While engineered heart tissues can replicate muscle contraction and electrical activity in a dish, many aspects of heart disease can only adequately be captured in 3D. In a report published online yesterday by Nature Biomedical Engineering, researchers describe a scale model of a heart ventricle, built to replicate the chamber’s architecture, physiology and contractions. Cardiac […]

Children can be at risk for compromised breathing after surgery or from conditions like asthma, congestive heart failure or sleep apnea. Opioid therapy and sedation for medical procedures can also depress breathing. Unless a child is sick enough to have a breathing tube, respiratory problems can be difficult to detect early. Yet early detection can […]

Hydrocephalus, literally “water on the brain,” is an abnormal build-up of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain cavities known as ventricles. In infants, it can be congenital (it often accompanies spina bifida, for example), or it can be caused by brain hemorrhage or infection. The usual treatment is surgery to implant a shunt, which drains the […]

Head shaved, a little boy rests on the operating table, deep under anesthesia. His parents have brought him to Boston Children’s Hospital in hopes of determining the cause of his seizures. Now, neurosurgeons Scellig Stone, MD, PhD, Joseph Madsen, MD, and their colleagues in the Epilepsy Center are performing a procedure designed to monitor seizure […]

Radiologists who can tune in to the nuances of brain scans in children are a pretty rarified group. Only about 3 percent of U.S. radiologists, some 800 to 900 physicians, practice in pediatrics. Those specifically trained in pediatric neuroradiology are even scarcer. To a less trained eye, normal developmental changes in a child’s brain may be […]

Scientists are now able to create cardiac heart muscle cells from patients with heart disease. But cells alone aren’t enough to fully study cardiac disorders — especially rhythm disorders that require the activity of multiple cells assembled into tissues. William Pu, MD, of Boston Children’s Hospital’s Heart Center and his team are honing the art […]

Type 1 diabetes afflicts more than 300 million people worldwide. Researchers have long sought a way to replace the insulin-producing beta cells lost in the disease, but transplanted cells are susceptible to immune attack. In this image, beta cells generated from human embryonic stem cells are encapsulated in microspheres made from a material called alginate, […]

Tertiary care centers such as the Boston Children’s Hospital Heart Center have led the way in groundbreaking surgical innovations for years, pushing boundaries and correcting ever more complex abnormalities. But innovation is also making a difference when it comes to more “common” procedures. “We’re always trying to make the less complex procedures shorter and less […]

Daily medicated eye drops are the first line of treatment for glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness. The drops relieve pressure in the eye, a significant risk factor for glaucoma. But they’re not ideal: their delivery is imprecise, they can cause stinging and burning and patients often struggle to administer them. Adherence is poor: […]