Christina B. Ching

Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Ohio State University

Christina B. Ching is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatric Urology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a Principle Investigator in the Center for Clinical and Translational Research in the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Her primary research interest is in the role of the urothelium in innate immunity. She was recently granted a NIDDK-supported K08 award looking at the role of IL-6 signaling in urinary tract infection susceptibility. Her goal is to understand more about the host response to injury, such as infection, which could lead to better diagnostics, treatments, and preventions of urinary tract pathology.

John D. Spencer

Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University College of Medicine

John David Spencer MD is a physician-scientist and Chief of Nephrology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University College of Medicine. The objective of Dr. Spencer’s research program is to define the role of innate immunity and antimicrobial peptides in the regulation and prevention of urinary tract infection (UTI). Specifically, his research focuses on the function and regulation of antimicrobial proteins in the Ribonuclease A Superfamily. The Spencer laboratory has demonstrated that peptides in this family, including Ribonuclease 4, 6, and 7, are potent, novel, and may play a critical role in shielding the urothelium from invading pathogens. These findings are significant because treatment strategies for acute and recurrent UTI are limited. Moreover, antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria is increasing and antibiotics are subsequently becoming less effective. By identifying how antimicrobial peptides prevent UTI, we can begin to develop therapeutic strategies that leverage the body’s endogenous immune defenses as therapeutic targets for novel UTI treatment and prevention strategies.