Institutes, Divisions & Centers
Anesthesia Research

Harnessing a Global Collaborative Research Approach

The Department of Anesthesiology at Cincinnati Children’s combines clinical research with basic science and mechanistic studies to improve anesthesia care and pain medicine.

A key to the research team’s success is its collaborative “bedside to bench to bedside” approach.

We work closely with 14 faculty labs and nearly every division throughout Cincinnati Children’s and the University of Cincinnati (UC), including Allergy and Immunology, Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, Biological Sciences, Cancer Biology, Developmental Biology, Human Genetics, Molecular Biology, Neurobiology, Neuroscience, Pain Management and Palliative Care, Pharmacology and Systems Physiology.

Our researchers work with numerous academic medical centers, and participate in many multi-institutional studies.

The 73 faculty members from Cincinnati Children’s and UC bring more than 50 years of experience and include DOs, MBAs, MDs and PhDs, plus postdoctoral fellows, research assistants and predoctoral students.

Our Research

Our research faculty perform basic, clinical, and translational research. We do extensive basic science work to develop new strategies for diagnosing and treating chronic pain in children, improving anesthesia care, and finding new ways to manage epilepsy.

We use molecular biology and genetic studies to find markers and predictors that indicate which patients might experience chronic pain after surgery. This information helps develop new tools and techniques for better anesthesia care.

Our researchers use cutting-edge techniques to study the cellular and molecular mechanisms behind the development of epilepsy. If these mechanisms can be understood, then new treatments and therapies can be designed to prevent – and ultimately cure – epilepsy.

Our team also uncovered a novel pathway using growth hormone that highlights how early exposure to pain influences how we experience pain later in life. This could help create techniques to modulate neonatal pain.

The goal of our research is to:

  • Lead the discovery of molecular, cellular, physiological, and clinical elements of pediatric anesthesia, pediatric pain medicine, and neuroscience, and to translate these elements into clinical practice.
  • Develop the next generation of basic scientists and clinical researchers in anesthesia research.

Our work focuses on understanding how immune cells carry early pain memories across the lifespan and how to improve treatments for acute chronic pain and perioperative care. We study cancer biology, epilepsy, neurotoxicity, and muscular dystrophy. We also focus on population health, researching how racial disparities impact pediatric pain management in the postoperative setting.

Research by the Numbers

The Anesthesia scientists at Cincinnati Children’s are highly successful at building grant support for their work and publishing their results in top scientific journals. Our research team and faculty members secure funding from many organizations, including Division/Department heads at Cincinnati Children’s and the University of Cincinnati. We also receive funding from government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, public and private foundations, and academic societies.

We have formed collaborative groups, such as The Neuromuscular Development Group and The Neuroscience Research Center, that bring together basic scientists conducting fundamental, hypothesis-driven research with translational scientists developing new therapies and clinician-scientists working to advance these treatments for patient use. The Pediatric Pain Research Center brings together basic, translational, and clinical pain researchers from across multiple divisions of Cincinnati Children's to understand the biological, psychological, and social mechanisms of pain to help develop innovative treatments for both acute and chronic pain.

Statistics at a Glance

Research and Training

  • Faculty: 73
  • Joint Appointment Faculty: 14
  • Research Graduate Students: 6
  • Research Fellows and Post Docs: 4

Clinical Activities

  • Inpatient Encounters: 47,700+
  • Outpatient Encounters: 37,700+
Faculty Researchers Image
115+
Research Experts
Publications Image
272
Peer-Reviewed Publications
FY20 to present
Funding Image
$3M+
Grant Funding
in FY23

Training and the Future

The Department of Anesthesiology supports research, education and training by giving faculty the resources they need to find ways to better provide anesthesia care, to relieve pain and to treat epilepsy.

Our investigators have unmatched access to the most advanced core resources and facilities, plus a large patient population that takes part in research.

A collaborative environment, unique cross-divisional labs staffed by fellows, postdoctoral students and specialized research assistants provide an infrastructure that make Cincinnati Children’s an ideal place for anesthesia research.

Anesthesia and Pain Management fellows spend much of their time on clinical studies. Our anesthesia research fellows, postdoctoral students and research associates receive direct support from our principal investigators as they work in our individual faculty-led labs. Many of our postdoc PhD fellows move on to big-name postdoctoral and faculty positions, thanks to the mentorship they receive at Cincinnati Children’s.