{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Thriving Against The Odds: Dr. Amanda Hall on Short Gut Syndrome","description":"In the heart of the Health Sciences Building, Dr. Amanda Hall studies a tray of organoids under a microscope. \u201cThey do need a lot of attention and a lot of feeding,\u201d she said, pointing to dot-like points in a gel solution.  The pediatric surgeon and assistant professor of pediatric general surgery will use those dots to identify factors that help infants overcome short gut syndrome. The rare condition affects roughly 24 in every 100,000 babies born in Canada, presenting a profound challenge for infants born with insufficient intestinal length or compromised absorptive capacity. \u201cIt\u2019s a very, very long, difficult road,\u201d said Hall. \u201cOften they\u2019re stuck in hospital and there\u2019s no progress happening, so definitely [families] want another option.\u201d   Hall\u2019s interest in medicine dates back to the late 1990s in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, and a family TV with three channels. In elementary school, she remembered faithfully recording the reality show Life\u2019s Little Miracles, where a camera crew followed patients at Toronto\u2019s Hospital for Sick Children. \u201cThey\u2019d actually go into the operating room and film the surgeries, which was amazing,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I wanted to do.\u201d   After she was accepted to the University of Saskatchewan\u2019s College of Medicine, Hall met Dr. Grant Miller and Dr. Gordon Zello during her second year of residency. To become a pediatric surgeon, she had to earn her master\u2019s degree, and Miller took the graduate student under his wing, focusing on parenteral nutrition-associated liver disease in infants. \u201cI just loved research,\u201d said Hall. \u201cI loved the struggle, the unending nights of work, then finally that amazing feeling when you see numbers that make sense.\u201d It was the beginning of Hall\u2019s deep-dive into the intricacies of the human gut.   Right now, half of infants diagnosed with short gut syndrome get better on their own, with the help of intravenous nutrition. A few undergo complex bowel transplants, but close to 38 per cent succumb to the disease. \u201cThey would have what we call failure to thrive,\u201d said Hall. \u201cThey don\u2019t gain weight, they have uncontrollable diarrhea, they might have vomiting.\u201d In this episode, Hall takes us inside her lab to meet her miniature, spherical organs, cultivated from stem cells, mimicking the intricate structure of the human intestine. \u201cDefinitely you become attached to them. They require a lot of work, a lot of time, and a lot of expense,\u201d Hall said. Hall is exploring the potential benefits of breast milk and probiotics in encouraging growth inside these mini intestines. From there, she hopes to identify specific components that could accelerate the recovery of infants suffering from short gut syndrome. \u201cWe know that breast milk \u2026. helps with our immune function, helps with the actual integrity of the bowel. I\u2019m curious to know does it actually help the bowel grow faster?\u201d   For families grappling with the challenges of short gut syndrome, Hall's work offers a beacon of hope. \u201cThe idea of finding a universal cure is not very realistic,\u201d said Hall. \u201cBut if we can start identifying different factors to help and improve the process, that\u2019ll be very important.\u201d She says a multitude of factors affect short gut syndrome, and some drugs are already in development. \u201cThere\u2019s definitely hope on the horizon,\u201d she said. ","author_name":"Researchers Under the Scope","author_url":"https:\/\/medicine.usask.ca\/research\/index.php#ConnectWithUs","html":"