Industry Collaborations | Shriners Children's

Partnerships Driving Breakthroughs in Pediatric Medicine

As part of its research mission, Shriners Children's collaborates with academic and industry partners to develop leading tools, processes and programs that improve pediatric care. We utilize the outcomes of this work to enhance treatment options for children, allowing them to thrive and reach their full potential.

Many of our biggest breakthroughs have come from the partnerships that we have established. From biomedical engineering to providing technologies that organize, analyze and interpret data, our partners offer us valuable tools and expertise that help us advance our research at an exponential rate.

Our Contribution to Our Partners

With a century-long track record in research and as one of the leading providers of pediatric medicine, we are uniquely positioned to provide our partners with the resources they need. This includes data, expertise and access to historical research findings.

Read below to learn about some of our current partnerships. If your organization or someone you know is interested in partnering with Shriners Children's on a research initiative, contact our Vice President, Research, Marc Lalande, Ph.D.

Georgia Institute of Technology

Hand surgeon and chief of staff at Shriners Children's Philadelphia, Scott Kozin, M.D., is working with Frank L Hammond III, Ph.D., from the Adaptive Robotic Manipulation Laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology to design innovative devices for patients with . The goal is for patients to have more control over how they move their bodies.

With May Dongmei Wang, Ph.D., from Georgia Tech, we're also exploring innovative approaches to capture, access, share and analyze data, including diagnostics, radiographic images and genomics. The infrastructure being developed through this program will not only enhance our clinical research capabilities, but also advance our clinical practices and precision medicine. Through precision medicine, we gain the ability to develop more personalized treatment plans for patients.

Jackson Laboratory

A team of Shriners Children's physicians, including Jon Davids, M.D., (Northern California); Peter Smith, M.D., (Chicago); Jeremy Bauer, M.D., (Portland); and Janay McKie, M.D., (Shreveport) is working with Jackson Laboratory to uncover new approaches to precision care for children with cerebral palsy.

As one of the leading providers of care for pediatric cerebral palsy, our team is uniquely positioned to collect and analyze data (with any identifying information removed), from our patients and their families. We're taking advantage of the powerful technology developed by Jackson Laboratory to analyze this data, for a better understanding of the genetic factors involved in the development of cerebral palsy. With this technology, we can convert our findings into meaningful information that could transform the way we detect and treat cerebral palsy.

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Illumina Inc.

Illumina develops tools for reading and understanding genetic data, and they provide our research team with resources to make significant breakthroughs in our genetic research initiatives.

This team, led by our Vice President, Research, Marc Lalande, Ph.D., and the director of the Shriners Children's Genomics Institute, Kamran Shazand, Ph.D., is taking the genome data we collect and analyzing it on a large scale. Illumina's NovaSeq instrument, when combined with other tools including robotic sample processing, allows us to generate large amounts of clinical research data and develop more effective treatments for pediatric conditions.

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Harvard University

With the support of an outstanding team at Harvard University, the Howard Green Center for Children’s Skin Health & Research at Shriners Children's Boston is developing regenerative therapies that use stem cells to treat epidermolysis bullosa (EB). A devastating condition that causes painful blistering of the skin, EB usually appears early in infancy or early childhood. There is no cure.

This research partnership has the potential to lead to breakthroughs in the treatment of wounds and infections caused by EB and may also provide opportunities for the treatment of other skin conditions.

This effort includes Robert Sheridan, M.D., Mehmet Toner, Ph.D., Martin Yarmush, M.D., Ph.D., and Basak Uygun, Ph.D., in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Brown University.

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Alcance Genomics, LLC

Shriners Children’s is partnering with Alcance Genomics, LLC to accelerate its genomics research initiatives. Drawing on expertise in pediatric genetic counseling, laboratory test development, provider education and patient engagement, Alcance Genomics provides strategic consulting and hands-on guidance to ensure genomic programs are both innovative and clinically responsible. This trusted partnership is supporting Shriners Children’s realize its vision of advancing precision medicine for children through impactful, patient-centered genomic research.