The Childhood Liver Disease Research Network (ChiLDReN) study supports the discovery of new diagnostic and treatment options for children with liver disease and those who undergo liver transplantation.  Arbor Research, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Michigan, provides major scientific, project, analytic, and database support to ensure the network’s effectiveness, efficiency, and scientific output. The scientific objectives are focused on clinical and translational research on rare pediatric liver diseases that include: biliary atresia, Alagille syndrome, alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency, progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis syndromes, bile acid synthesis defects, mitochondrial hepatopathies, idiopathic neonatal hepatitis, and cystic fibrosis liver disease. Children with biliary atresia or any of the other cholestatic liver diseases studied by ChiLDReN account for the majority of the pediatric liver transplantations performed in the United States. In addition, liver disease is one of the leading causes of death in children with cystic fibrosis. 

The ChiLDReN study, which was started in 2003 as the Biliary Atresia Research Consortium, consists of the SDCC and 14 clinical sites in the United States and Canada caring for babies and children with rare pediatric liver diseases. This 5-year grant for continuation of the SDCC for ChiLDReN, is funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), a division of the National Institutes of Health.