Areas of Focus
Gastrointestinal Disorders
Dr. Jeffrey Hyams is leading an NIDDK-funded multi-site project called CAMEO: Clinical, Imaging, and Endoscopic Outcomes of Children Newly Diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. Scientists from 27 sites are participating in CAMEO with Connecticut Children’s participating as the lead site. CAMEO examines the association between pre-treatment clinical, radiologic, genomic, and microbial factors and a patient’s ability to achieve complete healing after one year of optimized anti-TNF therapy, including personalized anti-TNF biologic therapy guided by therapeutic drug monitoring and a novel dosing algorithm developed by the study team.
Neonatal Microbiome
Led by Dr. Adam Matson, microbiome studies seek to determine the influence of bacterial populations and/or their products on neonatal outcomes and intestinal health in premature infants. Dr. Matson’s multidisciplinary team integrates state-of-the-art microbial sequencing technology and translational research approaches to track specific pathogens in the neonatal intensive care unit and to characterize metabolic factors that contribute to necrotizing enterocolitis, a catastrophic intestinal disease of prematurity. This research includes the establishment of a Neonatal Specimen Biorepository, a resource that allows for several additional research projects ranging from the influence of gut microbes on neurodevelopment to their impact on liver function.
Connecticut Children’s Human Milk Research Center is working to understand the origin of bacterial populations in human breast milk and how they influence the establishment of an infant’s gut microbiota.
COVID-19
Led by Dr. Juan C. Salazar in collaboration with Dr. Michael Lynes (UConn Storrs) and Dr. David Lawrence (New York Department of Health), the Identifying biomarker signatures of prognostic value for Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) study is one of only eight studies funded under the NIH’s PreVAIL kIds program. The study aims to develop a tool to diagnose MIS-C in children, a serious complication of COVID-19. The new diagnostic tool will help differentiate MIS-C from Kawasaki disease, a serious vasculitis that also affects children. Clinicians from four hospitals in the U.S. and Colombia, led by Dr. Alex Hogan at Connecticut Children’s and Dr. Eduardo Lopez in Cali, Colombia, are currently enrolling and collecting patient health information along with blood and saliva. Scientists at laboratories across Connecticut and New York are analyzing the blood and saliva to identify biomarkers and develop a diagnostic test for MIS-C. Analysis of biomarkers and patient characteristics will contribute to a better understand why some children develop MIS-C or become seriously ill while others do not. With support from Kathy Herbst and her research team at Connecticut Children’s, participants are followed for four years to document long-term outcomes.
Led by Drs. William Zempsky and Juan C. Salazar, Connecticut Children’s is participating in a multi-center observational study: The RECOVER Post Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC) Pediatric Cohort Study. Funded under the NIH RECOVER Initiative, this study is a national effort that brings together scientists, clinicians, patients, and caregivers to take on a critical problem: recovery from the long-term effects of COVID-19. Connecticut Children’s research team is collecting data that will be integral to further understanding and treating long-term complications associated with COVID-19.
Spirochete Research
In collaboration with the University of Connecticut Health Center, Juan Salazar, MD, Justin Radolf, MD, and Kelly Hawley, PhD, continue their highly successful and productive combined translational spirochetal biology research in the Spirochete Research Labs. This lab focuses on a variety of spirochetes from the genera Leptospira, Treponema, and Borrelia. This team collaborates with investigators across the US and internationally in Columbia, Malawi and more.
