Healthy at Home

A pan-Canadian team has developed a new way to quickly find personalized treatments for young cancer patients, by growing their tumours in chicken eggs and analyzing their proteins.

The team, led by researchers from BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute and the University of British Columbia, is the first in Canada to combine these two techniques to identify and test a drug for a young patient's tumour in time for their treatment.

Pediatric nephrologist Dr. Susan Samuel, a new investigator who joined BCCHR in September 2024, has been investigating ways to improve the quality of life of children diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome. She is serving as the director for the ENRICH program, a national network of mentors and learners. We met Dr. Samuel to talk about the importance of research and mentorship.

BCCHR research highlights an exciting opportunity: schools can do more than deliver vaccines — they can spark knowledge! By integrating vaccine education into the curriculum, schools can boost confidence, empower students and families, and pave the way for stronger HPV vaccine uptake and cancer prevention.

A team of researchers at the Institute for Global Health (IGH) at BCCHR are leading an innovation that could have a positive impact on children worldwide. They have developed the RRate app, a mobile application that measures breathing rate and has been successfully used by frontline nurses in Uganda, a partner country of IGH. Widespread use of the app in low-resource settings could help save lives.

Congratulations to the investigators and their teams who were awarded funding through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Fall 2024 Project Grant competition!