Boston Children's Research

Len Zon, MD, director of our Stem Cell Research program, was recently featured by Muhlenberg College, his alma mater, in an article, related video, and podcast. 👏 Zon describes developing a taste for research as a chemistry major at Muhlenberg and his work today studying cancer and blood disorders in zebrafish. Watch the video, then click through to the full feature and podcast 👇

Warm congratulations to Jhullian Alston, PhD, for his selection to the HHMI’s Hanna H. Gray Fellows program. 👏 The program seeks to increase diversity in academic science by supporting exceptional early-career researchers. Dr. Alston, in the lab of Taekjip Ha, PhD, will receive up to $1.5 million over the course of up to eight years. Using single-molecule techniques and computational biophysics, he is exploring the chemistry and function of intrinsically disordered proteins — those lacking a well-defined 3D structure — aiming to find ways to target them with drugs. Learn more about this fellowship 👇 Photo: Scott Eisen / AP Images for HHMI

Congratulations to Leslie Benson, MD, assistant director of our Neuroimmunology Center. 👏 As part of a multicenter study on pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis (POMS), she and her colleagues found that social hardships — such as low or no household income and lack of insurance — were associated with a younger age at POMS symptom onset, as well as a shorter time to second event. “We are just starting to explore the link between social determinants of health and pediatric onset multiple sclerosis,” says Benson. “While we were happy to find our cohort did not have a delay in disease modifying treatment, there seem to be complex ties with development of the disease. We are likely just scratching the surface.” The paper was published in Neurology 👇

We have so much to celebrate this year, from groundbreaking fetal surgeries to life-changing gene therapies. That’s why we keep working around the clock with one common goal: to give children everywhere the chance for a healthy today — and tomorrow. We can’t wait to show you what’s next! 💙

Congratulations to our own Jordan Farrell for being a CURE Epilepsy award recipient!

Ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA) has long been used as a safe and effective way to evaluate thyroid nodules in adults, usually without sedation. Now, research from Ari Wassner, MD, and others in our Thyroid Center offers powerful evidence that this approach is safe for pediatric patients, too. 👇

How has the standard of care evolved over the last 10 years for status epilepticus, including disparities in timely access to treatment? Learn more from Jennifer Gettings from the Division of Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology and others in this Lancet Neurology literature review. 👇

Athletes often warm up just before they are about to perform, yet similar "just-in-time" training is rare to non-existent in medicine. A recent randomized clinical trial led by Stephen Flynn and others in the Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine found that coaching inexperienced anesthesiology trainees just before intubating an infant increased their first attempt success rate while adding little burden to the coaching team. The results, published this week in BMJ, provide a proof of concept that could be applied to other high-risk procedures. 👇

mRNA vaccines clearly saved lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, but older people had a somewhat reduced immune response to the vaccines compared with younger adults. Why? Boston Children’s researchers, led by Byron Brook, PhD, and Ofer Levy, MD, PhD, found some answers, while providing proof-of-concept of a new system called MEMPHIS that can model immune responses to vaccines in a dish, potentially expediting efforts to make vaccines even more effective. Learn more about this technology 👇

The new gene therapies for sickle cell disease, such as Casgevy, have been game-changing for the patients that receive them. But Stuart Orkin, whose work led the way to Casgevy, isn’t done yet: He wants a pill that could be made widely available. In work just published in Science, his lab has opened the way to destabilizing the target molecule, BCL11A, pharmaceutically, so that people can make non-sickling fetal hemoglobin. Learn more on our blog 👇