Each year in the United States, 8,000 babies and children are diagnosed with cerebral palsy (CP). For their entire lives, these children will face difficulties with basic functions like walking, swallowing or speaking because of a brain injury that affects muscle control. ... more

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), the most common form of juvenile arthritis, afflicts approximately 50,000 children with joint pain, swelling and loss of motion. Scientists attribute JRA and a wide spectrum of other pediatric inflammatory conditions to misdirected attacks by the body's own defenses. Immune system cells and chemicals meant for use against invading microorganisms accidentally turn their firepower on the body. ... more

Jennifer Gries Duncan, M.D., is motivated to find a cause of childhood heart failure when she looks at the faces of every patient she treats in the intensive care unit at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. These children often face multiple surgeries, a lifetime of medications and various preventive measures to keep the heart working. ... more

A young girl from an Amish community came to St. Louis Children’s Hospital to see Thomas Ferkol, M.D., for what her family thought were allergies. But it was quickly apparent that she had something more complicated than allergies. She had primary ciliary dyskinesia, and many of her relatives might as well. ... more

What if neuromuscular diseases could be halted in childhood before symptoms ever appear? That’s the dream of Robert Baloh, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of neurology at Washington University School of Medicine. He is tackling the problem by trying to find ways to make genetic diagnoses in patients with inherited neuromuscular diseases in an effort to stop the disease before symptoms appear. As a newly named Children’s Discovery Institute (CDI) Scholar, Baloh will study the genetic mutations that cause Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, one of the most common inherited neuromuscular diseases. ... more

Study seeks to understand the molecular triggers of bone development Skeletal dysplasia is the medical term for the bone and cartilage abnormalities that afflict as many as one in 5,000 children. While dwarfism is the most blatantly visible example, skeletal dysplasia covers a wide spectrum of more than 200 types of cartilage and bone growth anomalies. The unfortunate hallmarks for children affected are malformations and irregularities that can occur in the size and shape of the skeleton, long bones, spine and head. ... more

Early in the development of a human embryo, unique cells appear along the edge of the region that will ultimately become the central nervous system. The site where these cells originate is called the “neural crest.” The neural crest, however, is a temporary structure since these cells quickly disperse throughout the embryo along pre-determined pathways and settle into many different locations in the body. Neural crest cells migrate to the head, heart, gut, and even skin cells among other places. ... more

ST. LOUIS – January 18, 2008-- Will brain-powered robots one day restore mobility to children with cerebral palsy? Do circadian rhythms impact the outcome of cancer therapy? Can the root cause of pediatric heart disease be explained by a fruit fly? ... more