Research
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Bringing together top-ranked basic scientists, physician-scientists and research teams at Stanford and around the globe to focus on innovative and discovery-based research
Laboratory Research
We have created a database with detailed clinical data and corresponding biological specimens so that we can study the immune system, the microbiome, the proteome, and the metabolome during active disease and quiescent disease. We are also actively looking for infections and when we do not find an infectious trigger, we are storing specimens to look deeper for novel approaches. We are also in the process of conducting genetic analyses of patients and their families and corresponding detailed medical and psychiatric history of both the patient and their families. We believe that understanding patterns of disease in PANS families is important in informing our genetic studies.
PANS Research Consortium
In the Spring of 2013, the first PANS Consensus Conference was convened at Stanford University, calling together a geographically diverse group of clinicians and researchers from complementary fields of pediatrics: General and developmental pediatrics, infectious diseases, immunology, rheumatology, neurology, and child psychiatry. Participants were academians with clinical and research interests in pediatrics autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcus (PANDAS) in youth, and the larger category of pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS). The goals were to clarify the diagnostic boundaries of PANS to develop systematic strategies for evaluation of PANS cases, and to set forth the most urgently needed studies in this field. As a result, a consensus statement proposed recommendations for the diagnostic evaluation of youth presenting with PANS. A by-product of this conference was the development of the PANS Research Consortium.
Clinical Research
We follow a relatively small number of patients (approximately 400 families) where we are collecting very detailed information about their clinical course, infectious triggers, concurrent autoimmune processes, and response to treatment. This data is captured in the patient's electronic medical record; and in patients who consent to our longitudinal database study, we enter this detailed clinical data with corresponding blood specimens.
We are also designing clinical treatment protocols and treatment trials with PANS Consortium members and the NIMH.
