Research

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bone marrow failure research bertuch lab

Research at Texas Children’s Hospital, the largest children’s hospital in the United States, is conducted primarily at four facilities: Feigin Center, the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (NRI), Children’s Research Center (CRC) and the Children’s Nutrition Research Center (CNRC). Texas Children’s is affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine and is its primary pediatric clinical training site.

Research at Texas Children’s Hospital, spans more than 800 active clinical trials, over 800,000 square feet of laboratory space, and one of the largest and most diverse pediatric patient populations in the country.

With funding of more than $115 million annually, over 120 Texas Children's and Baylor College of Medicine principal investigators are conducting over 1,000 clinical, basic science, and translational research projects at any given moment.The hospital has garnered widespread recognition for its expertise and breakthrough developments in the treatment of a variety of pediatric health conditions.

Research at Texas Children's is conducted in four major centers -

  • The Feigin Tower  Houses most of the research labs engaged in basic and clinical pediatrics research.
     
  • The Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital (NRI) 
    A one-of-a-kind basic science research institute devoted to understanding neurological diseases.
     
  • The Children's Nutrition Research Center (CNRC) 
    A unique cooperative venture between Texas Children's Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine and the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Service.
     
  • The Clinical Research Center (CRC)
    Provides a clinical research infrastructure for investigators who want to conduct patient-oriented clinical research at Texas Children’s Hospital.

Our recent discoveries

Promising approach to mitigate complications of leukemia treatment (October 6, 2022)

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions have engineered immune cells to control two major life-threatening complications, namely graft-vs-host disease (GvHD) and cancer relapse, which typically emerge after treating leukemia with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT).


Researchers identify an Achilles’ heel in neuroblastoma (Baylor College of Medicine - August 16, 2022)


A faster, less expensive approach identifies highly specific anti-cancer compounds (Baylor College of Medicine - June 7, 2022)


Molecular profiling identifies new high-risk subtype of pediatric liver cancer (Baylor College of Medicine - May 24, 2022)


Athenex, Texas Children’s Cancer Center, and the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine present new clinical data on GD2 CAR-NKT cells in neuroblastoma at ASGCT Annual Meeting (May 18, 2021)

Athenex, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATNX), a global biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel therapies for the treatment of cancer and related conditions, led by its Orascovery platform, today announced that investigators from Texas Children’s Cancer Center and the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine presented new clinical data from the ongoing GINAKIT2 phase 1 study of Athenex’s cell therapy candidate KUR-501 targeting GD2 in neuroblastoma at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) 24th Annual Meeting.


NCI-COG Pediatric MATCH study shows benefit of genetic screening in refractory tumors (Baylor College of Medicine - April 4, 2022)


New study shows “Living Drug” can provide a lasting cure for cancer (Leaps - March 23, 2022)


Biological E Ltd gets approval to start Phase III clinical trial of its COVID vaccine candidate developed at Texas Children's Hospital's Center for Vaccine Development (April 27, 2021)

Biological E. Limited (BE), a Hyderabad-based vaccine and pharmaceutical company, today announced that it has successfully completed the Phase I/II clinical trial of its COVID-19 subunit vaccine candidate in India and received the approval to start the Phase III clinical trial from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) - Subject Expert Committee (SEC). BE started the Phase I/II Clinical Trial of its COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate in the second week of November 2020. Its candidate includes an antigen developed by Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and in-licensed from BCM Ventures, Baylor College of Medicine’s integrated commercialization team, along with Dynavax Technologies Corporation’s (Nasdaq: DVAX) advanced adjuvant CpG 1018TM.


AACR to recognize the St. Baldrick’s Foundation-Stand Up To Cancer Pediatric Cancer Dream Team with 2021 Team Science Award (April 13, 2021)

Texas Children's and Baylor's, Drs. Nabil Ahmed, Meenakshi Hegde, Will Parsons and Sujith Joseph along with Bambi Grilley and Melanie Frost Moll are among those involved in this team effort to develop new immunotherapy approaches to treat childhood cancers.


Study reveals how long-term infection and inflammation impairs immune response as we age (Mar 25, 2021)

A study led by Dr. Katherine King, associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital, shows for the first time that long-term infection and chronic inflammation drive CH mediated by the loss of Dnmt3a function. In addition, the study offers key insights into the mechanism by which chronic inflammation leads to CH and demonstrates the critical role of DNMT3a in regulating normal HSC responses to infections. The study was published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.