Duke pediatric transplant groups have recently expanded their research footprint to include joining national consortiums for both liver and kidney transplantation. The larger DPIHP goal is to develop the nation’s first dedicated pediatric immunocompromised patient biobanking database, linking clinical data to relevant biological samples.
The DPIHP will be hiring a dedicated Program Coordinator to manage the planned research portfolio of activities that span several disciplines. This will include investigator-initiated studies at Duke, as well as industry-sponsored clinical and translational studies in this patient population.
Funds will also be used in the form of competitive research grants as well as clinical study infrastructure for both molecular and clinical/translational research. These grants will propel research specifically involved in pediatric infection risks, molecular mechanisms, outcomes research. Grant money will be targeted toward seeding newer projects to derive data to successfully compete for externally-funded awards in the field. Targeted investigators include infectious diseases, oncology, transplantation, immunology, and rheumatology, moving those investigators who study the underlying diseases to also explore their patients’ infectious complications.