$4.75 million fund to support research on children's illnesses
David Gozal, M.D., talks with a young patient at the Kosair Children's Hospital Sleep Medicine and Apnea Center.
Research for childhood sleep disorders, juvenile diabetes and other illnesses got a boost recently when two Louisville foundations pooled $3.75 million for UofL's Kosair Children's Hospital Research Institute. The institute is a unit of the Department of Pediatrics at UofL.
Kentucky's Research Challenge Trust Fund, more commonly called "Bucks for Brains," matched $1 million, bringing the total amount to $4.75 million. The funds will support day-to-day activities of the institute that aren't covered by federal research grants and provide a permanent endowment, said Larry N. Cook, M.D., interim executive vice president for health affairs at UofL.
"Our intention is to continue to build an endowment for the Kosair Children's Hospital Research Institute that can be self-sustaining over time," he said.
The institute was created in 1999, and David Gozal, M.D., was subsequently recruited as its director. Gozal also is vice chair for research in the pediatrics department and the Children's Hospital Foundation Chair for Pediatrics Research.
Gozal has garnered international acclaim for linking children's sleep disorders -- including snoring -- with physical and behavioral problems such as learning disabilities, obesity, diabetes and hypertension. His research at the institute has helped scores of Kentucky parents improve their children's sleep, health and ability to learn.
"Dr. Gozal has exceeded my wildest expectations," Cook said. "In less than five years, he has taken the pediatrics department from almost no federal research funding to more than $5 million a year, and from an occasional investigator to more than 10 full-time funded investigators."
Current projects at the institute include partnering with the Jefferson County school system to treat children with sleep disorders and developing an inexpensive test for sleep apnea.
"Diagnosing sleep apnea now requires an overnight study in the laboratory, which is labor intensive, expensive and uncomfortable for the child and parent," Gozal said.
He is collaborating with Roland Valdes Jr., Ph.D., and Saeed Jortani, Ph.D., both of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine; and Jon Klein, Ph.D., of the Department of Medicine to create simple tests for sleep apnea in children.
University Pediatrics Foundation, a nonprofit group that supports the Department of Pediatrics, is one of the area foundations helping fund the research institute. It pledged $2.5 million.
The Children's Hospital Foundation, a nonprofit organization affiliated with Kosair Children's Hospital, pledged the other $1.25 million. The foundation's mission is to make the best possible medical care available to children in Kentucky, southern Indiana and across the nation.
"Researchers of this quality are in demand all over the country, and the Children's Hospital Foundation is happy to support Dr. Gozal's research," said Orson Oliver, the Children's Hospital Foundation chairman of the board.
In 1998 the Children's Hospital Foundation created a $1 million endowed chair for pediatric research, which was used used to recruit Gozal. The chair also received matching funding from Kentucky's Research Challenge Trust Fund.
