The Children’s Discovery Institute evolved from the long-standing collaboration between St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University in both research and patient care. For more than a century this extraordinary partnership has resulted in discoveries that have directly translated into dramatic improvements in children’s lives. These advances include the development of protocols for electrolyte and insulin treatment in childhood diabetes, elucidation of the genetic causes of congenital heart disease and nutritional disorders and establishment of a premier pediatric lung transplant center.
Utilizing this foundation, the leadership of the University and Children’s Hospital initiated conversations in 2004 with the intent of establishing a unique and novel approach to discovering cures for the most serious disorders of childhood. The Children’s Discovery Institute emerged from this planning process as a groundbreaking collaboration in fundraising and scientific innovation. The generosity of the McDonnell family through a founding gift of $20 million for research in pediatric brain cancer catalyzed this process, and to date more than $118 million dollars has been raised from generous donors in the St. Louis community.
The Children’s Discovery Institute now includes faculty from Washington University Schools of Arts & Sciences, Engineering & Applied Science and Medicine. Faculty involvement is intended to reflect a commitment to the principles and ideas of scholarship that will move the Children’s Discovery Institute forward. The on-going activities are directed through Centers of research, which serve as a renewing source of ideas and criticism that maximize the effectiveness of all funded efforts. This organization permits the Children’s Discovery Institute to serve as the home for a broad and diverse array of imaginatively funded projects and investigators. This opened and interactive structure is a unique model within the Washington University community, and serves as an incubator for novel interdisciplinary initiatives generated from the interactions of the membership.