The Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Pediatrics conducts research under two programs:
Infectious Diseases Center
Chief of Service and Clinic Chief, Debra L. Palazzi, M.D., professor, Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine
The Infectious Diseases Center at Texas Children's Hospital provides expert diagnosis and management of pediatric infectious diseases in children. Outpatient evaluation of persistent fevers or unusual illnesses that are thought to be infectious is available as well as help to assess acutely ill patients. Patients with certain infections that require prolonged care, such as osteomyelitis, are also seen in the center.
Immunization Project
Project Director, Julie Boom, M.D., associate professor, Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine
The Immunization Project is dedicated to developing, implementing and evaluating strategies to help keep Houston-area children free of vaccine-preventable diseases. The Immunization Project strives to serve the public, health professionals, and Texas Children's by providing timely and accurate immunization-related information and resources. An autodialer reminder system proactively sends immunization reminders to parents whose children are 2, 4, 6, 12, 15 and 48 months old. The system is currently available to patients of Texas Children's Pediatric Associates. An immunization helpline is available as an interactive phone system in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. It includes information about local providers of free or low-cost immunizations, calendar of special events, and immunization information for your children identified by birth date. A "Raising Immunization Through Education" program has been established to increase immunization coverage levels in the greater Houston area through practical, peer-based, quality medical education delivered to all members of the provider office.
The Houston-Harris County Immunization Registry is a confidential, computerized information system that collects immunization histories and helps ensure correct and timely immunizations for children living in the Houston-Harris County area.
Grants
Title: Appropriate perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis
Funding Agency: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: Outpatient antimicrobial stewardship
Funding Agency: PEW Charitable Trust
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: Addressing caregiver wellbeing and improving child development
Funding Agency: Episcopal Health Foundation
Role: Co-Principal Investigator
Title: Understanding the immune response changes to clinical interventions for Epstein-Barr virus infection prior to lymphoma development in children after organ transplants (UNEARTH)
Funding Agency: NIH
Role: Local Co-Principal Investigator
Title: Comparison of high vs. standard dose influenza vaccine in pediatric solid organ transplant recipients
Funding Agency: NIH
Role: Local Co-Investigator
Gail J. Demmler-Harrison, M.D.
Title: A retrospective follow-up study of the durability of antiviral therapy on long-term hearing and neurodevelopmental outcomes among patients treated for congenital cytomegalovirus infection as infants or toddlers
Funding Agency: NIH / NID-NIAID-CASG-CPIC
Role: Local Principal Investigator
Title: A real-world feasibility study to examine the epidemiology, clinical manifestations, responses to antiviral treatment, and health care utilization and health care costs of congenital cytomegalovirus infection in Texas, USA
Funding Agency: Moderna, Inc.
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: Pregnant people-infant linked longitudinal surveillance, Surveillance for Emerging Threats to Mothers and Babies Network (SET-NET)
Funding Agency: Cooperative Agreement, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Houston Department of Health and Human Services
Role: Co-Investigator
Title: Development of a high throughput assay for rapid screening for congenital cytomegalovirus infection using dried blood spots, Phase 2
Funding Agency: NIH / NIDCD / National Institutes of Health Small Business and Microgen, Inc.
Role: Sub Award Principal Investigator
Title: Development of a high throughput assay for rapid screening for congenital cytomegalovirus infection using dried blood spots, Phase 1
Funding Agency: NIH / NIDCD / National Institutes of Health Small Business and Microgen, Inc.
Role: Sub Award Principal Investigator
Title: Identification of biomarkers of audiologic outcomes in congenital CMV infection
Funding Agency: NIH / NID- NIAID-CASG-CPIC
Role: Local Principal Investigator
Title: Health care utilization and health care costs associated with congenital CMV infection and disease
Funding Agency: Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Inc.
Role: Contract
Title: CNS-derived fetal extracellular vesicles for the non-invasive diagnosis of fetal CNS CMV infection
Funding Agency: NIH
Role: Co-Investigator
Title: Ripple effect of leadership: you can be a leader too
Funding Agency: Center for Research, Innovation and Scholarship in Medical Education, Texas Children’s Hospital
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit DMID (various studies)
Funding Agency: NIH
Role: National Co-Chair (Mpox vaccine trial); Site Principal Investigator (Novavax COVID-19 trial); Co-Investigator (others)
Title: Adolescent Vaccination Program (AVP)-various studies
Funding Agency: Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT)
Role: Co-Investigator
Title: The United States Pediatric Multicenter Pneumococcal Surveillance Study Group
Funding Agency: Pfizer, Inc.
Role: Co-Investigator
Title: Determination of the utility of Pfizer’s urine antigen test in children under 6 years of age with community-acquired pneumonia in the United States
Funding Agency: Pfizer, Inc.
Role: Co-Investigator
Title: Development of human adaptive immunity to Staphylococcus aureus
Funding Agency: NIH Sub-award
Role: Co-Investigator
Title: A phase 4 study using a test negative design to evaluate the effectiveness of a 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine against vaccine-type radiologically confirmed community-acquired pneumonia in adults less than or equal to 65 years of age
Funding Agency: Pfizer, Inc.
Role: Site PI
Title: Determination of the utility of Pfizer’s Urine antigen test in children 5 years of age or younger with community acquired pneumonia in the United States [and in Guatemala]
Funding Agency: Children’s Hospital of Colorado
Role: Site PI
Title: Ongoing Evaluation of the Impact of the Introduction of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV-13) on the Incidence of Parapneumonic Empyema and other Invasive Pneumococcal Disease in Children and Adolescents in Orange County, California
Funding Agency: Children’s Hospital of Orange County
Role: Site PI
Title: The United States Pediatric Multicenter Pneumococcal Surveillance Study Group
Funding Agency: Pfizer, Inc.
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: Determination of the utility of Pfizer’s urine antigen test in children under 6 years of age with community-acquired pneumonia in the United States
Funding Agency: Pfizer, Inc.
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: Development of human adaptive immunity to Staphylococcus aureus
Funding Agency: NIH Sub-award
Role: Co-Investigator
Katherine Y. King, M.D., Ph.D.
Title: Impact of Infection and Inflammation on primitive hematopoiesis
Funding Agency: NIH / NHLBI
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: Modifiable drivers of expansion and malignant transformation from clonal hematopoiesis
Funding Agency: NIH / NCI
Role: Project 1 Leader, Administrative Core Co-Lead
Title: Medical Scientist Training Program
Funding Agency: NIH / NIGMS
Role: Co-Principal Investigator
Title: Diagnosing and studying pathogenic mechanisms of rare diseases
Funding Agency: Chan Zuckerberg Institute
Role: Co-Principal Investigator
Title: Mechanisms of Corynebacterium-Dolosigranulum interactions that shape human nasal microbiota
Funding Agency: NIH
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: Microbiome discovery and mechanisms to combat antibiotic resistance at mucosal surfaces
Funding Agency: NIH
Role: Multiple Principal Investigator (Britton, Lemon, Maresso, Patras)
Title: The impact of healthcare exposure on colonization with antiseptic tolerant staphylococci in children
Funding Agency: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: Development of human adaptive immunity to Staphylococcus aureus
Funding Agency: NIH / NIAID
Role: Co-Investigator (PI: Bubeck-Wardernburg, Fritz)
Title: Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs)
Funding Agency: NIH / NIAID
Role: Co-Investigator
Title: A prospective study of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) natural history, risk factors and pathogenic mechanisms
Funding Agency: NIH / NIAID
Role: Site Principal Investigator
Title: Zika natural history study in Guatemala
Funding Agency: NIH
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: An integrated one health approach to detect and respond to emerging disease threats in high-risk region of Central America
Funding Agency: NIH / CDC
Role: Co-Investigator
Title: Surveillance for vaccine-preventable disease in children
Funding Agency: CDC
Role: Co-Investigator
Title: A master phase 1/2/3 protocol to investigate the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of bivalent BNT162B2 RNA-based vaccine candidate(s) in healthy children
Funding Agency: Pfizer, Inc.
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: A phase 1, open-label dose-finding study to evaluate safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity and phase 2/3 placebo controlled, observer-blinded safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity study of SARS-CoV-2RNA vaccine candidate against COVID-19 in healthy children and young adults
Funding Agency: Pfizer, Inc.
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: A phase 2b, open-label study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of vaccine candidate BNT162b2 in immunocompromised participants ≥2 years of age
Funding Agency: Pfizer, Inc.
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: A phase 2/3 single-arm, open-label study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and efficacy of remdesivir (GD-5734) in participants from birth to <18 Years of age with COVID-19
Funding Agency: Gilead Sciences
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: Comparison of high vs. standard dose influenza vaccine in pediatric solid organ transplant recipients
Funding Agency: NIH / NIAID
Role: Site Principal Investigator
Title: A phase 2/3, two-part, open-label, dose escalation, age de-escalation and randomized, observer-blind, placebo-controlled expansion study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, reactogenicity, and effectiveness of mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in healthy children 6 months to < 12 years of age
Funding Agency: NIH / NIAID / VTEU
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: Human biomimetics for mucosal infections
Funding Agency: NIH/NIAID
Role: Sub-Investigator
Title: Observation, prospective cohort study of the immunogenicity and safety of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines administered during pregnancy or post-partum and evaluation of antibody transfer and durability in infants
Funding Agency: NIH / NIAID / VTEU
Role: Sub-Investigator
Title: A phase 1/2a trial of the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of PIV5-vectored RSV vaccine (BLB-201) in RSV seronegative and seropositive infants and children
Funding Agency: Blue Lake Biotechnology, Inc.
Role: Site Principal Investigator
Title: A phase 2 randomized, open-label, multisite trial to inform public health strategies involving the use of MVA-BN vaccine for Mpox
Funding Agency: NIH / NIAID / VTEU
Role: Sub-Investigator
Title: Pandemic Threat Technology Center
Funding Agency: BCM / Philanthropic Funding
Role: Co-Director
Title: A proposal for outpatient antimicrobial stewardship with the Texas Children’s Health Plan
Funding Agency: Pew Charitable Trusts
Role: Principal Investigator