The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute

10/24/2025

While baseball postseason is in full swing for the professionals, learn how researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia’s Orthopedic Center and Thomas Jefferson University aim to personalize injury prevention strategies for young pitchers using a wearable wrist sensor that captures 3D individualized motion data. Read more on Cornerstone: http://ms.spr.ly/6186sC4xn

10/23/2025

Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia are pushing the boundaries of how clinicians predict and respond to individual cases of childhood cancer with a new Frontier program. The Advanced Personalized Therapeutics and Precision Surgery Frontier Program in Childhood Cancers expands on previous precision medicine efforts at CHOP by integrating advanced molecular tumor profiling, functional tumor testing, and real-time intraoperative tumor sequencing into cancer treatment plans.

“Our goal is to be able to predict and adapt to each individual patient’s cancer more quickly, with greater accuracy and better, safer therapies,” said Dr. Theodore Laetsch, CHOP oncologist and one of the program's leaders.

Read more about the Advanced Personalized Therapeutics and Precision Surgery Program in a new Cornerstone story: http://ms.spr.ly/6189sCfEz

10/22/2025

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia researchers in our Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine developed a new method to study DNA methylation, an epigenetic mechanism that controls gene expression, in closer detail than ever before. Learn how the approach, which expands the capabilities of spatial multi-omics, can reveal deeper insights into how environment and biology shape health, in a new Snapshot Science,

Researchers developed a new method to understand the full tissue context of DNA methylation in greater detail than ever before.

10/15/2025

🎧 The latest episode of our Bench to Bedside is live! Dr. Audrey Odom-John chats with Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Susan Furth about how the new Morgan Center for Research and Innovation elevates pediatric research to advance . Listen now: http://ms.spr.ly/6185s4bXV

10/08/2025

“Just stay strong and be brave” is 10-year-old Kyrie’s message for children going through tough medical journeys like his: At age 6, Kyrie was diagnosed with a rare soft-tissue cancer called infantile fibrosarcoma.

Though chemotherapy is the current standard-of-care, he participated in a Children's Hospital of Philadelphia clinical trial testing the effectiveness of an oral drug with low side effects, called larotrectinib, as a frontline therapy for certain tumors with a specific genetic mutation. CHOP’s Dr. Theodore Laetsch led the trial to test larotrectinib.

This remarkable example of precision medicine therapy has changed Kyrie's life, and now his family is sharing his story in a Cornerstone video. Learn more about the research leading up to the treatment’s development: http://ms.spr.ly/6189sLAm5

Cancer Center at CHOP

10/07/2025

🙌Once again, U.S. News and World Report has ranked Children's Hospital of Philadelphia as one of the nation’s best pediatric hospitals! Congratulations to all of our CHOP teams who support breakthroughs for children in so many different ways. Learn more below.
Learn more: http://ms.spr.ly/6181sLH8d.

10/01/2025

New research from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia suggests that limiting certain amino acids through diet may enhance the effects of an FDA-approved drug for high-risk neuroblastoma. Dr. Michael Hogarty, a Cancer Center at CHOP oncologist, alongside collaborators from Princeton University and the Universität Zürich, published results from the preclinical models in Nature. The findings lay the foundation for new strategies to treat high-risk neuroblastoma, the survival rate of which remains around 50%.

“After many years of work in this area, it’s exciting to see this breakthrough that may lead to more effective therapies for children with neuroblastoma,” Dr. Hogarty said.

Read the full story on Cornerstone. http://ms.spr.ly/6183sQmhd

09/30/2025

Meet Dr. Christina Gurnett, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia’s new Chief of the Division of Neurology, in a new Q&A! Dr. Gurnett also will serve as the Co-Executive Director of the Neurosciences Center at CHOP. Her research explains the genetic basis of neurodevelopmental and musculoskeletal disorders while also focusing on building tools and partnerships to advance rare disease research.

“Our goal is to deliver care for many of the ultra-rare diseases that we see at CHOP,” Dr. Gurnett said. “CHOP has done this very well for several more well-established rare diseases, but the future will involve tapping into all of the likely 3,000 to 4,000 different genetic diseases that make up a large part of our field.”

Read the full Q&A on Cornerstone: http://ms.spr.ly/6185sQm4L

09/30/2025

We’re kicking off our monthly Faculty Spotlight series where we highlight faculty members at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute! For September’s Q&A, meet Dr. Jennifer Lynch, a physicist specializing in biomedical optics. Dr. Lynch shares how her work, which utilizes advanced techniques for measuring oxygen delivery and use in the brain, helps infants with critical congenital heart disease – a patient population that faces a high risk for brain injury.

“My long-term goal is to make individualized neuroprotection possible — to provide clinicians with the tools they need to tailor care in real time and reduce the risk of brain injury for children with heart disease,” Dr. Lynch said.

Read the full Q&A on Cornerstone now: http://ms.spr.ly/6182sQmFO

09/25/2025

Happy to our amazing administrators and managers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute! From handling grant spending and contracts, to navigating IRB protocols and safety regulations, to managing purchasing and payroll, and so much more, these passionate professionals help CHOP investigators and their teams bring our breakthroughs from the bench to the bedside.

Drop a 💚 in the comments and tag your research admin to say thanks!

09/24/2025

It was a good week to be a Children's Hospital of Philadelphia postdoc! Our incredible Office of Academic Training and Outreach Programs (ATOP) organized a packed agenda of activities for , from goat yoga with Philly Goat Project, to a mini wellness retreat, to tasting some of the best food in Philly. A big thank you to ATOP and to all of our CHOP postdoctoral fellows who work hard to advance children's health through research! Learn more about life as a postdoc at CHOP Research Institute: http://ms.spr.ly/6187sSy6x

09/23/2025

Meet Dr. Peter Zhang, a clinical informatics fellow in Children's Hospital of Philadelphia’s Department of Biomedical Health Informatics, as he shares in a new Q&A the projects that have shaped his experience at CHOP, and how the program has supported his career and personal journey. http://ms.spr.ly/6187sqG8B