CSO Perspectives: CHOP Research Annual Report 2015 - The Future Is Here - Don't Miss It

By Bryan A. Wolf, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and Director of the Research Institute

Scientific minds are imagining. Sophisticated machines are harnessing genetic data. An invisible universe of microbes is revealing new insights into disease. Discoveries are changing children’s worlds. Every second of every day is filled with wonder at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute. Our Annual Report captures many of these moments and shares how they contributed to our tremendous success in 2014-2015.

For the first time, our Annual Report features an impressive video introduction. You will see how the pioneering work of our investigators, whether in the laboratory or the clinic, has improved the lives of countless children everywhere. And you will hear why I am so enthusiastic about leading our team of scientific innovators into the next era of pediatric healthcare.

In all, the Annual Report includes 50 insightful articles organized into sections: The Future, Leadership, Collaboration, Discovery, Inspiration, Innovation, Commitment, Dedication, and Facts & Figures. From the discovery of a new disease called CHOPS Syndrome to accolades for our scientific experts’ career accomplishments, take some time to celebrate the Research Institute’s amazing accomplishments. Here a few highlights to get you started:

• Scientists participating in the new PennCHOP Microbiome Program have extraordinary research opportunities to explore the trillions of organisms that are within us — or on us — and how these microscopic communities can sway our health.
• In past decades, a major focus of pediatric HIV research was blocking viral transmission to infants before and after birth. Now that successful therapeutic strategies are available to prevent perinatal transmission, there is a new frontier in pediatric HIV research: Adolescents.
• Beverly Davidson, PhD, director of the Raymond G. Perelman Center for Cellular & Molecular Therapeutics, is studying a new gene transfer therapy to give families facing LINCL-Batten disease, which robs young children of their capabilities, a better future.
• Patient monitors generate so many false alarms that clinicians lose trust in them. Attending physician Christopher Bonafide, MD, MSCE, and his patient safety research team created a video research lab to study this problem and come up with creative solutions.
• Studying a family in which three generations had blood disorders, researchers discovered a defect in a gene that regulates telomeres, complex chromosomal structures with crucial roles in normal cell function.
• The Fetal Neuroprotection and Neuroplasticity Program at CHOP launched in June builds upon growing evidence of the interaction of heart disease and brain development in the fetus.
• Find out how a curious researcher contemplating a seemingly unsolvable patient case can reach out to another investigator on the opposite side of the world studying a patient with a similar genetic makeup. Working together, in a matter of minutes they can pinpoint the genetic mutations that may explain the rare disease that their patients have in common.

Read these and many more articles in the CHOP Research Annual Report 2015. Indeed, the future is here.