more than 1,400 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
We had 353 fellows in our training programs: 136 in research postdoctoral fellowships and 217 clinical fellows.
We awarded Child Health Research Center grants to three faculty members.
Our clinical activity included more than 27,000 surgeries and 124,000 emergency visits.
We provided continuing education credits to more than 32,000 medical professionals.
We began construction of a 425,000-square-foot Clinical Sciences tower that will bring our total research space to 1.4 million square feet.
We honored faculty for leadership in entrepreneurial achievement, research, clinical care, mentoring and more.

Read the print report.
scroll down for the full division reports.
Read what our Board and President have to say about how our research changes lives around the world.

Feature Stories

Potential breakthrough for sickle cell

Potential breakthrough for sickle cell

A clinical trial will soon begin for a potentially groundbreaking treatment for sickle cell disease developed at Cincinnati Children’s. Punam Malik, MD, and colleagues have engineered a fetal hemoglobin gene that stays “on” and prevents red blood cells from sickling. They hope it will replace the defective hemoglobin found in patients with sickle cell.

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Quantum leap for CF care

Quantum leap for CF care

Cystic fibrosis expert John Clancy, MD, played a large role in developing a drug called Kalydeco, which can dramatically improve lung function for about 10 percent of CF patients. Now he leads efforts to combine the drug with other compounds to benefit a wider range of people with CF.

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Future of organ transplants

Future of organ transplants

Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s are pushing organ transplantation ahead on several fronts. We are using heart assist devices in new ways. We are helping kids stay healthier after kidney transplant. And we are conducting research to make liver transplants a thing of the past.

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Fighting Cancer

Fighting Cancer

From discovering a way to rejuvenate aging stem cells to developing a drug that controls cancer-causing inflammation, scientists at Cincinnati Children’s attack cancer at its genetic and molecular roots.

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Developing a Clinical-Grade Vector

Developing a Clinical-Grade Vector

Developing and perfecting the medium by which gene therapy is given in a clinical trial is not for the faint of heart – it takes months of preparation and testing at a level that few facilities can provide. Cincinnati Children’s core laboratories offer this expertise, from selecting and purifying the vector to testing before, during and after therapy.

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Legacy of innovation

Legacy of innovation

Our researchers have a proud history of discovery. Josef Warkany’s work helped link toxic exposures to birth defects. Leland Clark invented a heart-lung bypass machine. Albert Sabin’s oral vaccine revolutionized polio vaccination. And a rotavirus vaccine developed by Richard Ward and David Bernstein has saved hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide.

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Surfactant start-up

Surfactant start-up

As Airway Therapeutics pursues development of a major improvement in artificial surfactant, the start-up company offers a valuable lesson in what it takes to cross the drug development “funding desert.” The new company’s product is based on research by Jeff Whitsett, MD.

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Heart drug shows promise for Duchenne

Heart drug shows promise for Duchenne

The anti-fibrosis drug eplerenone appears to slow the heart damage that kills most boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, according to research led by Kan Hor, MD. Now a larger clinical trial will evaluate whether early detection combined with early drug therapy might add years, perhaps decades, to patients’ lives.

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