Nationwide Children's Hospital Research Institute

Nationwide Children's Hospital Research Institute
Name	Nationwide Children's Hospital Research Institute
Type	Nonprofit
Founded	2007
Location	Columbus, Ohio, United States
Parent organization	Nationwide Children's Hospital

Contents

Nationwide Children's Hospital Research Institute is a pediatric research organization affiliated with a major pediatric hospital in Columbus, Ohio, providing basic, translational, and clinical research across pediatric medicine. The institute connects investigators with partners in The Ohio State University, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, American Academy of Pediatrics, and industry collaborators to advance therapies, biomarkers, and health systems. It supports multidisciplinary work spanning genetics, immunology, neonatology, oncology, and population health with collaborations involving Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Stanford University School of Medicine.

Overview and Mission

The institute's mission emphasizes improving child health through discovery, innovation, and implementation, aligning investigators, clinicians, and community partners including Columbus Metropolitan Library, Ohio Department of Health, United Way, March of Dimes, and Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Its strategic priorities engage faculty from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, fellows from American Board of Pediatrics, and trainees from Columbus State Community College to translate laboratory findings into clinical care, partner with philanthropic organizations like Katz Family Foundation and corporate partners such as Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. The organizational model integrates cores in bioinformatics, biorepositories, and regulatory compliance with partnerships with Food and Drug Administration, Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, and regional health systems like Mount Carmel Health System.

The institute formed from expansions of pediatric research units associated with Children's Hospital of Columbus and formalized research operations in the early 21st century during collaborations with The Ohio State University, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, and philanthropic donors including J. William and Sally Lee Holladay and Huntington Bancshares. Its development included consolidation of laboratory space, recruitment of investigators from Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and establishment of translational programs modeled after St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Major milestones featured partnership agreements with National Institutes of Health institutes, facility expansions adjacent to Nationwide Arena and campus integration with Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center initiatives.

Programs cover genetics, genomics, newborn screening, immunology, neonatology, oncology, pulmonology, gastroenterology, neurology, and mental health, with centers modeled after Broad Institute, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Salk Institute. Specialized centers include congenital cardiology collaborations with Cleveland Clinic Children's Heart Center, cancer biology linked to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and infection biology partnering with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization. Research cores provide services in genomics akin to Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center, proteomics similar to Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and bioinformatics with ties to University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The institute conducts pediatric clinical trials in partnership with National Cancer Institute, Food and Drug Administration, Pediatric Trials Network, and pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Moderna, and Roche. Trials span rare disease therapeutics, gene therapy collaborations referencing protocols from Bluebird Bio and Spark Therapeutics, vaccine development aligned with National Institutes of Health vaccine programs, and device studies in collaboration with Boston Scientific and Medtronic. Translational pipelines leverage biorepositories comparable to NIH Biobank standards and regulatory expertise interacting with Institutional Review Board structures from The Ohio State University and multicenter consortia including Pediatric Research in Office Settings.

The institute supports graduate students, residents, and postdoctoral fellows through partnerships with The Ohio State University College of Medicine, visiting scholars from Harvard Medical School, and training grants from National Institutes of Health such as NIH T32 programs. Collaborative education initiatives include joint appointments with Nationwide Children's Hospital faculty in departments aligned with American Association of Medical Colleges, mentorship networks engaging leaders from American Board of Pediatrics and visiting professorships tied to Children's Hospital Boston. It hosts seminars, workshops, and symposia with speakers from institutions like Yale School of Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, and UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.

Funding sources include federal grants from National Institutes of Health, foundation awards from Gates Foundation and Kresge Foundation, corporate partnerships with AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson, and philanthropy from local benefactors including Battelle Memorial Institute and OhioHealth Foundation. Infrastructure investments have included laboratory expansions, high-throughput sequencing platforms similar to offerings at Broad Institute, and clinical research units comparable to Mayo Clinic Clinical Research Unit. Grant administration aligns with standards from National Science Foundation and audit processes tied to United Way Worldwide and regional economic development agencies.

The institute has contributed to newborn screening advances, pediatric oncology protocols, and genomic discoveries cited in journals associated with American Medical Association, Nature Medicine, The New England Journal of Medicine, and Science Translational Medicine. Its investigators have received awards from American Pediatric Society, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Pew Charitable Trusts, and the institute has participated in multicenter studies alongside St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and Seattle Children's Hospital. Notable contributions include gene discovery collaborations with Undiagnosed Diseases Network, vaccine implementation projects with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and health services research informing policy dialogues with Ohio General Assembly and national advisory committees.

Category:Medical research institutes in the United States Category:Hospitals in Columbus, Ohio