# Digestive Health Center (DHC): Bench to Bedside Research in Pediatric Digestive Disease

> **NIH NIH P30** · CINCINNATI CHILDRENS HOSP MED CTR · 2024 · $1,192,500

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 The overall goal of our Digestive Health Center (DHC): Bench-to-Bedside Research in Pediatric
Digestive Disease is to promote research that will yield insights into the fundamental processes and pathogenic
mechanisms of digestive disease in children and generate innovative treatment to restore digestive health. The
Cores aims are: 1) to strengthen the Research Base and foster collaborations, 2) to catalyze discoveries by
giving investigators access to highly innovative Cores, and 3) to develop junior investigators and the future
leaders in the field. The last award period of the DHC was very successful, with Core services that evolved to
meet the scientific needs of innovative investigators. Our Research Base of 68 investigators attracts $36.5
million of extramural digestive disease-related funds annually; they published 630 articles in the last 4 years.
Several Pilot and Feasibility (P/F) Awardees transitioned to R01-funded investigators and the entire research
community benefitted from a scientific Enrichment Program presenting the latest advances in digestive disease
research. This trajectory of success will be pursued in future years by fostering research and promoting
interdivisional and interdepartmental collaboration to maintain a solid critical mass in digestive disease research
with a focus on translational research. Specifically, our long-term goals are to improve child health through
better diagnosis, treatments and outcomes that will emerge from highly innovative work in our three key
focus areas: 1) Mechanisms of Liver Disease modeling, 2) Digestive Disease and Immunity, and 3) Stem
Cell and Organoid Modeling of Digestive Diseases. Each focus area brings opportunities for potential impact
on the digestive health of children, helps advance the national research agenda, and creates a unique
environment to integrate research into patient care. The focus areas are linked by three complementary and
uniquely innovative Biomedical Research Cores (Gene Analysis Core, Integrative Morphology Core, and
Stem Cell/Organoid Core and Genome Editing Core) and by a Clinical Component of the Administrative
Core to facilitate patient-based research. Collectively the Cores and the Clinical Component form a powerful
infrastructure that fosters the development of personalized and predictive medical approaches based on the
genetics and molecular basis of GI disorders, and of therapies that take into account basic mechanisms of
disease. Our working model promotes laboratory discoveries to generate translational research opportunities
that lead to validation in patient samples and lead to clinical trials. To strengthen digestive disease research, the
DHC will foster collaborations among its investigators and investigators from other disciplines. It will also fund
highly promising P/F Projects for junior investigators and will sponsor a dynamic Enrichment Program of
scientific seminars, workshops and symposia. With these strategies and an exc...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10848300
- **Project number:** 5P30DK078392-18
- **Recipient organization:** CINCINNATI CHILDRENS HOSP MED CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** LEE ARMISTEAD DENSON
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $1,192,500
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2007-08-01 → 2027-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10848300

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10848300, Digestive Health Center (DHC): Bench to Bedside Research in Pediatric Digestive Disease (5P30DK078392-18). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10848300. Licensed CC0.

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