Research

Every Cure Begins with Research

Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute

As exceptional as Alberta Children’s Hospital specialists are at providing the best care available for sick and injured children in our community, current therapies in pediatric medicine fall short for too many children. Every year, hundreds of young patients experience serious side effects from their treatments, hundreds more get sick with no known diagnosis or cure.

The Alberta Children’s Hosptial Research Institute is comprised of more than 1,000 researchers, trainees and staff at the Alberta Children’s Hospital and the University of Calgary who are committed to advancing knowledge, finding gentler treatments and discovering cures specifically for children.

Thanks to generous donations, this team of scientists is providing national and international leadership on many fronts, including:

Rapidomics: utilizing big data and DNA sequencing in hospital to rapidly pinpoint complex diagnoses and tailor care for children

Neurocritical Care: seamless care and research for children whose injury or illness puts their brains at risk

Blood and Marrow Transplantation: life-saving treatment and cure for cancers, blood and immune disorders

Additional community support will help them advance knowledge and care in many more areas crucial to families, including:

Brain Computer Interface: enabling children to use the power of their minds to do things their bodies cannot

Next Generation Immunotherapy: developing new therapies that harness a child’s own immune system to fight their specific cancer

Innovation through Imaging: using 3TRMI to obtain never before possible insights into child development, paving the way for new diagnostics, treatments and care delivery in brain and mental health

Did You Know?

More than 40 years of community support has helped the University of Calgary recruit and retain one of the largest and most productive concentrations of child health scientists in the country. That critical mass – and the team’s nationally-recognized success – inspired the University of Calgary to become the first in Canada to declare child health and wellness a campus-wide priority. It also helped launch the One Child Every Child initiative, which brings together Indigenous partners, Canada’s child health research institutes, equity-deserving communities, local and national stakeholders as well as global collaborators. Led by the University of Calgary, institutional research partners include the University of Lethbridge, Athabasca University and the University of Alberta.