Two UF pediatricians elected into national research society

Two University of Florida College of Medicine pediatricians recently were elected into the Society for Pediatric Research. Dr. Barry J. Byrne, an associate professor of pediatric cardiology, and molecular genetics and microbiology, and Dr. Kenneth O. Schowengerdt Jr., an assistant professor of pediatric cardiology, were honored May 14 in Boston at a joint annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Election into the society is based on demonstrated productivity, originality and quality in pediatric research. By providing a forum for exchanging ideas and presenting research findings, the society encourages young investigators engaged in research to improve the health of children.

Byrne, who is co-director of the UF Powell Gene Therapy Center, is studying gene therapy approaches for treating children with Pompe disease, which is a disease of the heart and skeletal muscle. Several of his other projects focus on the use of adeno-associated virus, a harmless virus that exists in most adults, as a vector for delivering corrective genes. The vector is injected into striated muscle in an effort to achieve sustained release of therapeutic proteins.

Schowengerdt, who is the medical director of the Pediatric Cardiac Transplant Service at Shands at UF, studies inflammatory molecules and their role in the process of rejection after heart transplantation. He also is working on the development of noninvasive methods of monitoring for rejection after pediatric heart transplantation.