Annual Report 2023-2024

to a drug and provides valuable insight to enable clinicians to provide the right opioid pain medication to the right patient at the right time. The researchers recommend further clinical testing to ultimately provide individualized care and transition the clinical approach from traditional, standardized dosing to precision medicine. The findings of this study apply not only to burn patients, but all children who require opioids for pain relief at Shriners Children’s and beyond. As of January 2025, Dr. Grimsrud will be funded by The Neil Reitman Endowed Professorship. Her project entitled, Pediatric Precision Analgesic Care Research Program, has the potential to bridge pharmacogenetic and clinical diagnostics to guide personalized medicine and propel precision pain management in pediatric burn care. $31 million award for research on treatment that promotes tissue regeneration, restores joints Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, led by Farshid Guilak, Ph.D., director of research at award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, which falls within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The team endeavors to develop innovative treatment options for patients with osteoarthritis. Approximately 220,000 children live with arthritis — osteoarthritis being the most common form. Currently there are no drugs to cure or substantially lessen the disease, and invasive joint replacement is often the only option when it reaches its later stages. With the goal of creating therapeutics that can help the body prevent or reverse the progression of osteoarthritis without surgical intervention, Shriners Children’s St. Louis and professor of orthopedic surgery at Washington University, have received an up to $31 million

the study aims to develop a single-injection treatment that promotes tissue regeneration and restores joints. “Osteoarthritis has one of the greatest disease burdens of any disease in the world,” said Dr. Guilak. “But we have no drugs that can reverse the joint damage it causes. This award is a moonshot initiative, funding high-risk projects with the goal of developing a single-injection treatment or even a cure for osteoarthritis. If successful, we could potentially affect the quality of life for millions of people and lessen the economic impact due to the billions of dollars spent treating pain caused by osteoarthritis.”

Chief of spine surgery awarded professorship for growth

biomarker discovery Two years ago, Michelle Welborn, M.D., chief of spine surgery at Shriners Children’s Portland, reported on a collagen marker that eventually could allow surgeons to better recognize when a patient with scoliosis should discontinue bracing treatment.

Last fall, Dr. Welborn was awarded a newly endowed professorship to continue pursuing this potentially significant clinical work. Funded by a generous donor, the Diane Ruth Abramson Shriners Children’s Professorship lasts for five years and comes with an annual award that will allow her to continue her important research. The majority of children who have some scoliosis do not require treatment. But of those who do, about 75% will be treated with bracing. These are the patients Dr. Welborn’s work could help. “We don’t know if we can say why some of the kids who are in a brace don’t get worse, and yet others do,” she says.

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