UH Rainbow Receives Grants from the Society of Critical Care Medicine to Study Severe Bronchiolitis

CLEVELAND – University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s has received two grants from the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) to study both the pathobiological factors and mechanistic underpinnings underlying severe bronchiolitis and sepsis, two of the most common diagnoses seen in children.

The findings are expected to help pave the way for more precise diagnosis and targeted treatment of these diseases, which currently have no proven treatments beyond supportive care and antimicrobials. The grants from the SCCM, the largest non-profit medical organization dedicated to promoting excellence and consistency in the practice of critical care, total a combined $150,000.

SCCM awards the “SCCM-Discovery Research Grant” each year. For 2025, this was awarded to support the study called “Refining Immune Heterogeneity in Pediatric Critical Bronchiolitis.” Led by principal investigators Kenneth E. Remy, MD, MHSc, MSCI, FCCM, and Steven L. Shein, MD, FCCM, the study will fill in knowledge gaps around the biological pathways of bronchiolitis to more precisely pinpoint the severity of disease in patients and better predict specific treatment responses and clinical outcomes.

“To date, no medications have demonstrated sufficient evidence to support routine use in bronchiolitis patients, particularly among the estimated 20 percent who require admission to pediatric intensive care units (PICU), although inconsistent data suggest steroids may be an effective treatment for select patients,” says Dr. Remy, Director of the Division of Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine Basic Science and Translational Critical Care Research at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, and Co-Director for Clinical, Basic Science, and Translational Critical Care Research in the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s. Dr. Remy is also the Ellery Sedgwick, Jr. Chair and Distinguished Scientist in Cardiovascular Research and Inaugural Director of the Blood, Heart, Lung, and Immunology Research center of CWRU and UH.

“Additional research, such as that being funded by the SCCM, is needed to best assess illness severity and determine the most effective treatment interventions for achieving the best possible clinical outcomes in patients,” adds Dr. Remy.

Together, Drs. Remy and Shein are working to define functional immune endotypes, the biological pathways or mechanisms that underly bronchiolitis and contribute to its severity. They seek to refine the understanding of disease heterogeneity over time in immunosuppressive or hyperinflammatory phenotypes, and their bio-physiological mechanisms, and intend to identify immunomodulatory molecules that effectively restore normal immunity against these endotypes.

In addition to the $100,000 grant, the SCCM awarded Monty Mazer, MD, a $50,000 2025 SCCM-Weil Research Grant for his proposed study of the “Role of LAG-3 and Tim-3 expression on T cells in patients with sepsis-induced immunosuppression.” Dr. Mazer received one of five Weil research grants awarded nationally. He and his mentor, Dr. Remy, will serve as the study’s principal investigators to investigate how overexpression of LAG-3, Tim-3, or both, contribute to the development of sepsis-induced immunosuppression, leading to poor clinical outcomes.

LAG-3 and Tim-3 are "immune checkpoint proteins" and are expressed under conditions of significant stress, such as cancer and sepsis and inhibit the function of T cells, possibly limiting the body’s ability to fight off severe infections. Better understanding the function of LAG-3 and Tim-3 and how they suppress immune activity will provide a basis for developing more targeted therapies to more effectively treat sepsis patients, particularly those with severe disease. Dr. Remy adds that “Dr. Mazer is a promising junior investigator that will revolutionize evaluation of new mechanisms in pediatric and adult sepsis for development of new therapeutics. A true asset to UH.”

The 2025 SCCM grant recipients were honored at the 2025 Society of Critical Care Medicine’s Annual Congress in Orlando Florida this past February. The collaborative research projects funded by the SCCM build upon the development of the Northeast Ohio Pediatric Critical Care Translational Research Consortium started by Drs. Remy and Shein in 2023 to advance translational PICU Research in Northeast Ohio. This state-of-the-art and novel consortium leverages Dr. Remy’s laboratory and Dr. Shein’s extensive data science background to create a new home to conduct cutting edge pediatric critical care studies in Northeast Ohio at UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, Akron Children’s Hospital, Metrohealth, and Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital. Leveraging this network and this new research will close critical knowledge gaps, increase collection of data on both innate and adaptive markers of immune alteration, and pave the way for the design of targeted clinical trials.

SCCM supports research and education, and advocates on issues related to critical care. The Society has over 35,000 members worldwide, and the research section has over 4,000 section members. A central component of the Society's mission is the support of quality-based improvement initiatives and the support of multi-professional research at all levels. The Research Section supports research development among Society members and promotes communication about opportunities and networks. This is the first time a single institution was awarded both research grants since the inception of the Society.