Healthy at Home

Cheek swabs — they’re painless, simple, and commonly used in pediatric research. But how reliable are they across different developmental periods? And what can they really tell us about children’s health?

Dr. Bruce Carleton will be leading a new $17 million project to make medications safer for children across Canada. By uncovering the genetic variations in patients that can lead to adverse drug reactions, this research could help explain differing medication responses and improve disease outcomes.

BCCHR and UBC researchers have designed a new approach to drug delivery called ‘GlycoCaging’ that transports medicine for inflammatory bowel disease directly to the gut.

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.