Gern treats children with a variety of allergic diseases. He is particularly interested in evaluating and treating children with recurrent wheezing and asthma.
Gern’s research group investigates the causes of childhood allergic diseases and asthma. His team uses birth cohort studies that measure early life exposures in different environments, including inner cities, suburban Madison, and Wisconsin farm country to define microbial exposure and colonization patterns. Through this work, the research team uses environmental exposures and measures of immune development to identify causative pathways. In 2016, Gern was awarded a grant as part of the NIH ECHO (Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes) program to identify early life environmental factors that promote childhood asthma. These translational studies are extended by several mechanistic studies that investigate the molecular virology of rhinovirus-C and interactions between rhinoviruses, bacteria, and airway epithelial cells.