SickKids Research Breakthroughs
Research has been part of the fabric of The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) since its earliest days, and the work on nutritional sciences in the 1920s and 1930s (the development of Pablum and Sunwheat Biscuits) has had a worldwide impact. The Research Institute was founded in 1954 representing, at the time, a commitment to the idea that innovation was critical to the hospital’s mission to improve child health. For all the SickKids Breakthroughs, please visit SickKids to learn more.
1875
Led by Elizabeth McMaster, a group of Toronto women rented an 11-room house in Toronto “for the admission and treatment of all sick children”
1899
The first children’s Orthopaedic Shop is opened at The Hospital for Sick Children
1921
Former SickKids’ attending physician for diabetic cases, Dr. Frederick Banting, along with Dr. Charles Best, discovers insulin.
1923
Following the discovery of insulin, by former SickKids physician Dr. Frederick Banting and Dr. Charles Best, a program for treatment of children with diabetes begins at SickKids, resulting in a 50 per cent decrease in the childhood mortality record from diabetes
1930
SickKids develops a new infant cereal that later becomes famous the world over as “Pablum”. This fortified cereal (the first of its kind) significantly reduces death from malnutrition – the major cause of infant mortality at the turn of the last century.
1957
Dr. Robert Salter is the first to perform innominate osteotomy, a surgical procedure to repair congenital dislocation of the hips
1963
“The Mustard Procedure” where surgery to correct the transposition of the great arteries of the heart in babies is pioneered by Dr. William Mustard of SickKids
1964
SickKids establishes the first intensive care unit exclusively for newborns in North America
1965
Researchers at SickKids develop a lab procedure that cuts the time required to diagnose whooping cough from five days to 30 minutes
1971
The first successful surgical separation of conjoined twins in Canada takes place at SickKids. There have been five surgical separations since
1972
Canada’s first bone marrow transplant program begins at SickKids
1973
Canada’s first transplant operation where a kidney from a living donor is given to a child is performed at SickKids
1979
SickKids originates “Continuous Passive Motion” (CPM) - a revolutionary treatment for injured or diseased joints. Before this treatment, patients with damaged cartilage had to be totally immobilized. CPM is such an improvement that it is now being used in 17,500 hospitals in more than 77 countries.
1989
The disease gene for Cystic Fibrosis (CF) was discovered at SickKids
1994
SickKids provides the first biological proof that second-hand cigarette smoke can affect a fetus.
1997
A SickKids geneticist leads an international team of researchers that identifies a human blood cell that re-grows the entire blood system SickKids invents a powder iron supplement that improves the lives of millions of children suffering from anemia due to iron deficiency.
1998
SickKids establishes North America’s first Paediatric Academic Multi-Organ Transplant Program
1999
Canada’s first basic science paediatric brain tumor research centre is opened at SickKids
2000
SickKids installs the first MagnetoEncephalography (MEG) site in Canada and the first in the world to be established in a paediatric institution
2001
SickKids discovers that infant heart transplants can be performed safely and successfully even when the blood types of the donor and recipient don’t match.
2003
SickKids compiles the complete DNA sequence of chromosome 7 and decodes nearly all of the genes on this medically important portion of the human genome. Chromosome 7 contains 1,455 genes, some of which, when altered, cause diseases such as cystic fibrosis, leukemia, and autism.
SickKids identifies, for the first time, a cancer stem cell responsible for brain tumors. This discovery may change how this deadly condition is studied and treated in the future.
2004
SickKids researchers unmask the potential of stem cells found in adult skin
SickKids researchers confirm that cancer stem cells initiate and grow brain tumors
2006
SickKids researchers redefine understanding of copy number variation in the human genome
SickKids researchers discover a critical role for sensory nerves in diabetes opens door to new treatment strategies
2007
SickKids researchers use skin-derived stem cells to repair spinal cord injuries in mice
Scientists find that neural stem cell formation may be a factor in abnormal brain development
SickKids Scientists lead international autism genome discoveries, and being second phase of the Autism Genome Project
2008
Canadian scientists find frequent structural changes of chromosomes in autism
SickKids researchers discover how cancer stem cells ‘hide’ in tumours
Rett Syndrome and induced Pluripotent Stem cells goes “Green”
June 17, 2009 by Aaron Cheung
Stem cell researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children have now devised a method, reported in the scientific journal Nature Methods, that will facilitate the generation of induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells. I have previously blogged about the promise of iPS cells (see related articles). iPS cells are cells which have been reprogrammed from a differentiated somatic cell (such as your skin cells) to a pluripotent stem cell (like an embryonic stem cell, only that you don’t need to use embryos!). The generation of iPS cells is inherently very rare which occurs at a frequency of about 0.01% meaning you can generate about one iPS cell line out of hundred thousand cells. Out of which, many lines fail to satisfy the different rigorous tests necessary to be given the prestigious name of “iPS cell”.
A group led by Dr. James Ellis, and lead author Dr. Akitsu Hotta, at The Hospital for Sick Children has generated a reporter, named EOS, that will facilitate the generation of iPS cells for both mouse and human. The reporter has DNA elements (called promoters) that will drive the expression of a fluorescent protein (GFP) and an antibiotic resistance gene (puromycin) that will only turn on in pluripotent stem cells, but remain off in differentiated cells. Therefore, scientists can now generate iPS cells from different sources and the iPS cells will literally “light up with a green colour” once reprogramming has been achieved. Furthermore, by adding puromycin to your culture, it will keep the iPS cells in a pluripotent state as iPS cells will normally spontaneously differentiate.
To demonstrate the applicability of EOS, Ellis also derived iPS cells from patients who have a neurodevelopmental disorder called Rett Syndrome. Rett Syndrome is an Autism Spectrum Disorder which affects almost exclusively females at an incidence of 1 in 10,000 and is one of the leading causes of mental retardation in girls. These Rett Syndrome iPS cells were green when placed under a fluorescent microscope and Ellis demonstrated that neurons can be generated from these Rett Syndrome iPS cells, the cell type affected in Rett Syndrome.
In conclusion, the EOS reporter will facilitate the generation of iPS and will be particularly useful for new labs going into this rapidly developing field. Furthermore, Rett Syndrome iPS cells that were also generated in this study will be invaluable for future drug screens that may be beneficial to those with Rett Syndrome.
Article:
Hotta, A. et al. Isolation of human iPS cells using EOS lentiviral vectors to select for pluripotency. Nature Methods 6, 370–376 (2009).
Related articles:
Breakthrough of 2008 – Reprogramming
A New Era for Disease Modeling and Drug Screening
Some of our experts
Stem Cell Origins
Cancer stem cells
Stem Cells and the Nervous System
