Michael Spigarelli, MD, PhD
Dr. Spigarelli’s research focuses upon the interface between development, disease process and treatment. This includes his roles as co-investigator and project director for the Genomic Control Cohort project which has collected DNA, hair, serum RNA and urine on over eight-hundred of a planned one thousand and twenty healthy individuals from the ages of three through seventeen representative of the catchment area of CCHMC to investigate genetic, gene expression, and environmental contribution to disease development. The DNA samples collected from this cohort have been genotyped using a 1.6 million SNP chip which will allow genome wide association to be made in comparison with any clinic population of approximately 200 individuals that has a defined phenotype which will help identify the underlying genetic factors involved in the disease state. This cohort further provides a source of RNA samples across the development spectrum coupled with medical history and physical examination data that can allow a further understanding of the development process from childhood through adolescence. This cohort further provides a group of individuals who will develop diseases providing information the premorbid state which will allow a further understanding of common diseases such as asthma, allergic conditions or obesity which will occur in sufficient number within the cohort population.
He is also the Adolescent Pharmacology Chair within the Pediatric Pharmacology Research Unit and has developed protocols that will provide insight and understanding of adverse events such as weight gain with commonly used contraceptive agents, atypical antipsychotic drugs. Both projects focus on weight gain as a primary outcome as well as other use limiting side effects including bone loss and development of polycystic ovarian syndrome. Research has shown that weight gain associated with atypical antipsychotic agents can be stabilized with other pharmacologic agents. These projects seek to understand the neuropsychophysiologic basis for weight gain utilizing the adverse events of pharmaceutical agents as a probe which can provide insight that can then be applied to conditions such as diabetes mellitus, type two and obesity.
In addition, he conducts research on pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters of drugs used in children including antiviral agents (for human herpes virus, human immunodeficiency virus and influenza), antibiotic agents as well as cough and cold medicines. As a result of these types of investigations and his background in pharmacology and medicinal chemistry, he has recently testified at the Food and Drug Administration and is working with several local investigators and investigators from outside institutions and companies designing practical studies to improve therapeutics within the pediatric age range.
