Binita Kamath

Administrative Assistant: Sherry Joy, sherry.joy@sickkids.ca

Research Synopsis

Dr. Kamath’s primary interest is Alagille syndrome, a multi-system disease with cholestasis associated with bile duct paucity – she aims to understand the phenotypic manifestations, genotype-phenotype relationships and natural history of Alagille syndrome.  
 
She established collaborations with Dr. Gordon Keller and Dr. Anand Ghanekar to develop a highly innovative protocol to differentiate cholangiocytes from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Her goal is to derive patient-derived cholangiocytes, which can be used to study disease mechanisms of developmental biliary disorders, in order to understand complex biliary diseases, and in the future, for drug screening.
 
She subsequently established an independent laboratory and is currently applying this differentiation protocol from iPSCs derived from patients with Alagille syndrome, and using this technology to study syndromic biliary atresia. 

The Kamath lab's focus is a novel area of study to assess the concept of frailty in children awaiting liver transplantation. Frailty is a validated measure of debilitation in the elderly, which is correlated with significant morbidity and mortality. Adult data reveal that frailty measures elements of morbidity in patients awaiting a liver transplantation that are not captured in laboratory evaluations or current organ allocation scoring systems. They are conducting additional studies to explore the biologic correlate of frailty in children and sarcopenia.