 Featured Research
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The Neuron
Experiment with Children's virtual neuron to see what conditions are needed to make it fire and what happens when you connect it to other neurons. This interactive feature also provides step-through animations illustrating how electrical currents move through the cell and how it passes signals on to other neurons.
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How cancer grows and spreads
This animated Flash presentation illustrates the growth, progression and metastasis of carcinomas, the type of cancer that accounts for more than 90% of all cancer cases. Using the presentation's "roadmap," you'll be able to choose your own route as you travel from one possible cancer stage to the next.
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Virtual stem cell laboratory
Create red blood cells, muscle cells, neurons, and other types of specialized cells from an initial "culture" of embryonic stem cells. By adding factors to the cells, you can coax the cells into differentiating into new cell types, and you can find out what scientists know about the cells, including any known or potential therapeutic applications.
More Interactives...
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Transparent Zebrafish
Zebrafish are genetically similar to humans and are good models for human biology and disease. Now, researchers have created a zebrafish that is transparent throughout its life. The fish allows scientists to view its internal organs and observe processes such as tumor metastasis. In this video clip, you can see the fish's heart beat.
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Movie: Tumor cell repelling endothelial cells
Michael Klagsbrun, PhD, has made major contributions to the field of growth factors and their receptors, particularly those that regulate the vascular system. This movie, captured by Diane Bielenberg, PhD, of Dr. Klagsbrun's Lab, suggests that semaphorin-3F is an angiogenesis inhibitor.
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Animated Illustration: Lung development
Organ development requires precise coordination and timing of cell growth in three-dimensional space to produce the correct anatomic form and shape. Dr. Ingber and colleagues have demonstrated that the process of budding and branching in the developing lung is driven by mechanical forces generated within individual cells.
More Quick Hits...
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Non-coding DNA found to be important
Researchers led by Joel Hirschhorn, MD, PhD, have shown through computational analysis that conserved noncoding sequences (CNCs) aren't just filler, but contain functional bits of genetic sequence whose variation may contribute to human disease.
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Anti-cancer technologies licensed to genentech
Children's Hospital Boston has granted Genentech an exclusive license to anti-cancer technologies developed in the lab of Vascular Biology researcher Michael Klagsbrun, PhD. These technologies, involving a cell receptor called neuropilin, share a similar mechanism of action with the FDA-approved cancer treatment Avastin.
More Research Advances...
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Left to their own devices
A catheter with a flexible end that bends inside the fetal heart. An ultrasound imaging device to detect respiratory depression and apnea. An adjustable pillow that helps prevent flat head syndrome. These are a few of the items clinicians at Children's have developed to address the needs of pediatric patients. But bringing these devices to market is no easy matter.
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Genetic detectives
Children's geneticists are closely allied with a number of departments throughout the hospital, providing unique perspectives and expertise on various diseases and conditions that aren't necessarily available through traditional diagnostic tools. This article from Dream magazine highlights the work of Drs. Amy Roberts, Elizabeth Engle and Virginia Kimonis.
More from Dream magazine...
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A legacy of research and discovery
Since its founding in 1869, scientists at Children's Hospital Boston have been at the forefront of pioneering efforts to investigate and develop new treatments for a host of diseases and conditions -- heart defects, polio, kidney failure, and cancer, to name a few. Here's a brief history that highlights some of this work...
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Polio vaccine 50th anniversary
Children's Hospital Boston researchers Thomas Weller, Frederick Robbins and John Enders were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954 for their breakthrough discovery that led to the development of the polio vaccine. Find out about their work and the role Children's played in the fight against polio in this "Looking Back" feature.
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The ethics of stem cell research: A personal view
According to M. William Lensch -- a post-doctoral fellow working with George Daley in Children's stem cell program -- it's perhaps impossible to work in the field of stem cell research without becoming involved in the political and ethical debate. In this article, Lensch gives his view.
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