News

11/16/09 - Largest Gene Study of Childhood IBD Finds 5 New Genes - Findings Linked to a Key Molecule Active in GI Inflammation
In the largest, most comprehensive genetic analysis of childhood-onset inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), an international research team has identified five new gene regions, including one involved in a biological pathway that helps drive the painful inflammation of the digestive tract that characterizes the disease.

A research team led by Hakon Hakonarson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Applied Genomics at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, says that the findings advance the scientific understanding of how IBD develops - Read More.

10/24/09 - One Shot of Gene Therapy and Children with Congenital Blindness Can Now See
Born with a retinal disease that made him legally blind, and would eventually leave him totally sightless, the nine-year-old boy used to sit in the back of the classroom, relying on the large print on an electronic screen and assisted by teacher aides. Now, after a single injection of genes that produce light-sensitive pigments in the back of his eye, he sits in front with classmates and participates in class without extra help. In the playground, he joins his classmates in playing his first game of softball - Read More.

10/19/09 - New National Study of Crash-Involved Children Reaffirms Recommendations for Booster Seat Through Age 8
A study released today in Pediatrics by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia offers updated evidence that children ages 4 to 8 who are restrained in the rear seat of a car in a belt-positioning booster seat are 45 percent less likely to be injured in a crash compared with children using a seat belt alone. Furthermore, the study showed there was no difference in the level of protection offered by backless versus high back booster seats. Of those riding in booster seats, children involved in side-impact crashes saw the greatest reduction in injury risk - Read More.

10/9/09 - Gene Data Tool Advances Prospects for Personalized Medicine
A sophisticated computational algorithm, applied to a large set of genetic markers, has achieved greater accuracy than conventional methods in assessing individual risk for type 1 diabetes. 

A research team led by Hakon Hakonarson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Applied Genomics at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, suggests that their technique, applied to appropriate complex multigenic diseases, improves the prospects for personalizing medicine to an individual's genetic profile. The study appears in the October 9 issue of the online journal PLoS Genetics - Read More.

9/18/09 - Children's Hospital Celebrates Its Donors
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia announced the close of the Hope Lives Here fundraising campaign with a reception to honor Children's Hospital's most dedicated supporters - Read More.

8/24/09 - Research Consortium Advances Understanding of Cervical Spine Injuries in Children Involved in Motor Vehicle Crashes
New research published this month in the journal Injury finds that while fatal cervical spine injuries to children in motor vehicle crashes are rare, they are more commonly seen in girls, in children who were restrained in passenger restraints, and in children who also suffered traumatic brain injury due to
the crash - Read More.

7/29/09 - Neuroblastoma Research Advances Highlighted in Philadelphia Inquirer
John Maris has spent more than 20 years trying to understand why some children get an often-fatal cancer called neuroblastoma. There was no obvious environmental factor, and a genetic variation seemed to be involved. But how to find it?

Then, he and his colleagues at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia got the chance to try something that would have been unimaginable just a few years earlier: Scan the DNA of hundreds of children stricken with the disease and compare it with DNA from thousands of healthy children in a control group - Read More.

7/29/09 - Diabetes Gene Raises Odds of Lower Birth Weight 
Pediatric researchers have found that a gene previously shown to be involved in the development of type 2 diabetes also predisposes children to having a lower birth weight. The finding sheds light on a possible genetic influence on how prenatal events may set the stage for developing diabetes in later childhood or adulthood - Read More.

7/15/09 - New Map of Genomic Variation Will Enable Disease Research
Genetics researchers have unveiled a powerful new resource for scientists and health providers studying human illnesses -- a reference standard of deletions and duplications of DNA found in the human genome. Drawn from over 2,000 healthy persons, the study provides one of the deepest and broadest sets of copy number variations (CNVs) available to date, along with a new research tool for diagnosing and identifying genetic problems in patients - Read More.

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