Inside Pediatrics Winter 2017

Children’s,UAB at epicenter of CMV research

By Cassandra Mickens Photos by Denise McGill

N early 35 years since inviting University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) researchers to study pediatric infectious diseases within its walls, Children’s of Alabama continues its mission of merging patient care and research under one roof. In 1983, when Children’s provided laboratory space to the UAB Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, it provided an ideal opportunity to leverage an established program in a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded infectious diseases research clinic into a collaborative, multidisciplinary patient care and management clinic. “When Children’s provided laboratory space for the investigators in our division, it allowed us to integrate research, patient care and interactions with other faculty because we weren’t isolated,” said Bill Britt, M.D.,

UAB professor of pediatrics and inaugural holder of the Charles A. Alford, Endowed Chair in Pediatric Infectious Diseases. “Children’s provided an environment that enabled findings from research studies to be translated into patient care and, as a result, moved patient care forward. Merging research and clinical care into a single mission has been the pathway of success for the most well-recognized children’s hospitals in North America.” The Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, with major research interests in HIV infection, herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus (CMV), antiviral research and general infectious diseases, boasts a rich history that dates back to the division’s founder and first director, the late Charles A. Alford, M.D. After training in pediatrics at Children’s, Alford trained at Harvard University under Thomas

Weller, M.D., a recipient of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine who paved the way for the polio vaccine. Alford returned to UAB, where he and his colleagues defined the natural history and pathogenesis of congenital CMV, the leading nongenetic cause of sensorineural hearing loss and the most frequent known viral cause of neurodevelopmental delay. “UAB and Children’s have been the epicenter of congenital CMV research from the 1960s on, so we’re talking 50 years of world leadership in research,” said David Kimberlin, M.D., division co-director and the Sergio B. Stagno, M.D. Endowed Chair in Pediatric Infectious Diseases. “Charlie was just an amazing man. He had a vision, and he could spot talent. He recruited these incredibly smart people who were quite competitive, and together they did amazing things.” Over the span of his career, Alford trained individuals from around the world, including Rich Whitley, M.D., current division co-director; Sergio Stagno, M.D., distinguished professor and chair emeritus of the UAB Department of Pediatrics; Bob Pass, M.D., professor, director of Pediatric Hospital Medicine; and the Beth Gordy Dubina Endowed Chair in Pediatric Hospital Medicine and Britt. Continuing the work of their teachers and predecessors, Stagno and Pass established the extent of disease and sequelae caused by congenital CMV, studies which led to a phase 2 trial of a CMV vaccine headed by Pass; Karen Fowler, PhD, defined risk factors associated with maternal and congenital CMV; Britt examined the structure of the virus and the assembly of infectious particles, and with Suresh Boppana, M.D., and Shannon Ross, M.D., studied the question of infection with different strains of CMV, which could

4 Charles Alford, M.D., founder and first director of the UAB Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, right, pictured with Rich Whitley, M.D., in the research lab in 1977. (UAB Archives, University of Alabama at Birmingham)