Key Points
- The two Focused Ultrasound Centers of Excellence are expanding their ongoing partnership to advance pediatric health.
- In one project, a young investigator at Virginia Tech will be mentored by experts at both centers while studying a rare disease.
In a recent press release, two Focused Ultrasound Centers of Excellence – Children’s National Hospital and Virginia Tech – announced that they are expanding their research partnership that was established in 2019. The overall objective of the partnership is to advance pediatric health, especially pediatric cancers and brain tumors. Its specific goals are to:
- Accelerate the understanding of the biology of pediatric cancers and other childhood diseases, while improving the prevention and treatment of these diseases
- Develop new diagnostic and therapeutic tools to improve care for children
- Train the next generation of scientists and physician-scientists
Focused ultrasound research is included in this partnership.
“Partnering with Children’s National connects us to a world-class clinical trial institute that has been a pioneer in treating brain tumors with focused ultrasound technology, and this presents a unique opportunity to help children and families struggling with cancer,” said Cheng-Chia “Fred” Wu, MD, PhD, a member of the Children’s National Brain Tumor Research Institute and a principal investigator in cancer research and faculty member at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in Roanoke and in the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. “I can’t wait to see where this takes us.”
The Foundation’s Centers of Excellence program recognizes luminary sites for their excellence in translational and clinical research, training, and patient care. The Centers serve as hubs for collaboration, bringing together academia, industry, and the Foundation to champion therapeutic ultrasound technology in innovative ways. In September 2020, Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, became the first Center of Excellence focused exclusively on pediatrics. Virginia Tech became the sixth Center of Excellence in the US and the twelfth worldwide in June 2024.
Early Career Collaborative Fellowship Award
A related press release from the Association for Creatine Deficiencies (ACD) recently announced that Chin-Yi Chen, PhD, a research scientist in Dr. Wu’s lab at Virginia Tech, has earned an early-career ACD Fellowship Award. The funded project is exploring the use of focused ultrasound to enhance creatine delivery in patients with rare diseases caused by creatine transporter deficiency. Dr. Chen’s research will use both patient-derived cells and a mouse model as she develops methods to improve creatine uptake in the brain.
“Through pediatric brain tumor research, we had the opportunity to meet different pediatric specialists and share the potential use of focused ultrasound technology,” said Dr. Wu. “This created new research opportunities for kids.”
Dr. Chen will be mentored by Dr. Wu at Virginia Tech and by Dr. Seth Berger at Children’s National Hospital.
“I am deeply committed to investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying rare neurological diseases, with a particular focus on accelerating treatments for these conditions,” said Dr. Chen.
According to ACD, creatine helps supply energy to all cells in the body. The three known cerebral creatine deficiency syndromes can mimic symptoms of many medical conditions, including autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and others. This prevents their proper diagnosis and treatment, leading to decreased quality of life and failure to thrive.