Research organization committed to bring about dramatic results in pediatric care to offer innovative, therapeutic treatments for patients. These centers approach is to focus thinking and innovation through open participation and the exchange of ideas.
Center for Metabolism and Immunity
Center for Metabolism and Immunity focuses on musculoskeletal, kidney and gastrointestinal disorders including the microbiome, disorders of metabolism and diseases related to the immune system.
Center for Pediatric Immunology
Children’s Discovery Institute
The goal and mission of the Center for Pediatric Immunology is to advance the care of children with immune system disorders. The center is focused on providing scientific infrastructure for the investigation and therapy of pediatric inborn errors of immunity, with a focus on discovery of molecular (genetic) mechanisms of disease.
Center for Pediatric Pulmonary Disease
Center for Pediatric Pulmonary Disease focuses on the biology of the pulmonary system and genetic and acquired causes of pediatric lung disease.
Child Health Research Center
Work in this center focuses on human developmental biology, promoting discovery by junior pediatrics faculty in the pathology of, and novel treatments for, a spectrum of pediatric diseases and conditions.
The Department of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine received a five-year, $2 million renewal of its designation as a Child Health Research Center of Excellence by the National Institutes of Health. The principal investigator for this project is Gary Silverman, MD, PhD, and the program director is David Hunstad, MD.
Congenital Heart Disease Center
Congenital Heart Disease Center focuses on the environmental and genetic etiology of congenital heart and vascular disease, related birth defects and other heart disorders.
McDonnell Pediatric Cancer Center
Children’s Discovery Institute
Despite considerable medical advances, cancer remains the leading cause of death due to disease in children in the United States. Even successful treatments carry substantial risk for lifelong disabilities that include hearing loss, learning disabilities, heart injury, musculoskeletal disabilities, infertility and second cancers.The McDonnell Pediatric Cancer Center supports innovative research to safely cure these diseases while mitigating long-term disabilities.
Pediatric Center of Excellence in Nephrology (PCEN)
The organizing goal of Washington University’s Pediatric Center of Excellence in Nephrology is to provide a spatially resolved multiomic molecular blueprint of gene regulation and expression across the pediatric lifespan in healthy and disease conditions and related educational opportunities and bioresources to the community.
Through these resources, innovations in educational activities, cross-species molecular maps and analyses in humans and preclinical models we aim to transform the field of pediatric research, attract new expertise and strategies to keep kidneys healthy in children.
Washington University Intellectual and Developmental Disability Research Center (WUIDDRC)
Tracing genetic and environmental disruptions of human brain and mind development to their origins at the respective levels of cell, synapse, circuit, and behavior.
The Washington University Intellectual and Developmental Disability Research Center (IDDRC) is the latest center to receive funding in order to expand the Centers of Excellence for research in mental retardation and developmental disabilities established by Congress in 1963. The IDDRCs are the nation’s first and foremost sustained effort to prevent and treat developmental disabilities through biomedical and behavioral research. The mission of the IDDRC is to promote cutting-edge innovation in research related to developmental disabilities. It incorporates a mechanism for effective, regular and vigorous communication coordination with scientists in other organizations, clinical providers for children with developmental disabilities and the local community. We seek to focus a wealth of talent on intellectual and developmental disabilities and stimulate advances by creating collaborative, interdisciplinary environment that will augment research and clinical care to improve the lives of children with developmental disabilities. More information is available on the IDDRC website. The program director/principal investigators for this project are Drs. John Constantino and Bradley Schlaggar.