Current Research
The Kawasaki Disease Research Center conducts cutting-edge basic and clinical research to advance the understanding of Kawasaki disease.
Adult KD Study
The team is collaborating with adult cardiologists at the University of California, San Diego and the San Diego Cardiac Center to learn more about the care and monitoring of adults who suffered from Kawasaki disease in childhood. To learn more about this study or to participate, please contact the study team at adultkd@ucsd.edu.
View the San Diego Adult KDCollaborative brochure.
KD Genetic Study
The team is studying the genes of patients with Kawasaki disease and their biologic parents to see how children are genetically predisposed to developing the disease. To learn more about this study and how to participate, email kdgenetics@ucsd.edu.
PATIENTS-SPECIFIC SIMULATIONS OF FLOW IN CORONARY ARTERY ANEURYSMS
We are collaborating with Dr. Alison Marsden and her team in Aerospace Engineering at UCSD to provide patient data from CT scans to enable model building that will help predict risk of clot formation in individual patients.
Genetics and Transcriptions of KD
An examination of KD patients’ DNA and comparison with DNA from their biologic parents can reveal the ways in which children are genetically predisposed to develop Kawasaki disease and coronary artery aneurysms. Study of RNA sequences (transcriptomics) informs us of the significance of changes in the DNA sequence. We are currently enrolling patients and their parents in this study. Please contact us if you would like to participate email kdgenetics@ucsd.edu.
- Shimizu C, Jain S, Lin KO, Molkara D, Frazer JR, Sun S, Baker AL, Newburger JW, Rowley AH, Shulman ST, Davila S, Hibberd ML, Burgner D, Breunis WB, Kuijpers TW, Wright VJ, Levin M, Popper SJ, Relman DA, Fury W, Lin C, Mellis S, Tremoulet AH, Burns JC. Transforming growth factor-β signaling pathway in patients with Kawasaki disease. Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics 2011;4:16-25.
- Khor CC, Davila S, Shimizu C, Sheng S, Matsubara T, Suzuki Y, Newburger JW, Baker A, Burgner D, Breunis W, Kuijpers T, Wright VJ, Levin M, Hibberd ML, Burns JC. Genome wide linkage and association mapping identify susceptibility alleles in ABCC4 for Kawasaki disease. In press, Journal of Medical Genetics. J Med Genet. 2011 Jul;48(7):467-472.
- Shimizu C, Matsubara T, Onouchi Y, Jain S, Sun S, Nievergelt CM, Shike H, Takegawa T, Furukawa, Akagi T, Newburger JW, Baker AL, Burgner D, Hibberd ML, Davila S, Levin M, Mamtani M, He W, Ahuja SK, Burns JC. Matrix metalloproteinases haplotypes are associated with coronary artery aneurysm formation in patients with Kawasaki disease. J Human Genetics 2010;55(12):779-84.
- Onouchi Y, Ozaki K, Buns JC, Shimizu C, Hamada H, Honda T, Terai M, Honda A, Takeuchi T, Shibuta S, Suenaga T, Suzuki H, Higashi K, Yasukawa K, Suzuki Y, Sasago K, Kemmotsu Y, Takatsuki S, Saji T, Yoshikawa T, Nagai T, Hamamoto K, Kishi F, Ouchi K, Sato Y, Newburger JW, Baker AL, Shulman ST, Rowley AH, Yashiro M, Nakamura Y, Wakui K, Fukushima Y, Fujino A, Tsunoda T, Kawasaki T, Hata A, Nakamura Y, Tanaka T. Common variants in CASP3 confer susceptibility to Kawasaki disease. Human Molecular Genetics. 2010;19: 2898-2906.
- Mamtani M, Matsubara T, Shimizu C, Weijing He, Furukawa S, Akagi T, Onouchi Y, Hata A, Fujino A, Ahuja SK, Burns J. Association of CCR2-CCR5 haplotypes and CCL3L1 copy number with Kawasaki disease, coronary artery disease, and therapy responses in Japanese children. PloS One 2010;5:e11458.
- Burgner D, Davila S, Breunis WB, Ng SB, Li Y, Bonnard C, Ling L, Wright VJ, Odam M, Shimizu C, Burns JC, Levin M, Kuijpers TW, Hibberd ML for the International Kawasaki Disease Genetics Consortium. A genome-wide association study identifies novel and functionally related susceptibility loci for Kawasaki disease. PloS Genetics. 2009 Jan:5(1):e1000319.
- Onouchi Y, Gunji T, Burns JC, Shimizu C, Newburger JW, Yashiro M, Nakamura Y, Yanagawa H, Wakui K, Fukushima Y, Kishi F, Hamamoto K, Terai M, Sato Y, Ouchi K, Saji T, Narai A, Kaburagi Y, Yoshikawa T, Suzuki K, Tanaka T, Nagai T, Cho H, Fujino A, Sekine A, Nakmuchi R, Tatsuhiko T, Kawasaki T, Nakamura Y, Hata A. IPTKC functional polymorphism associated with Kawasaki disease susceptibility and formation of coronary artery aneurysms. Nature Genetics 2008 Jan;40(1):35-42.