Safety trial of algal anesthetic kicks off
Two years ago, we told the story of the quest of Charles Berde, MD, PhD, of Boston Children’s Division of Pain Medicine, to turn an algal toxin called neosaxitoxin into a long-lasting local anesthetic. At that time, Berde—together with Alberto Rodríguez-Navarro, MD, from Padre Hurtado Hospital in Santiago, Chile, and a Chilean company called Proteus ... Read More about Safety trial of algal anesthetic kicks off
This post may contain peanuts: Two-pronged treatment may ease severe allergies
Tripp Underwood contributed to this post. Families with peanut-allergic children live in fear that their child will ingest peanuts—even minute amounts—accidentally. Now, a small pilot study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology offers hope for peanut allergy. In the year-long study, immunologist Dale Umetsu, MD, PhD, and colleagues in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at ... Read More about This post may contain peanuts: Two-pronged treatment may ease severe allergies
First-ever drug trial reverses some signs of aging in progeria
The children came from all over the world: 28 families from 16 countries, speaking over a dozen languages. They faced a grim prognosis: death at an average age of 13 from cardiovascular disease. Not the congenital heart defects we so commonly see in babies coming to Boston Children’s Hospital, but the kind of disease you ... Read More about First-ever drug trial reverses some signs of aging in progeria
Taking a targeted approach when leukemia comes back
The news that your child has cancer always comes as a shock, but for one cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), parents can take comfort in the fact that doctors are really good at treating it. The cure rate for ALL has, over the last 40 years, climbed to nearly 90 percent. Less comforting is the fact ... Read More about Taking a targeted approach when leukemia comes back
Orphan diseases: Bringing academia, industry, and government into the game
“If you build it, he will come,” the ghosts of baseball players past tell a farmer in Field of Dreams. But it’s not that easy. To put people in the seats you have to have all of the right pieces: the right team, including players and managers; the right park, one that works for both ... Read More about Orphan diseases: Bringing academia, industry, and government into the game
Neurogenetic disorders: Dreaming the impossible dream
People with autism and most other disorders of brain development have never had medications to treat their core behavioral and cognitive symptoms. The best they can get are drugs targeting secondary problems, like irritability or aggression. But now, a new wave of clinical trials aims to change this. In the last decade, scientists have discovered ... Read More about Neurogenetic disorders: Dreaming the impossible dream
Childhood brain cancer: Learning to divide and conquer
Diversity is good in populations of people, but when it comes to cancer, it’s bad news. In the case of medulloblastoma—the most common malignant brain cancer in children—tumor diversity has been one of the greatest barriers to designing effective treatments. Now, in the largest genomic study of human medulloblastomas ever, Children’s researchers and their collaborators ... Read More about Childhood brain cancer: Learning to divide and conquer