Laboratory Based Investigations

Laboratory studies are aimed at developing a better understanding of biological structures and functions and how they are related to diseases at the cellular and subcellular levels. Much of this research in the Department of Pediatrics is in areas linked to the state’s major health issues, including cancer, asthma, and neurological diseases and injuries.

Improving Cancer Treatment for Children
Principal Investigator: Dr. Laura Gibson

WVU’s pediatric oncology research group, led by Dr. Laura Gibson, is focused on learning more about how some individual cancer cancer cells are able to survive after chemotherapy and on the development of chemotherapy techniques that have fewer side effects on children with cancer. Dr. Gibson’s team works in close collaboration with clinical faculty members who work with patients in WVU Children’s Hospital and the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center Nearly a quarter of all children with cancer suffer from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Leukemic cells that are not successfully killed by treatment often survive in the bone marrow and later begin to grow and contribute to relapse of disease after treatment has stopped.

Children with relapsed leukemia are challenging to treat and have a lower survival rate than those with first-time diagnoses. Dr. Gibson’s lab is investigating how cancer cells can “hide” from chemotherapy in the bone marrow, and what strategies can be used to fully eliminate them from the patient’s body.

Another study under way in this laboratory is measuring the effects of chemotherapy on the stromal cells in the bone marrow. These are crucial to the healing process, as they give the body the capacity to rebuild a healthy immune system to protect the patient from infection.

Successful chemotherapy must aggressively eliminate cancerous cells – yet current techniques also have been shown to damage the stromal cells as well. The goal is to help physicians effectively treat cancer, and prepare for bone marrow transplantation, with fewer harsh effects on the patient.

Environmental Factors in Childhood Lung Disease
Principal Investigator: Dr. Giovanni Piedimonte

Growing rates of childhood asthma, in West Virginia and elsewhere, have alarmed pediatricians and parents and gained the attention of health policymakers. Although doctors know that environmental causes contribute to asthma and other lung diseases, including respiratory infections, the mechanisms of these relationships are not well understood.

Research in the Department of Pediatrics Pulmonary & Allergy group, led by Dr. Giovanni Piedimonte, is focused on discovering links between childhood exposures to pollutants and serious lung diseases. Studies at WVU have demonstrated that perinatal exposures to infections and/or pollutants can have important effects at the level of gene expression that add to the risk of chronic diseases in adulthood.

Furthermore, whereas most previous research has centered on children’s exposures to indoor pollutants such as cigarette smoke and dust, Dr. Piedimonte’s team has made important new discoveries about the risks of pollution in outdoor air.

In one recent study currently in press for Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, WVU researchers in collaboration with European colleagues have demonstrated that allergic asthmatic children respond to a short-term reduction in outdoor air pollution with a rapid improvement in airway inflammation and function. This research may prove helpful to policymakers on both continents who are considering new regulations for airborne pollutants.

In another project, clinical researchers at WVU have joined forces with biomedical engineers at Georgia Tech to develop personal environmental monitors that can be tucked inside a child’s clothing to sample atmospheric exposures 24 hours a day.