We are Researching

Our current project which is utilizing the funds donated by Courageously Nicole Foundation is being used to partly support investigation of outcomes of children and adolescents from all over the US and Canada who received a liver transplant for Autoimmune hepatitis with a special focus on race and ethnicity. Data analysis is currently underway, and we should have results to share with you
shortly.

Future research goals with include:

Investigations of the role of race and gender in the outcomes of children with Autoimmune hepatitis with a special focus on health disparities in African American/Black children

Nitika Arora Gupta MD DCH DNB MRCPH
Professor of Pediatrics,
Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
Emory University School of Medicine
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

My journey with Autoimmune hepatitis started with taking care of children, some as young as a few months old who were diagnosed with this disease. But it took on a different meaning when I met Nicole as her medical provider and walked with her through her trials and tribulations as she bravely faced the burden of this disease along with the extensive side effects of medications. What subsequently started as a small research study, revealed startling results: that African American children, particularly females, had a worse outcome of Autoimmune hepatitis despite receiving the same therapy as Caucasian children. This was a landmark study that has now left me asking the question: Why? What makes African American children more vulnerable to this disease despite receiving adequate treatment. And who could be a better partner to help answer this question than Nicole herself? Our foundation’s approach is to invest in high-quality research to better understand Autoimmune hepatitis in African American children particularly females. Our goal is to investigate the impact of race and ethnic background in response to standard treatment so that we can develop a personalized treatment approach to improve outcomes of African American children with Autoimmune hepatitis.

Learn more about Racial Disparities In AIH