| |
P. Ellen Grant, MD, MSc, has joined Children's Hospital Boston to develop and direct a new Center on Fetal-Neonatal Neuroimaging and Developmental Science. The center will develop advanced neuroimaging tools (both hardware and software) to track, quantify and characterize early brain development, improve early diagnosis of brain abnormalities and assess the effects of new therapies. The ultimate goal is to bring advanced technology to routine clinical practice and improve clinical care. Grant, also trained in theoretical physics, had been chief of Pediatric Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital since 2004.
Children's Technology Development Fund, created to foster new products for patient care, has made its first annual awards, totaling $1.2 million. Each project will be guided by an industry mentor.
Semaphorin 3F as a treatment for prostate cancer
Elena Geretti, PhD, and Michael Klagsbrun, PhD, Vascular Biology Program
Hand-held solution to coordinate Emergency Department care
Debra Weiner, MD, PhD, Emergency Medicine
Slow-release anti-angiogenic drug for treating eye diseases
Ofra Benny, PhD, and Robert D'Amato, MD, PhD, Vascular Biology
A topical cream to treat peripheral neuropathies
Gabriel Corfas, PhD, Neurobiology Program
Fetal tissue engineering to repair congenital diaphragmatic hernia
Dario Fauza, MD, Surgery
Pediatric vision scanner
David Hunter, MD, PhD, Ophthalmology
Urine diagnostic markers of acute appendicitis
Alex Kentsis, MD, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Richard Bachur, MD, Emergency Medicine, and Hanno Steen, PhD, Proteomics
Packaging oxygen for intravenous injection
John Kheir, MD, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit
Novel pneumococcal vaccine
Ying-Jie Lu, PhD, and Richard Malley, MD, Infectious Diseases
Development of chemical chaperones to treat obesity and type 2 diabetes
Umut Ozcan, MD, Endocrinology
Development of Saposin A as a cancer therapeutic
Randolph Watnick, PhD, Vascular Biology
Harvard Catalyst, a federally funded program meant to foster translation of laboratory findings to the clinic, awarded its first round of pilot grants in March, supporting a variety of Children's investigators. Visit the Catalyst website for more on the projects.
A repository of induced pluripotent stem cell lines from patients with immune deficiency diseases
Led by George Daley, MD, PhD, Hematology/Oncology, and Luigi Notarangelo, MD, Immunology
Development of angiopoietin-1 to protect heart patients from ischemia/reperfusion injury
Susan Dallabrida, PhD, Vascular Biology
A search for genetic variants in heart muscle that are involved in heart failure
William Pu, MD, Cardiovascular Research
Development of computer-game-based therapy for children with amblyopia, or lazy eye
David Hunter, MD, PhD, Ophthalmology
Clinical trial of bumetanide for seizures in newborns
Janet Soul, MD, Neurology
Clinical trial of insulin-like growth factor in Rett syndrome, a genetic form of autism in girls
Omar Khwaja, MD, PhD, Neurology
Study of Fragile X, an inherited form of mental retardation, using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to assess treatment effects
Jonathan Picker, MBChB, MD, Genetics
Strategies to prevent cytomegalovirus transmission through breast milk
Sallie Permar, MD, PhD, Infectious Diseases
Development of inhalable vaccines
Amit Srivastava, PhD, Pulmonary Medicine
Moses to serve as new Vascular Biology Program director
Marsha Moses, PhD, has been named director of the Vascular Biology Program at Children's, succeeding the late Judah Folkman, MD. Moses has a long-standing interest in the mechanisms regulating tumor progression and metastasis. A number of inhibitors of tumor growth discovered in her lab at Children's are in pre-clinical development for use in a variety of cancers. Moses is also a pioneer in the discovery and validation of biomarkers of cancer and its progression, with some of her markers now in clinical testing as non-invasive cancer diagnostics. She was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of the United States in 2008.
Neurobiology names new director
Clifford Woolf, MD, PhD, has been appointed director of the Neurobiology Program at Children's and the Richard J. Kitz Chair of Anesthesia Research at Harvard Medical School. Woolf and his lab, relocating from Massachusetts General Hospital, have focused their research on mechanisms of pain hypersensitivity and chronic neuropathic pain, neural regeneration and neural circuit formation. A principal faculty member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Woolf has been involved in the launch of two biotechnology companies and a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline. He succeeds long-time Neurobiology Director, Michael Greenberg, PhD, and Interim Director, Thomas Schwarz, PhD.
ACL repair technology licensed
Children's has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Connective Orthopaedics, Inc., for technology developed by orthopedic surgeon Martha Murray, MD, in the Division of Sports Medicine. Murray's laboratory research focuses on tears of the knee's anterior cruciate ligament (ACL); her goal is a minimally invasive procedure that stimulates ligament healing. Her technology could also be applied to other knee injuries and to injuries in the shoulder and other joints.
Fate Therapeutics licenses stem cell modulators
In May, Children's signed an exclusive license agreement with Fate Therapeutics, Inc. for rights to methods and compounds discovered in the laboratory of Leonard Zon, MD, for stimulating hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells and enhancing tissue regeneration. One compound, known as dmPGE2, is now in Phase I clinical testing in 24 adults receiving cord blood transplants for leukemia or lymphoma.
| |
|
|
