Georgia CTSA Clinical Research Centers with Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Announce Pediatic Research Center at Egleston Hospital

(L to R) Kris Rogers, Dr. Barbara Stoll (ACTSI Co-PI), Dr. Jay Berkelhamer, Christine Spainhour, Martha McGill, Dr. Paul Spearman and Dr. Howard Katzenstein

The Georgia CTSA Clinical Research Centers and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta announce a new Clinical Research Site located on the Children's at Egleston campus. The Pediatric Research Center is designed to provide the necessary infrastructure for investigators conducting pediatric clinical research.

The four-bed inpatient unit is located on 4 West (Tower 2). The four-bed outpatient unit is located within the Technology-Dependent Intensive Care Unit (TICU) (Tower 2). Outpatient unit capabilities include visits that can be completed within six hours. This includes data collection, vital signs, lab draws, and facilitating tests and procedures, such as radiological exams.

Pediatric inpatient and outpatient units will offer core support facilities and resources, including:

  • Protocol design consultation

  • Research pharmacy support

  • Safety oversight

  • Research nursing for participant visits, phlebotomy, IV access, medication administration

  • Sleep/apnea studies

  • Bionutrition support

  • Recruitment core support

  • Web-based participant scheduling and protocol tracking

  • Exercise physiology support

  • Basic laboratory procession of human biological samples

    • preservation of samples
    • generation of aliquots
    • sample acquisition and tracking via Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)

  • Sample StorageProtocol Design Consultation

    • short-term storage (0-3 months)
    • long term storage (4-12 months)
    • storage capabilities for -80°C, -20°C and 4°C
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  • Assay Consultation

    • Emory University Core Laboratories
      • Yerkes Biomakers Core
      • Core H
      • Biomaker Profiling
      • Clinical Biomakers Laboratory
      • Lipid Analysis
    • Emory University Hospital Medical Laboratory
    • Morehouse School of Medicine Analytical and Protein Profiling Laboratory
    • ARUP and Quest Diagnostics

Georgia CTSA Clinical Research Centers (GCRCs) program provides support for the conduct of patient-oriented research at multiple sites across Atlanta. The GCRCs includes sites at Emory University Hospital, Emory Midtown, Grady Memorial Hospital, the Ponce Infectious Diseases Clinic, the Hope Clinic, Wesley Woods Health Center, the Morehouse School of Medicine Clinical Research Center, and Kaiser Permanente of Georgia.

Newly approved ACTSI pediatric protocols include:

  • β cell rescue in new onset type 1 diabetics using the LFA-1 antibody, efalizumab: BRiTE Trial, Principal Investigator, Mark Rigby, MD

  • Study of Asthma and Air Pollution (SAAP), Principal Investigator, Gerald Teague, MD

  • The Study of Acid Reflux in Children with Asthma (SARCA), Principal Investigator, Gerald Teague, MD

  • Severe Asthma Research Program (SARP), Principal Investigator, Gerald Teague, MD

  • Pharmacologic treatment of congenital nephrogenic diabetes insipidus - A proof of concept study, Principal Investigator, Jeff Sands, MD

The ACTSI works in educational partnership with Emory University, Morehouse School of Medicine and Georgia Institute of Technology, as part of a national consortium to improve the way biomedical research is conducted across the country. The consortium, funded through the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA), shares a common vision to reduce the time it takes for laboratory discoveries to become treatments for patients, and to engage communities in clinical research efforts. ACTSI also helps to fulfill the critical need to train the next generation of clinical researchers. The CTSA initiative is led by the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health.

If you are an Emory, MSM, or GA Tech clinical investigator and would like to utilize these sites through a GCRCs supported mechanism, please visit the ACTSI website, and follow the protocol submission instructions. If you have questions, please contact Debora Clem, GCRCs Program Manager (404-712-1993 or dclem@emory.edu).