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The new building will add 20 labs and more than 800 staff, nearly doubling the hospital's research space. It will house researchers in Hematology/Oncology, Molecular Biology, Immunology, Transfusion Medicine, Ophthalmology, and two new programs, Vascular Biology and Stem Cell/Developmental Biology.

A cornerstone of the research expansion at Children's is the formation of six new Multidisciplinary Programs. The programs will encourage scientists from different fields to work side by side on research problems and attract top-flight researchers who want to work with diverse teams on the cutting edge of biomedical science.

As medical research has moved from a focus on organs to the cellular and molecular level, the number of scientific ''leads'' has exploded and researchers have had to master new skills and tools. As a result, traditional boundaries between academic departments (Vascular Biology and Neurology, for example) have begun to break down as researchers discover biological mechanisms and building blocks common to their respective disciplines.

Current areas of research include population differences in angiogenesis, development of blood and urine tests to detect early tumor angiogenesis, the role of mechanical stresses in vessel development, and studies of lymphatic vessels.

Program in Stem Cell/Developmental Biology - director to be named

Human development begins with stem cells, ''mother'' of all types of cells in the human body. Stem cells can develop into many kinds of mature, specialized and sub-specialized cells Ð which is why so many Children's researchers are studying them. The new multidisciplinary program will integrate the study of stem cells with the larger study of developmental medicine - looking at how the body's cells, tissues, and organs develop, starting at the time of conception. Housed in the New Research Building, the program will draw on scientists from various laboratories to continue studies of congenital abnormalities in different organs like the heart, the gastrointestinal tract, the kidneys, and the gonads.

It is anticipated that the new Stem Cell Program Director will recruit new scientists to the hospital who will ask translationally relevant questions -- letting us understand the basic biology of stem cells, as well as prepare the way for the clinical application of these cells.

Program in Neuroscience - Michael E. Greenberg, PhD, Director

Children's researchers:

• have uncovered the biological pathways that control how cells differentiate into brain cells, laying the groundwork for treating stroke and spinal cord injury.
• are exploring ways to genetically control the biochemical pathways that promote cell survival or lead to cell death, offering treatment possibilities for Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, epilepsy, and stroke.
• are studying the ''stop'' signals that prevent neurons from forming connections (synapses) with other neurons, offering the possibility of suppressing these signals so that neurons can regenerate to heal brain and spinal-cord injuries.
• are pioneering a sophisticated noninvasive technique for measuring blood flow in the newborn brain, known as near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). The technique can help guide interventions to prevent cerebral palsy in premature infants and brain injury during cardiac surgery, among other applications.
• have found a ''nurturing gene'' in mice, and are now asking whether they can find a way to treat people who abuse.

Program in Genomics - Louis Kunkel, PhD, Director

With the recent completion of the Human Genome Project - mapping the sequence of the 30,000-odd genes in human chromosomes - genetics is on its way to becoming an integral part of everyday clinical practice. At least 4,000 disorders are the result of genetic mutations, and approximately one-third of all admissions to pediatric hospitals and half of all children's deaths are due to genetic disorders.

The new Program in Genomics - which director Louis Kunkel, PhD, defines simply as ''genetic analysis on a very large scale'' -- will initially focus on collaborations on diseases such as autism, congenital heart defects and childhood obesity. Housed in the Enders building, Kunkel's team will collect genetic samples from the clinics seeing patients with these conditions and work closely with those departments to identify the genetic mechanisms behind them. They will use new tools such as gene chips that can measure the activity of thousands of genes simultaneously, and flag which ones are expressed, or turned on, and in which tissues, and identify which genes have mutations.

It was Kunkel who in 1987 discovered the elusive gene responsible for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and named the protein, dystrophin, that is lacking in people with this crippling neuromuscular disease.

• In 2001, Dr. Kunkel and colleagues from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center identified a region on chromosome 4 that is associated with exceptionally long life. People carrying these special genes live healthy lives beyond 100 years.
• In 2002, Drs. Scott Pomeroy and Todd Golub used the genomics technique of gene-expression profiling to identify different types of brain tumors and predict clinical outcomes for each type. Such profiling allows radiation and chemotherapy to be tailored to each patient.

Children's Hospital Informatics Program (CHIP) - Isaac S. Kohane, MD, PhD, Director

Biomedical informatics uses computational science to manage complex biomedical information. This emerging field represents the marriage of biology and medicine with computer science, statistics, and mathematical modeling. By applying bioinformatics techniques to their clinical and laboratory data, researchers are able to spot subtle, hard-to-see patterns that can lead to new genomic discoveries, spark new treatment approaches, stem disease outbreaks in their early stages, or flag geographic ''clusters'' of disease for further investigation.

Formerly a part of the Children's Hospital endocrinology department, CHIP's new multidisciplinary status acknowledges its central role to the hospital's research mission. Located in the Enders building, CHIP has already begun providing bioinformatics expertise to enhance research on diseases ranging from asthma to diabetes to cancer. Its investigators are currently working under 14 separate grants from the National Institutes of Health, and include physicians trained in information science and computer scientists with expertise in biology. Many of the program's faculty have double or triple training.

• The development of biosurveillance systems that crunch data from multiple institutions to detect unusual disease patterns (Proc Natl Acad Sci February 18, 2003). These systems are now being adapted to create a pilot national pediatric surveillance system as well as bioterrorism surveillance systems in New York and other cities.
• CHIP's Functional Genomics team helped researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center zero in on a group of genes involved in Type 2 diabetes (Proc Natl Acad Sci July 8, 2003).

Program in Tissue Engineering/Regenerative Medicine - director to be named The field of tissue engineering was pioneered by physician-scientists at Children's Hospital. This group - the only tissue engineering group in the world based at a pediatric hospital - created the first tissue-engineered product to go to the FDA (injectable chondrocytes) and the first tissue-engineered whole organ to be successfully implanted in animals (the bladder).

Human diseases are increasingly being seen as the result of a malfunctioning organ or tissue. The program's mission is to develop living replacement tissues and organs that will improve the health of children with congenital and acquired diseases -- as well as adults. The tissues and organs, grown from the patients' own cells, will grow with the patient and avoid the risk of rejection. Applications include replacement heart valves, bladders, and kidneys; cartilage for tracheas, the esophagus, and to replace joints eroded by arthritis; fat tissue to provide contours of the face or breast in plastic surgery; and smooth muscle and bone to heal orthopedic injuries.

• In 2002, Anthony Atala, MD, and colleagues published two studies in Nature Biotechnology reporting the development of functioning ''miniature kidneys'' using cells derived from cloned cow embryos that were implanted in adult cows. This achievement marked the first use of therapeutic cloning to grow genetically matched organs for transplantation.
• In the same year, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Mark Keating, MD, showed for the first time that zebrafish can regenerate heart muscle within two months after a severe injury.

Children's tissue engineering effort originated in the Surgery department (Bob Langer, now at MIT, and Jay Vacanti, now at Massachusetts General Hospital) with strong contributions from the laboratories of Dr. Atala in the Urology department; Don Ingber, MD, PhD in the departments of Surgery and Pathology; cardiovascular surgeon John Mayer, MD; and others. The new multidisciplinary program, located in the Enders building, will draw on materials scientists, molecular biologists, informatics experts, and clinical experts in surgery, cardiology, orthopedics, and other areas.