Pain is an unpleasant physical experience that if left untreated can lead to functional impairment and clinical decline. Health care professionals who work with children have an especially difficult task when it comes to assessment of pain, particularly when children are experiencing acute or chronic pain. Pain is particularly difficult to deal with when it becomes long lasting and when no identifiable cause is found. This is the case in up to 20% of middle school and high school children in the United States who suffer from chronic abdominal pain of childhood termed functional gastrointestinal disorders, often described as recurrent abdominal pain (RAP). RAP can be now defined into several subsets including functional dyspepsia, functional abdominal pain syndrome, and irritable bowel syndrome by new diagnostic criteria. These are all conditions that have pain as their predominant feature with no obvious biologic marker being found, including histology, and are distinguished by their associated location of discomfort within the gastrointestinal tract and often negative findings on history, physical examination, and diagnostic evaluation. Another common cause of abdominal pain in children is inflammatory bowel disorders (IBD). Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis are the two main forms of IBD in children often associated with severe cramping and bloody stools. In these conditions, there is an obvious inflammatory condition to the mucosa and the diagnosis is confirmed both clinically and with accented histological finding. There has been speculation that pediatric functional gastrointestinal disorders and IBD are at opposite ends of the spectrum of degrees of inflammation to the gastrointestinal tract; one being at the level of neurotransmission receptors of serotonin and one with grossly bloody stools. In summary, assessment of pediatric functional gastrointestinal disorders is challenging as the etiology of the pain is unknown and no clear biomarker is available to aid in diagnosis. The goal of these applications is to identify genetic or other factors that predict clinical outcomes.

Come and be a part of a collaborative translational research team with experts from gastroenterology, hepatology, nutrition, oncology, biology, and bio-statistics. Our team is dedicated to developing novel treatments and non-invasive interventions to improve and better understand pediatric gastrointestinal disorders. True bench to bedside research is aimed at linking the biologic/physiologic factors to patient-related outcomes. Our protocols are aimed at discovery of the main biologic patterns and pathways that lead to unknown etiologies.


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The mission of NINR is to promote and improve the health of individuals, families, communities, and populations. NINR supports and conducts clinical and basic research and research training on health and illness across the lifespan. The research focus encompasses health promotion and disease prevention, quality of life, health disparities, and end-of-life. NINR seeks to extend nursing science by integrating the biological and behavioral sciences, employing new technologies to research questions, improving research methods, and developing the scientists of the future.