When JoAnne and Trent Neely look at their 7-year-old daughter, Avery, they see the gift of her being a happy, energetic, normal kid.

And just like other kids her age, she can dance around, play catch and make crafts to her parents' delight, thanks to the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

The institute, renamed and dedicated on Tuesday in honor of one of its biggest benefactors and longtime supporters, hosted a 2014 clinical trial that made it possible for Avery to get a stem cell graft that ensures the vessels that supply her heart with blood will grow with her.

Born with a complex heart defect, half of her heart doesn't work. Avery had three surgeries by the age of 3, and her parents hope the last one will prevent the need for her to have any more.

The Lewis Center couple wasn't sure at first when they heard the idea of taking stem cells from their young daughter's hip to create the graft in her heart. But they ultimately decided to go for it, said JoAnne Neely, 42.



"Looking at the benefits that could come of it and being part of research down the road that could help others" were the key factors in their decision to try it, she said. "Not only is it hope for us, it's hope for other families on this journey."

The family is one of the many who have been affected by the research at the ever-growing facility.

The institute has three buildings occupying 525,000 square feet and a fourth building is in the works. That building is slated to be about 250,000 square feet and open in 2022, said Dr. John Barnard, the research institute's president.

Though planning for the new building is just beginning, Barnard said, it will accommodate expansions of several of the institute's programs and clinical trials, including the genomics, gene therapy and tissue engineering programs. There also will be room for more clinical trials and research, he said.

Among the work that takes place inside the institute's walls is research on cancer, heart disorders like Avery's, infectious diseases, premature births, tissue engineering and muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy, Barnard said. And people like Abigail Wexner, who has been on the hospital's board of directors for more than 25 years, make the work possible, he said.

"What more important work can you do than improving family's lives and saving kids?" Wexner asked at Tuesday's dedication celebration. "I think of it not only as a privilege but as a calling."

Barnard said she has helped motivate the institute to grow and its staff to work harder and reach farther.

"Over the past 20-plus years Mrs. Wexner has been a huge driving force for change on our campus," Barnard said. "Her and her family have also been very generous benefactors ... (This is) a designation befitting of what she's done."

On a short tour of one of the research buildings at the dedication event, Barnard, Abigail and Les Wexner, hospital CEO Steve Allen and Wexner family friend Walter Isaacson, a history professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, learned about work going on inside the Institute for Genomic Medicine at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute.

Elaine R. Mardis, co-executive director of the Genomic Medicine institute, showed the group around, explaining some of the cutting-edge work being done there, including rapid DNA-sequencing equipment being tested for patients in the neonatal intensive-care unit.

"This (machine) can sequence the whole genome of mom, dad and baby from the Neonatal ICU in 25 hours," Mardis said, with the whole process of determining the order of a person's genes — and how they can potentially be used to prevent disease — being done in 48 hours compared with the weeks that it might normally take.

"This genomic research we're able to do now is going to change the outcome for kids," Abigail Wexner said. "It may prevent enormous difficulties for kids down the road."

Dr. Jerry Mendell, a Nationwide Children's neurologist who has dedicated his career to finding a cure for muscular disorders, also has helped to prevent difficulties for children, namely those with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy. The hereditary disease progressively destroys muscles and generally kills by age 20.

Mendell was recognized Tuesday as the first recipient of a new award named after Allen. The award recognizes a senior researcher who "exemplifies innovation."

"Along with a formidable team, he's assembled advanced treatments for muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy in ways that are just paradigm shifting. They actually have the potential to save lives," Barnard said.

JoAnne and Trent Neely, who attended the luncheon honoring Wexner and Mendell, described Nationwide Children's as "always looking forward."

Trent Neely first saw an article in the hospital newsletter about the treatment Avery ended up getting, and he talked with her doctors about it.

"It was something that was improving upon current technologies," said Trent Neely, 42.

As for the luncheon and the dedication, the couple was grateful.

"We feel honored to be a part of this," he said. "Without (donors), it wouldn't happen."

dking@dispatch.com

@DanaeKing