Clinical trials

The Gastroenterology, Liver and Nutrition Program at Children's Wisconsin is dedicated to furthering research that could lead to better treatments for kids. You can help.

Not only does we see patients from around the world, but we're also dedicated to advancing research aimed at improving treatments and outcomes in children with chronic disease. You can help.

There’s still much we don’t know about the complex GI problems that can affect children. That’s why Children’s Wisconsin invites patients and their families to participate in important clinical trials led by our own researchers and our partners at leading pediatric programs around the nation. These studies give our patients access to cutting-edge new treatments while yielding important insights into what causes these conditions in the first place.

Safety is our top priority, and our Institutional Review Board carefully reviews every clinical study.

Recent clinical trials have included:

• Genetic prevalence of congenital sucrase-isomaltase deficiency
• Improving nutrient intake and growth in children with multiple food allergies
• Treatment of C. difficile infection with fecal microbiota transplantation
• Genetic analysis of children with cyclic vomiting syndrome and migraines
• Genetic markers as predictors of phenotypes in pediatric-onset Crohn’s disease
• Role of sleep and melatonin in children with chronic abdominal pain

Current research

In collaboration with the Medical College of Wisconsin, Children’s Wisconsin’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program team continues to get involved in national and regional research studies. This allows patients to get involved in advancing science and improving our understanding of the disease, and helping develop new treatment options. Some examples of our research are: 

• National registries – This can range from answering questionnaires, to blood or tissue samples, or helping track disease activity across the country. 
• Genetics and tissue banking – Collecting blood or tissue to determine how the disease is passed through families and if there are changes over time. 
• Microbiome – Stool collection to find a connection between what is in the stool and the disease activity. 
• Drug and treatment trials – This ranges from testing the effectiveness and safety of relatively new medications to continuing to survey well-established medications. 
• Immunological testing – Looking for patterns of abnormal immune system function among patients with IBD.

Want to get involved? Find a list of all the current studies at Children’s Research Institute
or learn more about research at Children’s Wisconsin:

• Overview of infection, inflammation and immunity research at Children’s Research Institute 
• Why pediatric research matters