Gordon study on childhood malnutrition honored for its impact

The Clinical Research Forum, a nonprofit association of top clinical research experts from the nation’s leading academic health centers, has awarded an international interdisciplinary team led by Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, a Distinguished Clinical Research Achievement Award for his study “Integrating Global Health with the Microbiome.” The honor recognizes studies’ creativity, innovation and novel approaches that demonstrate immediate impact on the health and well-being of patients.

The team led by Gordon — director of the Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences & Systems Biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor — was composed of members of his group and a group led by Tahmeed Ahmed, PhD, executive director of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh. The study resulted in the identification of bacterial members of the small intestinal microbial communities of malnourished Bangladeshi children that were linked to their stunting, and the development of a preclinical model that allowed the researchers to study mechanisms by which these organisms cause disease. Their work points to new microbial therapeutic targets for treating childhood malnutrition, the leading cause of death among those under age 5.

The Clinical Research Forum considers influential studies of investigators at nearly 60 research institutions and hospitals across the United States, as well as partner institutions around the world. The forum selected 10 top clinical-translational studies and then awarded three of them additional recognition. Gordon’s study was among those three.

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