Harry Kim
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
In Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease, blood flow to the top of the thighbone (the femoral head) is cut off in children, and the bone dies. The condition is called osteonecrosis.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Biomedical Engineering
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease
osteonecrosis
pediatric hip
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2027
What they work on
- Determine whether washing damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) and dead-cell debris out of necrotic bone reduces harmful inflammatory macrophage responses, using a piglet model of femoral head osteonecrosis and lab-dish experiments.
- Test how macrophages respond to bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP2), a bone-building growth factor, released slowly from a hydrogel, and whether this speeds bone regrowth in the piglet hip.
- Determine whether interleukin-4 (IL-4), an immune signal that shifts macrophages toward repair, increases healing-type macrophages and improves bone regeneration, using tissue, cell and RNA analyses.
More about the research
It affects about 1 in 1,200 children aged 2 to 14. It is among the most serious childhood hip conditions: half of patients develop disabling arthritis, some as teenagers. The team found that the dead bone sets off long-lasting inflammation. This inflammation blocks bone regrowth and leads to a misshapen femoral head. Current treatments do not address this problem.
Why it matters
Children with Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease often develop disabling hip arthritis, and current treatments do not address the inflammation that blocks bone healing. Minimally invasive bone-washing and immune-modulating therapies could help dead bone regrow and preserve the shape of the hip. If proof of concept succeeds in the piglet model, the work could lay the groundwork for clinical trials in affected children.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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University of Minnesota, MN·Medicine & Clinical Research
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University of Kentucky, KY·Microbiology & Immunology
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Isabelle Lemasson
East Carolina University, NC·Microbiology & Immunology
Characterize how abnormally high vascular cell adhesion molecule 1, a surface protein that grips neighboring cells, combined with suppressed annexin A1 on HTLV-1-infected T cells, affects transmission of the virus to target CD4+ T cells.
The school
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center: 40 labs on PI Pages, $869M a year on research, 86 research doctorates a year.
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