BENCH to BEDSIDE

Have you ever wondered how, and where, biospecimen samples go after a patient gives consent for its use in research? The latest guest of our Bench to Bedside podcast, David Stokes, PhD, is the Technical Director of the Biorepository Resource Center at CHOP, a core facility that serves all of CHOP’s biobanking needs. With the unique capacity to store 3 million samples and the highly advanced infrastructure to keep the specimens organized, preserved, and accessible to the research community, the BioRC also houses immense hope for breakthroughs in children’s health. Listen in as Dr. Stokes shares how the BioRC has evolved over a decade to become one of CHOP’s most unique and valuable research resources.

Precision medicine, also known as personalized medicine, has revolutionized how physicians and scientists treat and study disease. According to Theodore Laetsch, MD, an oncologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, this ability to track and tailor individual patients’ unique genetic signatures has the most transformative potential in pediatric cancer. In this episode of Bench to Bedside, Dr. Laetsch shares how his new Frontier Program, the Center for Precision Medicine for High-risk Pediatric Cancer, harnesses advanced technologies and a growing multi omics database to optimize outcomes for childhood cancer patients.

From pathology to prognosis, heart failure in children appears vastly different than it does in adults. How we study, approach, and ultimately treat the disease should too, according to Joseph Rossano, MD, chief of the Division of Cardiology at CHOP. As director of the Advanced Cardiac Therapies for Heart Failure Patients Frontier Program, Dr. Rossano aims to bring cutting-edge scientific discoveries from the bench to the bedside with this in mind. 

With a stroll down the hallway at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, you run into a tremendous knowledge base and expertise to help answer challenging scientific questions in pediatrics. Lindsey George, MD, PhD, director of the Novel Therapeutics for Bleeding Disorders Frontier Program, shares how this combined clinical experience in gene therapy for hemophilia and in other related bleeding disorders leads toward innovative approaches.

Since establishing the first surgical intensive care unit (ICU) for newborns and infants in 1962, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has been at the forefront of transforming care for its tiniest patients. The Delivery Room of the Future Frontier Program, directed by neonatologist Elizabeth Foglia, MD, aims to provide every infant a chance at the healthiest outcomes and quality of life. 

“Be bold. Solve important problems,” shares Bench to Bedside guest, Flaura Winston, MD, PhD, founder and co-scientific director of the Center for Injury Research and Prevention. Hear how this Center of Emphasis takes a research action to impact approach when it comes to preventing injury in children. 

Dr. Beverly Davidson and her multidisciplinary team at the Raymond G. Perelman Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics are working on “aha moments,” both big and small, to improve gene and cell therapies in search of cures for debilitating disorders.

Join the conversation with Hakon Hakonarson, MD, PhD, founding director of the Center for Applied Genomics, where scientists develop new and better ways to diagnose and treat children affected by rare and complex medical disorders.

Dr. Diana Montoya-Williams wants her advocacy-informed research to matter to the communities she is trying to help. She's an attending neonatologist and faculty member of PolicyLab at CHOP whose research covers health disparities, social determinants of health, perinatal health policy, and immigration policies.  

Paulette McRae, PhD, Associate Director of Specialty Programs and Diversity in the Office of Academic Training and Outreach Programs, has devoted her career to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives that open doors for the next generation, so that they can see how they can make a difference in research.