Pediatric Research

Departmental Research Conference
COMRB 7th floor conference room
8 am, Hospital Conference room, 1st floor
Dates are announced each month. CME credits are provided.

Faculty Research

Usha Raj, MD

Dr. Usha Raj came from the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in 2008 to head the Department of Pediatrics. Today she is the Head of the Children’s Hospital of the University of Illinois which became a member of NACHRI in 2010. She has been a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics since 1981, a member of the Society for Pediatric Research since 1988 and a member of the American Pediatric Society since 1996. She was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1994. She is a member of many scientific organizations and is very active in the American Physiological Society and the America Thoracic Society. She served as a regular member on the National institutes of Health, Study Section LBPA and RIBT and as Chairman of a Special Study Section for the NIH.

Her research interests have been in Developmental Pulmonary Vascular Biology and her laboratory has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for over 28 years. As head of the Developmental Pulmonary Biology Research Group at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Dr. Raj is studying the mechanisms that control the pulmonary circulation in the fetus and newborn, and is trying to understand why some babies develop problems related to the lung blood vessels while others do not.

Her work has established and defined the very important role of pulmonary veins in regulation of microvascular pressures, fluid filtration and blood flow in the fetal and neonatal lungs. Another important contribution has been the discovery of an important role for platelet activating factor in the normal physiological regulation of pulmonary vasomotor tone in the developing lung. The contribution of this vasoactive compound and growth factor in the pathogenesis of chronic hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension is being currently studied. Her laboratory has identified the very important role of cGMP dependent protein kinase and its mechanisms of action on the pulmonary vasculature during the transition from fetal to neonatal life. And more recently, her group has identified a unique role for reactive species in protein modification and vascular function in the transition from fetal to neonatal pulmonary circulation.

Dr. Raj and other members of her research team, including Ram Ramchandran PhD, Qiwei Yang PhD, Tianji Chen PhD and Aarti Raghavan MD are researching the genetic and environmental basis of pulmonary vascular disease in the fetus and newborn. Guofei Zhou PhD, Deming Gou PhD,and Yuansheng Gao PhD are also actively involved with her research work.

She is also involved in fellow education and is very interested in increasing the number of pediatricians in the academic research track. Currently Neonatal Fellow Rodica Popa MD is working in her laboratory. She has trained over 25 fellows, several of whom are pursuing academic careers. She welcomes students, residents and fellows into her laboratory.

Sekhar Reddy, PhD

Benjamin W. Van Voorhees, MD, MPH

Dr. Benjamin Van Voorhees's research work is focused on the development and evaluation of primary care-technology-based depression prevention interventions for adolescents. His program has five core areas: (1) intervention development, (2) clinical epidemiology, (3) health services and attitudinal research, (4) community based clinical trials of primary care/Internet-based interventions and (5) reduction of health disparities through primary care based interventions.  

Akhil Maheshwari, MD

Dr. Maheshwari's research is focused on bacterial translocation across the developing intestine and the intestine and the mechanisms by which microbial products induce mucosal/systemic inflammatory responses. Specific areas of interest include leukocyte trafficking, tight junctions, and macrophage function. His laboratory is currently investigating inflammatory pathways active during necrotizing enterocolitis, cytomegalovirus-mediated inflammation, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation-related gut mucosal injury.

Dr. Maheshwari has authored and co-authored 65 original manuscripts and book chapters, the editor of a textbook of Neonatal Hematology, Immunology, and Infectious Disease, and holds 3 provisional patents for novel anti-inflammatory agents. He has served on the editorial boards of three professional journals and is an active ad hoc reviewer for several other journals and grant review panels. His research efforts have been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NICHD,NIGMS), the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and several local foundations, and has previously received grant support from the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) and the American Health Association.  

Evgeny Pilipenko, PhD

Dr. Pilipenko is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Moscow (Russia) and completed his postdoctoral training at the Institute of Poliomyelitis and Viral Encephalitides (Russia). He joined UIC Department of Pediatrics in 2009.

Dr. Pilipenko's laboratory pursues research in two directions:

(1) study of the molecular mechanisms of cell-specific translational control of viral mRNAs with a goal of clarifying how these processes affect viral pathogenesis, and

(2) study of the mechanism of ubiquitin-independent degradation of cellular proteins by proteasomes and the role of this pathway in regulation of protein homeostasis and cellular processes.

Nathan A. Ellis, Ph.D.

Genomic Instability and Cancer Susceptibility in Digestive Diseases

Neelima Chauhan PhD

Eunice John, MD

Dr. John's research is focused on :
1. Long term changes in renal function after receiving living related small bowel transplant in pediatric patients.
2. Effect of sepsis on renal function in newborn piglet during ontogeny
3. Correction of anemia in Pediatric ESRD Patients with aranesp given once in 2 weeks in children (funded by Amgen)
4. Vitamin D observational studies in ESRD Pediatric peritoneal dialysis patients (funded by Abbott)
5. Proteonomics in obstructive uropathy in children (funded by application in progress)
6. Chronic kidney disease – progression of renal failure (NIH funded)

Guofei Zhou, PhD

Wei Zhang, PhD

The eQTL mapping in sarcoidosis

Complex diseases such as sarcoidosis may be controlled by various genetic and non-genetic factors. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) focusing on common genetic variants (e.g., SNPs, single nucleotide polymorphisms) have generated novel candidate genes that are associated with these diseases. However, results from GWAS often need to be prioritized for further experimental validation or translational research. Gene expression, as an intermediate phenotype sits between DNA variation and higher level cellular, whole-body phenotypes (e.g., drug response, disease susceptibility). Particularly, the mapped eQTLs (expression quantitative trait loci) have been found to be enriched among complex-trait (or disease) associated SNPs. Therefore, mapping eQTLs can provide a valuable tool for prioritizing GWAS results. Our aims are

1: to perform case-control GWAS on sarcoidosis in African American and European American individuals;

2. to map eQTLs in sarcoidosis; and

3. to compare the eQTLS and GWAS results between the two populations. This project will provide a comprehensive picture on the genetics of sarcoidosis.

Lucy Park, MD

Mary Lou Schmidt, MD

Kenneth Rich, MD

Christiane Stahl, MD