UNC-Chapel Hill researchers awarded $3.6M for pediatric airway study

A National Institutes of Health grant will allow the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to move forward on development of computer models that will allow doctors to study how to treat children with upper respiratory problems.

The $3.6 million multidisciplinary grant will bring together medical doctors and physicists from the university. The grant will be applied to a study that began last fall and will take four years to complete. The researchers will develop computer models of a child’s airway. These models will allow doctors to determine which medical or surgical approaches are appropriate for children with specific upper respiratory conditions.

The UNC study will specifically focus on infants and children up to 10 years old with Pierre Robin sequence, a congenital condition characterized by a smaller than normal lower jaw, a tongue that falls back in the throat and difficulty breathing. The computer models can be applied to other airway problems as well.

Four additional sites were awarded similar grants and all of them will collaborate to share their findings.