Pediatric Lung Research Program

Identifying causes of pediatric lung disease to identify new therapies and outreach strategies for Wisconsin children

Full Project Name:Pediatric Lung Research Program to Optimize the Respiratory Health of Children in WisconsinPrincipal Investigator:G. Ganesh Konduri, MD, PediatricsCo-Investigator(s):Joanne Lagatta, MD, Pediatrics
Amy Pan, PhD, PedatricsAward Amount:$1,500,000

Award Date

October2021

Project Duration:60 months

Project Summary:

Lung disease is the most common reason for infants and children to require medical care, including intensive care support at birth, as well as medical care in early childhood. The leading causes of neonatal repiratory failure are persistence of pulmonary hypertension and premature birth leading to bronchopulmonary dysplasia. These illnesses affect 10,000 newborn infants in Wisconsin every year.

In addition, lung injury or disease can impose lifelong breathing difficulty, hospital visits, and neurodevelopmental delays. Over 200,000 Wisconsin children and adults under age 40 are affected by conditions of neonatal lung disease. Improving the respiratory health of Wisconsin children requires further investigation on its causes and contributing factors in order to develop new therapies that may decrease complications of these diseases.

Through this award, investigators will aim to identify causes of pediatric lung disease to inform future therapies and outreach strategies that will improve the respiratory health of Wisconsin children.

Project Updates:

Identified a novel target that can be treated by repurposing a commonly used diabetes medication that through first-of-its-kind studies in the lab showed improvement in lung growth and decreased lung injury
Started a pilot clinical trial to test the new drug treatment with Wisconsin infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD)
Developed a novel disease-specific parent-reported respiratory symptom measure for infants with BPD and developed a remote text- or email-based method of capturing parent-reported symptoms to improve evaluation of health outcomes in infants with BPD
Published multiple papers and conducted numerous presentations to date to disseminate project findings
Leveraged almost $6 million in NIH funding to investigate the mechanisms of BPD and to support a clinical research project to conduct multi-center validation of patient-report outcomes measures