Two local institutions in recent weeks have received funds for research and education.
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on June 2 announced it has been awarded a $2 million grant from the state of California to study a precision medicine approach to screening children for adverse childhood experiences.
The three-year grant was awarded by the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine, a partnership between the state of California and other public and private entities.
The team at East Hollywood-based CHLA will study a potential new screening method that combines a questionnaire with development of a lab test that measures potential disturbances to critical cell structures called mitochondria, which are responsible for producing energy for cells to function normally.
The aim of the test is to develop a marker, or “red flag warning,” for toxic stress in infants.
“Excessive adverse childhood experiences can cause toxic stress in children, and many studies have shown this may have lifelong consequences for health challenges,” Pat Levitt, chief scientific officer, vice president, and director of the Saban Research Institute at CHLA, said in the announcement.
Meanwhile, the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA announced May 21 that it has received a gift of more than $1 million from Delphine Lee to establish an endowed term chair in integrative liver transplantation in the school’s surgery department.
Fady Kaldas, a liver transplant surgeon and the program’s co-director, has been named the inaugural holder of the chair.
The endowment provides support for a transplant surgeon committed to the care and management of patients with combined heart and liver disease and facilitates the continued growth of the program.