StemEx^® study

Children’s Memorial Hospital and the Gamida Cell-Teva Joint Venture have joined a select group of cancer centers worldwide actively enrolling patients for the ExCell Study. This clinical trial, led by primary investigator, Sonali Chaudhury, MD, is to determine the safety and efficacy of transplanting StemEx^® in patients with certain hematological malignancies. Read more »

Robot-assisted surgery offers less pain, lower infection rates, shorter hospital stays

Children’s Memorial Hospital offers minimally invasive surgical services for children using the da Vinci^® robot-assisted surgical system. Ideal for pediatric urology surgery, this robot-assisted system can be used in children as young as six months and may be used to treat urinary tract obstructions, urinary reflux, urinary and bowel incontinence and complex kidney stones. Currently utilized by Bruce Lindgren, MD, and Jennifer Hagerty, DO, this robot method allows the surgeons to be more precise, advancing their technique and enhancing their capability in performing complex minimally invasive surgery. Read more »

Midwest’s first auditory-verbal symposium

Children’s Memorial’s Cochlear Implant Program hosted its first Midwest Auditory-Verbal Symposium and Practicum for educators and speech pathologists dedicated to providing this specialized type of hearing therapy. Nancy Young, MD, director of the cochlear implant program at Children’s Memorial, has performed more than 700 implants in children and believes that auditory-verbal therapy is effective in children who recently received a cochlear implant and positively impacts their language development and literacy.

Control of development and disease from an unlikely source

Can mental disorders result from altered non-coding RNA-dependent gene regulation during embryonic development? Researchers have found for the first time that a non-coding RNA called Evf2 is important for gene regulation and the development of interneurons that produce GABA, the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. Jhumku Kohtz, PhD, of Children’s Memorial Research Center, and her colleagues at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine have found that a reduction or absence of GABA is implicated in different psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, Tourette’s syndrome, epilepsy and Rett syndrome. Read more »

October 2009
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