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February 2006
Feature Story
DCRI Uses MUSC-Wide Resources to Generate Potential and Impact
By: Mary Sue Lawrence
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| Sakamuri V. Reddy |
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| Inderjit Singh |
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| Lindsay DeVane |
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One year after its opening, the Charles P. Darby Children's Research Institute (DCRI) is moving full-force ahead in its mission
to provide premium care to MUSC's young patients by developing and refining new approaches and treatments for children.
As the largest and most comprehensive pediatric research facility in the Carolinas, the DCRI offers researchers an environment
in which they can strive to discover the causes of and cures for ailments that continue to afflict our children. Here, in this
unique setting, pediatric researchers and investigators MUSC-wide work together under one roof.
The Institute is proving to be a huge draw for new recruits and a huge opportunity to conduct ground-breaking pediatric research
once they're on board, says Sakamuri V. Reddy, PhD, professor and new director of the Osteoclast Center in the DCRI.
"The availability of research space in the new Institute has greatly improved the ability to recruit high quality investigators
and physicians. DCRI offers them a great opportunity to become established investigators, to grow in their scientific careers,"
says Dr. Reddy, who recruited three new investigators to work with him: S.Srinivasan PhD, Eichi Tsuruga DDS PhD, and Sundaram Kumaran PhD.
The new facility and dedicated research space shared with research leaders from across the campus, has made it easy to draw top
investigators from around the country. "The Institute puts these new researchers on the cutting edge of science, enabling them to
investigate diseases in children and develop new approaches," says Dr. Reddy. "It provides a platform on which they can conduct
meaningful and innovative research."
The DCRI sets a great stage and foundation for new faculty, opening the doors for national recognition and publication. A new recruit
himself, Dr. Reddy joined MUSC in 2004, drawn by the chance to work with key researchers and child specialists.
"Dr. Lyndon Key's interest in bone diseases is a great resource, a chance for me to investigate bone diseases in children. Interest in
congenital fractures in children is also part of what drew me to the job," says Dr. Reddy. In collaboration with Dr. Bill Ries, he
published an article in Cellular Biochemistry about the significance of stress proteins in bone function and development. His vision on
Paget's bone disease recently appeared in the European medical journal Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. Dr. Srinivasan's work on
bone resorbing cell, the osteoclast inhibitory peptide-1 gene expression and regulation was recently published in the international journal Gene.
"This is a great opportunity for me to watch many scientists grow under my supervision," notes Dr. Reddy, "and to serve children with
these outstanding facilities and resources."
This first year has provided the groundwork for and hints at the success to come in improving the lives of children, their families and
communities, say Institute members.
Simply being under one roof together makes a tremendous difference. Before the opening of the DCRI, pediatric researchers were housed in
whatever space could be arranged on campus. "The result was that pediatric laboratories were scattered in four different buildings across
the campus," recalls Inderjit Singh, PhD, scientific director of DCRI. Having facilities and pediatric researchers in one building
improves the flow of ideas, facilitates meetings, and provides a sense of cohesiveness and comraderie.
"Investigators are able to meet and discuss ideas more easily, they share resources and gain a sense of belonging to a department,"
explains Dr. Singh. "There is an enhanced recognition that we are all working together toward the same mission."
The new DCRI has also attracted investigators from other departments who are interested in perusing research related to children's diseases.
"This allows us to organize the research activities and investigators from different departments in different programs with interests
in different diseases of childhood, thus creating an environment where multiple investigators work together for a common mission of
finding treatments for childhood diseases," says Dr. Singh.
Collaboration among pediatric faculty and with faculty MUSC-wide generates additional research, says Dr. Singh. It is what he calls a
"recipe for success:" Anatomy and Cell Biology are collaborating with Pediatric Cardiology Division for studies of heart development;
Neurology and the Neurogenetics Division of Pediatrics are working together on cerebral palsy studies; Neonatology and the Neurogenetic
Division are studying perinatal hypoxia injury.
"It's a new concept: bringing together people from different departments, researchers who normally might not collaborate -to physically
share space in order to discover new research projects to benefit children," explains Lindsay DeVane, PharmD, who joined DCRI after 14
years with the Department of Psychiatry. "This interdisciplinary collaboration has created a whole new opportunity for research--a
synergism, if you will--that didn't seem to exist before."
Dr. Devane's group of researchers, many of whom are with Psychiatry, remain focused on mental health problems. "Yet we have refocused
and defined what we do in terms of children and adolescents. Being here gives us knowledge of others who we can collaborate with, who
have clinical populations that we can apply our research to.
"For instance, we have been able to add new basic science techniques to our repertoire, and also to identify patient populations that
lend themselves to these basic science techniques in clinical studies. We've become very interested in children with autism."
His group of seven is small yet diverse, a reflection of the entire institute. "I was trained as a pharmacologist, another researcher
was trained as a food scientist, two were trained as physicians," he explains. "The DCRI is comprised of people who come together from
different backgrounds but who are all contributing to a common goal."
He notes the ease in attending seminars, the increase in conversation among colleagues in the hall. "It's a different concept, this
sharing of common areas and equipment. The DCRI's open layout physically encourages communication."
It's a nationwide movement, notes Dr. DeVane, driven by the National Institutes of Health. "In the future, as we shift more and more
toward interdisciplinary and interdepartmental research, the distinction will become blurred as to our primary departmental appointments.
We will be more identified by the mission we're trying to achieve on campus - in this case, improving the health of children and adolescents.
"It takes a period of time for these collaborations to come to fruition," he predicts. "The success of the work of the DCRI will be measured in years."
"Ultimately, the success of the Darby Children's Research Institute will be measured by what discoveries made by our basic scientists can be translated by our
clinical investigators as "flagship" programs into the best clinical practices for children's physicians and other health professionals.
More simply stated, our goal is to improve the lives of children and their families served by the Children's Hospital, says Dr. Bernie Maria,
Executive Director of the DCRI."
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