Transplant Research
At Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, we see the potential in every child. That’s why we believe that research is a wise investment in the future. Children’s embarks on leading-edge transplant research and works hard to advance today’s standards. Our research efforts are reinforced through:
- National and international scientific presentations
- National journal publication/editorial boards
In close affiliation with Emory University School of Medicine, Children’s demonstrates commitment to excellence and groundbreaking clinical and laboratory research. Current research themes include:
- Acute liver failure
- Neonatal hemochromatosis
- Portal hypertension
- Hepatopulmonary syndrome
- Post-transplant medical issues
- Nutritional outcomes of liver transplant
- Fatty liver disease
- Transplant rejection and immunologic tolerance
- Protein genomic research
- Noninvasive diagnosis of liver disease using MRI
- The Living Donor Education and Access Program (Project LEAP)
In addition, we collaborate with other centers across the country to further our research efforts and innovation for children with liver disease. We are involved in:
- Childhood Liver Disease Research and Education Network (ChiLDREN), an NIH-sponsored collaborative network organized to study rare childhood liver diseases
- Pediatric Acute Liver Failure (PALF), a multicenter, national collaborative effort to help identify, characterize and develop management strategies for children who present with acute liver failure
- Study of Pediatric Liver Transplantation (SPLIT), a cooperative effort among leading pediatric transplant centers in the U.S. and Canada to advance the science of pediatric liver transplant
Pediatric Heart Transplant Research
- Surgical techniques
- Noninvasive rejection identification (instead of biopsy)
- Immunosuppression
- Growth and development
- Heart failure management
- Member, Pediatric Heart Transplant Study Group (PHTS)
- Biventricular pacing
- Tissue doppler imaging
- Longitudinal studies of long-term health and behavioral consequences of solid organ transplantation
- Immunosuppressive strategies
- Islet cell research in renal transplantation at Emory University School of Medicine
- Member, North American Pediatric Renal Transplant Cooperative Study (NAPRTCS)
- Blood and marrow transplant therapy for inherited diseases
- Alternate donor blood and marrow transplantation (cord blood, unrelated, mismatched, haploidentical)
- Mechanisms of stem cell engraftment and creation of tolerance
- Gene insertion therapy
- Pathophysiology of sickle cell disease
- The role and regulations of endothelial chemokines in pathologic conditions
- Immunotherapy and experimental therapies