Major Areas of Investigation

The Pediatric Clinical Research Center is currently supporting approximately 90 research protocols. The major areas of investigation are listed below.

• ADHD/Autism: Cognitive function in children with and without attention and memory disorders; neuropsychological profiles in children with functioning autism.
• Community Based Research: Studies into the prevention of child neglect; obesity intervention project for inner city Latino children and adolescents; teen violence; ADHD, head trauma; trial of psychosocial training for pediatric generalists; social networks and parent-provider communication among African-American parents.
• Dentistry: Educating non-dental primary care providers about early childhood caries; the effect of severe early childhood caries and comprehensive dental intervention on children's weight.
• Endocrinology: Health habits of adolescents and young adults with type I diabetes; Youth type I diabetes non-adherence prevention program; prospective studies in infants of the immunopathogenesis of type I diabetes (PANDA).
• Emergency Medicine: Improving pediatric asthma care in the District of Columbia: an emergency department collaborative project (IMPACT DC) enhanced surveillance and intervention phase.
• Genetics and Metabolism: Molecular bases of OTC deficiency and related disorders; Candidate gene and protein studies in disease; Monocyte membrane function in dysferlin deficiency; Blood spot assay of ammonia scavenger drugs; Pharmacokinetics of oral sodium-phenylbutyrate.
  
  • Muscular Dystrophy: Molecular pathophysiology of muscular dystrophy by expression profiling: efficacy and safety of glutamine and creatine monohydrate in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
    
  • Obesity: Obesity among inner city Latino children and adolescents: intervention project.
• Hematology: A prospective study of transfusion-transmitted diseases as assayed by molecular and immunologic assays.
  
  • Sickle Cell Anemia: The Genetic epidemiology of stroke in sickle cell disease; pediatric hydrocyurea phase III clinical trial: "baby hug"; optimizing primary stroke prevention in children with sickle cell anemia (STOP II).
• HIV and AIDS: Evaluation of HIV-Specific CD8+ T-Cell responses and escape mutations in relation to disease progression; prevalence of morphologic and metabolic abnormalities in HIV infected and uninfected women; short-cycle therapy in adolescents with established viral suppression; novel method to determine HIV incidence among youth; optimizing antiretroviral therapy in HIV-infected children and adolescents; effects of highly active antiretroviral therapy on the recovery of the immune function; effect of antiretroviral therapy on body composition; chronic kidney disease in pediatric AIDS.
• Muscular Dystrophy: Molecular pathophysiology of muscular dystrophy by expression profiling; randomized study of daily vs. high dose weekly Prednisone therapy; randomized study of Pentoxifylline as rescue treatment; CoQ10 and creatine monohydrate in Duchenne muscular dystrophy; open-label pilot study of Oxatomide in steroid naive DMD.
• Neurology: Magnesium as a neuroprotective agent following pediatric traumatic brain injury; a phase I trial of PEG 1200 intron-alpha-2B (PEG-Intron) for plexiform neurofibroma; fMRI studies of remedation and developmental dyslexia, functional neuroanatomy or reading in hyperlexic children, studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging; Cognitive function in autism spectrum disorders; Cognitive function in people with and without attention and memory, plasticity of language networks in childhood epilepsy;
• Oncology: Pharmacokinetics: phase I and II studies of cytotoxic agents and metabolic effects of chemotherapy, with a special concentration on solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.
  
  • Neurooncology: Phase I-II studies of therapies in pediatric patients with recurrent or progressive poor-prognosis brain tumor.
• Psychology: Adult attachment and intervention efficacy with preterms.
  
  • Neuropschology: Psychological sequelae (effects) of disturbed sleep in pediatrics.
    
  • Attention deficits & Hyperactivity: A lab for clinical basic research on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
• Psychiatry: Diagnostic classification of infantile anorexia; controlled family study of infantile anorexia and sensory food aversions; treatment of early age mania; Levothyroxine in the treatment of pediatric anorexia nervosa.
• Pulmonary Medicine: Improving pediatric asthma care in the District of Columbia; refining techniques for isolation of mononuclear cells from human respiratory washings; immunity and thrombosis in acute lung injury; characterization of mucins in tracheal secretions.
• Rare Diseases: Urea cycle disorders—registry and longitudinal study; N-Carbamylglutamate (Carbaglu®): effect on ureagenesis in N-Acetylglutamate deficiency. Sickle Cell Anemia: Silent cerebral infarct multi-center clinical trial; pediatric hydroxyurea phase III clinical trail.