Dr. Corona's research interests include the developmental, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based practices for individuals with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Past and current research projects include investigation of social skills intervention for adolescents, teacher training on evidence-based practices, and the use of telemedicine tools in early detection of ASD.

Dr. Cooper is an epidemiologist with a research program focused on the effects of medications on vulnerable populations of children and the impact of health care systems on patient outcomes. He has published more than 150 manuscripts describing population-based studies of medication use in children and pregnant women in journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Pediatrics, Journal of Pediatrics, JAMA Pediatrics, JAMA Surgery, and JAMA Psychiatry.

Dr. Cooper’s research has focused on assessing the safety of medications for a variety of vulnerable populations, including studies of adverse fetal outcomes following psychotropic drugs in children and exposures to medications during pregnancy for populations of women in the Tennessee Medicaid program, with studies of ACE inhibitor exposures and cardiac malformations, effects of antibiotics taken during pregnancy, the fetal effects of immunosuppressive medications taken for autoimmune conditions, and work exploring the fetal effects of opioid medications taken during pregnancy. He has also studied health outcomes for vulnerable populations of children with sickle cell disease. More recent work has focused on the intersection of physician professionalism and health outcomes. He has successfully competed for funding to support his research program and has been the principal investigator for 10 federally-funded research projects.

Dr. Cooper's work has influenced policy, including medication labeling by HealthCanada, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. By influencing practice in this way, Dr. Cooper's work has reduced the likelihood that children will experience entirely preventable major malformations.

Dr. Cooper has also been a highly effective mentor, having successfully mentored over 30 individuals; many of which currently hold faculty positions and have successfully obtained K and R awards.

>> View Publications on PubMed

Dr. Connelly joined the Vanderbilt Pediatric Hematology/Oncology program in January 2016 as a member of the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant team. Dr. Connelly received his medical degree from Washington University Medical School and performed his pediatric residency and fellowship training at the University of Michigan. He spent his early faculty years at the University of Michigan where he helped develop and direct the Comprehensive Immuno-Hematology Program. Dr. Connelly has extensive expertise in non-malignant transplant and his primary clinical and research interests are in patients with immunologic and bone marrow failure disorders. On a national level, he serves as the research chair for the National Immuno-hematology Clinical Education and Research (NICER) consortium, is a member of the Severe Chronic Neutropenia International Registry (SCNIR) Board where he serves as the primary transplant physician, and is involved with leading research consortia for the development and implementation of safer, more effective transplant strategies for non-malignant disorders. At Vanderbilt, Dr. Connelly manages all non-malignant bone marrow transplants and is the director of the Comprehensive Hematology, Immunology, and Infectious Disease Program (CHIIP). The CHIIP clinic offers care for complex immune disorders and allows patients to receive expertise from multiple sub-specialists including immunology, hematology, infectious disease, and bone marrow transplant during one clinic visit. Through the CHIIP clinic, Dr. Connelly collaborates with clinical and basic science colleagues at Vanderbilt to study pediatric and adult patients with rare conditions of the immune system through the Human Immunology Discovery Initiative (HIDI). This research platform allows Vanderbilt scientists to study how immune cells are impaired in disease and perform extensive genetic analysis to diagnose patients with unknown disorders of the immune system. His additional area of scientific interest is in the development of malignancy in neutropenic disorders and provision of safer transplant strategies for chronic neutropenia and has international collaborations to study these topics. Through these efforts, patients at Vanderbilt have access to science discovery to understand and diagnose their immune system defects and receive state-of-the art treatments including bone marrow transplant for blood and immune disorders.

>> View Publications on PubMed

Dr. Cogan's lab has studied the molecular basis of genetic disorders for over 30 years examining the causes of disease in a variety of conditions including isolated growth hormone deficiency, combined pituitary hormone deficiency, heritable pulmonary arterial hypertension, and familial interstitial pneumonia. Her current studies are focused on patients with undiagnosed diseases and families with telomere biology disorders.

As part of the Vanderbilt Clinical Undiagnosed Disease Network Site (VCUD), her lab uses whole genome sequencing analysis and other molecular techniques to identify the molecular cause of disease in patients and families that have previously gone undiagnosed. In some cases, new phenotypes are characterized or disease-causing genes are identified. The Cogan lab is also investigating the genetic basis of impaired telomere maintenance in families with Telomere Biology Disorders (TBDs) using telomere measurements and whole exome/genome sequencing analysis.

>> View Publications on PubMed

Dr. Ellen Clayton is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a founding member of its Standing Committee on Reproductive Health, Equity, and Society. At VUMC, she is a Craig-Weaver Professor of Pediatrics, a Professor of Health Policy, a co-founder of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society, and a Professor of Law at Vanderbilt. Her research focuses on the ethical, legal, and social implications of the conduct and translation of genomics research into clinical care. She is the co-PI of a transdisciplinary Center for Excellence in ELSI Research focusing on Genetic Privacy and Identity in Community Settings and of a project that seeks to define the legal framework for genomics. In addition, she has been involved in the eMERGE consortium assessing the impact of returning genomic results, and currently working on ethical issues in the development and use of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

>> View Publications on PubMed

Dr. Choi investigates the role of redox-based signaling in blood vessel inflammation. Her focus is on the pro-inflammatory cytokine, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) and the impact of receptor endocytosis on its signaling in the vasculature. Specifically, she is interested in how TNFα receptor endocytosis impacts the balance of signaling processes that occur at the cell surface vs. within receptor containing “signaling” endosomes.

>> View Publications on PubMed

Dr. Chew is a pediatric cardiologist primarily focused on general pediatric cardiology clinical care. He previously conducted clinical research on pediatric cardiovascular disorders. He has utilized large, national databases to characterize rare disease processes. Prior work has focused on congenital heart defects in patients with Turner syndrome. Specifically, he has described the distribution and outcomes of congenital heart surgeries, with a specific focus on single ventricle palliation, in these patients. Dr. Chew also published the first description of heart transplantation in patients with Turner syndrome by leveraging a unique linkage of two multicenter databases. The goal of this work was to allow for more informed decision-making in these challenging clinical situations by generating an evidence-based understanding of individual patient's risk profiles. Additionally, Dr. Chew's research program explored the application of advanced imaging methods for the diagnosis and clinical evaluation of cardiovascular disease with high morbidity and mortality. Specifically, he has used both echocardiography and cardiac MRI based approaches to investigate pulmonary arterial hypertension and cardiomyopathies.

>> View Publications on PubMed

Dr. Chappell's scientific interests encompass the biology, pathogenesis, etiology, prevention, and treatment of viral diseases. His current research includes the contemporary pathogen spectrum, microbial genetic features, clinical presentation, and host risk factors associated with acute viral respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses; vaccine effectiveness against these infections; and vaccine responses in diverse populations.

>> View Publications on PubMed

The Cassat lab studies host-pathogen interactions during invasive bacterial infections, with a specific focus on osteomyelitis. We are also interested in how inflammation and the microbiome impact skeletal cell biology. Finally, we study interconnections between the vertebrate immune and skeletal systems. Current projects include: the study of how S. aureus survives within bone, delineating how co-infecting pathogens shape staphylococcal physiology and virulence during osteomyelitis, discovering how host responses to bacterial pathogens in bone shape bone remodeling, creating new molecular imaging protocols to study the host-pathogen interface during osteomyelitis, elucidating how host comorbidities such as hyperglycemia impact osteomyelitis pathogenesis, and deciphering how inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and the gut microbiota alter bone homeostasis.

>> View Publications on PubMed