It seems unlikely that American poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou spent much time thinking about translational research. But two quotes of hers capture the essence of the interplay between bench and bedside: “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better” and “I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.” At the 2023 Annual Congress of the European Academy of Neurology, Mary Reilly described the relationship between bench and bedside as “a continuous circle of translation,” with each cycle beginning with patients and their needs.
Luminopia Inc. reeled in $16 million in an oversubscribed series A financing led by U.S. Venture Partners. The funds will support full commercial launch of the company’s U.S. FDA-cleared digital therapeutic for the treatment of children ages 4-7 with amblyopia. “We are thrilled to announce the successful close of our oversubscribed series A round, which will allow us to advance our mission of pioneering a new class of treatments for the 15 million Americans who suffer from neuro-visual disorders,” said Scott Xiao, Luminopia’s co-founder and CEO.
Although advances in chemotherapy have dramatically improved outcomes for children with leukemia, patients with high-risk and aggressive cancers require intense drug regimens that push safety limits. Researchers have formulated an antibody guidance system in mice that could empower chemotherapy against childhood leukemias while minimizing drug toxicity.
Researchers in Australia have developed new cancer cell line models for pediatric cancers with the lowest survival rates, with a focus on high-risk central nervous system tumors such as glioblastoma.
Three papers accelerated through publication and appearing in Nature March 30, 2023, have linked an unexplained rise in cases of acute hepatitis in children to adeno-associated virus 2 (AAV2), and pointed to a possible immune-mediated trigger in patients who have a genetic predisposition.
Researchers from the University of Utah applied RNASeq analysis for an undiagnosed case of a critically ill newborn with a complex phenotype, with the aim of providing better diagnosis and improving treatment outcomes.
An artificial pancreas system that draws on research conducted at the University of Virginia to effectively combine Dexcom Inc.’s continuous glucose monitor and Tandem Diabetes Care Inc.’s artificial intelligence-enabled insulin pump works effectively in children under 6 years of age with type 1 diabetes, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed.
Nuclear body protein SP140 is mainly expressed on immune cells such as B and T cells, monocytes or dendritic cells and they are activated by interferon and regulated upon cellular stress, such as during viral infections.
Medulloblastomas (MBs) are the most common malignant brain tumors in pediatric patients. Among the different types of MBs, those driven by MYC amplification present the worst prognosis. In a recent study published in Nature Communications, scientists from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and collaborators investigated the molecular and genetic events triggering MYC amplification and malignant transformation in MBs, which remained previously unclear.