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Tracie L. Miller, M.D., Earns Micah Batchelor Children’s Research Award

12/1/2006

Tracie L. Miller, M.D., professor of pediatrics and director of the Division of Pediatric Clinical Research received the prestigious Micah Batchelor Award for Excellence in Children’s Health Research for her research project on Pediatric HIV, during a special award ceremony and dinner at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine on November 30, 2006.

The Micah Batchelor Award for Excellence in Children’s Health Research was established by the late George E. Batchelor, a renowned aviation entrepreneur and philanthropist, in memory of his grandson, Micah. Started with a $5 million endowment, each year at least $300,000 is awarded to a Miller School of Medicine investigator conducting research in children’s diseases and working in the Batchelor Children’s Research Institute. This is one of the largest awards nationally for children’s health research.

“The Batchelor Foundation and family express our sincere congratulations to Dr. Tracie Miller as the recipient of this prestigious award,” says Sandy Batchelor, trustee of the Batchelor Foundation. “It is our hope that through her research, she will bring hope to the many children and families who suffer because of pediatric HIV.”

The Micah Batchelor Award will allow Dr. Miller and her team to perform a study to understand the extent of blood vessel inflammation and disease in children infected with HIV, and to test a possible treatment intervention.

“I’m so grateful for this generous award, which will allow me to move forward with my research,” says Miller. “We know HIV-infected children can have high lipid levels and some are diabetic or in a pre-diabetic condition. There have been very few studies that investigate if these children have diseases of their blood vessels that may also cause them to have a heart attack or stroke earlier than expected. Once we understand if blood vessel disorders are present in HIV-infected children and if these abnormalities respond to a structured exercise program, then we will be able to design rational, community- or pharmacology-based interventions in the future.”

UM Department of Pediatrics faculty members who conduct research at the Batchelor Children’s Research Institute are eligible to apply for the research grant.  This year, 11 proposals were reviewed by seven other UM faculty members, and by a team of 15 outside reviewers, all nationally and internationally known in pediatrics—seven of them are chairmen or chairmen emeritus of pediatric departments across the nation. The grant proposals were judged in three areas:  the quality of the scientific proposal; the importance of the research to the health of children; and the contribution of the individual researcher to the health of children.

“All of the researchers who submitted proposals will receive the comments from the reviewers in an effort to prepare their proposals for submission to the National Institutes of Health or for other funding sources,” says Steven Lipshultz M.D. professor and chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the Miller School of Medicine. “All but two of the external reviewers participate in NIH study sessions, so their feedback is very valuable to our doctors. Our department is thrilled to be able to contribute this cutting-edge research to improve the health of children locally and around the world, and this will continue, by the commitment and dedication of these talented pediatric investigators and the community partnership and vision of the Batchelor Foundation and others.”