Our Research
Our research faculty perform basic, clinical, and translational research. We do extensive basic science work to develop new strategies for diagnosing and treating chronic pain in children, improving anesthesia care, and finding new ways to manage epilepsy.
We use molecular biology and genetic studies to find markers and predictors that indicate which patients might experience chronic pain after surgery. This information helps develop new tools and techniques for better anesthesia care.
Our researchers use cutting-edge techniques to study the cellular and molecular mechanisms behind the development of epilepsy. If these mechanisms can be understood, then new treatments and therapies can be designed to prevent – and ultimately cure – epilepsy.
Our team also uncovered a novel pathway using growth hormone that highlights how early exposure to pain influences how we experience pain later in life. This could help create techniques to modulate neonatal pain.
The goal of our research is to:
- Lead the discovery of molecular, cellular, physiological, and clinical elements of pediatric anesthesia, pediatric pain medicine, and neuroscience, and to translate these elements into clinical practice.
- Develop the next generation of basic scientists and clinical researchers in anesthesia research.
Our work focuses on understanding how immune cells carry early pain memories across the lifespan and how to improve treatments for acute chronic pain and perioperative care. We study cancer biology, epilepsy, neurotoxicity, and muscular dystrophy. We also focus on population health, researching how racial disparities impact pediatric pain management in the postoperative setting.
Research by the Numbers
The Anesthesia scientists at Cincinnati Children’s are highly successful at building grant support for their work and publishing their results in top scientific journals. Our research team and faculty members secure funding from many organizations, including Division/Department heads at Cincinnati Children’s and the University of Cincinnati. We also receive funding from government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, public and private foundations, and academic societies.
We have formed collaborative groups, such as The Neuromuscular Development Group and The Neuroscience Research Center, that bring together basic scientists conducting fundamental, hypothesis-driven research with translational scientists developing new therapies and clinician-scientists working to advance these treatments for patient use. The Pediatric Pain Research Center brings together basic, translational, and clinical pain researchers from across multiple divisions of Cincinnati Children's to understand the biological, psychological, and social mechanisms of pain to help develop innovative treatments for both acute and chronic pain.
