The mission of the Center’s CTRP is to support basic, translational, and clinical research in the digestive diseases by providing access to human materials and resources in statistics and study design.
- To forge connections and support collaboration between HDDC Clinical Associates and Members
- To support a well-organized infrastructure for acquisition, storage of clinical samples (with relevant clinical metadata)
- To provide professional support in biostatistics and study design to HDDC members and Clinical Associates
Director:
Scott B. Snapper, MD, PhD (BCH, BWH)
scott.snapper@childrens.harvard.edu
Co-Director:
Christopher P. Duggan, MD, MPH (BCH, HSPH)
Christopher.duggan@childrens.harvard.edu
Prinicipal Clinical -Associates:
Joshua R. Korzenik, MD (BWH); Athos Bousvaros, MD, MPH (BCH)
There are 2 locations for this program, Boston Children's Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital: BCH Clinical Research Associate: Alexandra Griffith (alexandra.griffith@childrens.harvard.edu); BWH Clinical Research Associate: Matt Lucci (MLUCCI@mgh.harvard.edu)
Services:
The BCH Pediatric Bio-Repository and the BWH IBD tissue Repository (BrITR).
- The Bio-Repository Programs provides human materials for HDDC investigators, Clinical Associates, BCH and BWH faculty members, their trainees, and approved collaborators who wish to test hypotheses that may improve the understanding of the pathogenesis or aid in the diagnosis, or clinical management of IBD and other digestive diseases. The Bio-Repositories collect samples and clinical metadata from patients with immune-mediated chronic bowel inflammation, including IBD, indeterminate colitis (IC), primary immunodeficiencies that manifest with chronic bowel inflammation, other GI and liver disorders as well as non-inflammatory “normal” control subjects. Data derived from Bio-repository specimens may have broad application including basic understanding of disease mechanisms, validation of data derived from experimental animals, and drug discovery endeavors.
- Samples provided and potential uses:
- Blood: for extraction of genomic DNA and peripheral blood RNA, isolation of serum, isolation of immune cells for functional assays
- Oral Swab (saliva): for assessment of the oral microbiome
- Stool: for assessment of the fecal microbiome
- Discarded Intestinal Tissue: for extraction of mucosal RNA, and fresh intestinal leukocyte isolations
- Biopsies: for immunohistochemistry, biological assays, RNA isolation, mucosal associated microbiome analyses, and organoids
- Urine: for assessment/identification of urinary proteins and metabolites
- Associated metadata provided:
- At BCH, a Data Registry includes patients starting in infancy through childhood and young adults who are followed in the BCH IBD Center. There are approximately 1000 patients currently within this category at BCH and over 600 patients have already been enrolled. At BWH, over 2500 IBD patients have been targeted for enrollment. Upon reaching adulthood, pediatric patients can be re-consented and followed longitudinally when transitioning to adult providers.
- The Data Registry is designed to maintain detailed, cross-referenced clinical information on patient samples collected by individual investigators at their respective institutions. Data is collected via direct, web-based entry into electronic Case Report Forms utilizing the BCH PhaseForward inForm electronic data capture system, administered by BCH Research Computing over secure http connections.