By studying and applying new paradigms of pathogenesis, the Critical Care Signature Program provides novel multidisciplinary treatments for patients with acute, life-threatening illnesses or injuries. Program leader Clay Marsh, MD, says a team of experts is needed to manage the most seriously ill or injured patients. “We are building a unified program in research, education, and clinical care that brings new solutions to these patients through innovation and discovery,” says Marsh, who also directs the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine.
Marsh says researchers in this program focus on the biological variability of each patient to establish links between genetic abnormalities and outcomes of patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). “We want to understand how approaches in the ICU affect the long-term outcomes of patients who survive their critical care illness or injury,” he explains. “Through this platform of personalized and predictive medicine, we can not only transform ICU care, but also the way medicine is practiced in other areas.”
Critical Care Signature Program highlights of 2006:
- The program recruited seven new faculty and acquired $1.3 million in new grants.
- Program members developed the first Fundamentals of Critical Care Support course approved by the Society of Critical Care Medicine, an international multidisciplinary organization, for all intensive care unit healthcare workers.
- James O’Brien, MD, Naeem Ali, MD, Scott Aberegg, MD, MPH, Stephen Hoffmann, MD, John Mastronarde, MD, MPH, Jyoti Kamal, PhD, and David Jarjoura, PhD, focused on improving the quality and consistency of daily clinical care on a number of fronts. With the Information Warehouse (IW), they have built an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Minimum Dataset that collects information about all ICU patients and the care they receive. They also focused on the care of patients with sepsis, and they have another IW application that is collecting information about patients enrolled in a septic registry and blood bank.
- Susheela Tridandapani, PhD, and her group investigated mechanisms of host response to infectious agents using a combination of genomewide analyses of mRNA and miRNA expression along with immunological, molecular and biochemical approaches. Their goal is to identify molecular targets for therapeutic intervention in inflammation-associated disease states such as sepsis.
- Mark Wewers, MD, and Anasuya Sarkar, PhD, worked on the role of caspase-1 in sepsis and outcomes. Sepsis is characterized by activation of a host of inflammatory pathways. Recent studies by Sarkar and Wewers have revealed a strong tie between the enzyme caspase-1 and the sepsis immune response. Caspase-1 deficient mice are protected from death caused by intraperitoneal bacteria. Importantly, the caspase- 1 effect appears to be due to its role in causing the programmed cell death of splenic lymphocytes. Thus, future studies directed at inhibiting caspase-1 may provide novel approaches to treating sepsis.
- The Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine was ranked 24th in the nation in 2006 by U.S.News & World Report.
