From the Director
Post Date: May 2, 2025 | Publish Date:
Dear colleagues,
It’s an honor to support Cincinnati Children’s mission in research and discovery, leading the way in helping children live their best possible lives. As I often say, yesterday’s research produced today’s cures, and today’s research offers hope for the future.
Fiscal 2024 was an exceptional year for our Research Foundation:
PUBLICATIONS:
More than 3,400 contributions from our researchers.
FUNDING:
A record $308.7 million in grants and contracts and $17.5 million in philanthropic support for our research mission.
FACILITIES:
Expansion of our research footprint, including an applied gene and cell therapy center (2025) aimed at advancing clinical trials for innovative treatments and the Winslow Research Pavilion (2026) housing our Vaccine Research Center and the Discover Together Biobank teams.
PROGRAMS:
Launch of a trainee symposium that prepares the next generation of leaders in science and academic medicine, a Cystic Fibrosis Gene Therapy Research Program, and groundbreaking vaccine and immunology studies.
We continued to make great progress in our areas of focus in 2024.
Key scientific achievements included:
- Organoids: Advances in growing immune-rich colon cells for personalized medicine, considered a breakthrough in growing organs that mimic normal organ function.
- Brain assembloids: Development of the world’s first brain “assembloids” with a functional blood-brain barrier, paving the way for improved treatments for brain-related conditions, such as stroke, brain cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease.
- Maternal-offspring crosstalk: Insights that revealed the cellular crosstalk between a mother and her offspring is even more complex and long-lasting than expected, with implications that could extend into vaccine research and organ transplantation.
- Eosinophilic esophagitis: Groundbreaking clinical trials, including effective medications for the condition, resulting in two studies appearing side by side in the New England Journal of Medicine.
- Cancer research: Progress in treating children with low-grade glioma, reducing reliance on radiation therapy.
- Mental and behavioral health: Innovations in early identification of emotional and behavioral problems, work we are already doing using embedded mental health providers in primary care locations and training school and community clinicians in a learning health network.
These achievements reinforce our commitment to excellent and equitable outcomes for every child. Cincinnati Children’s remains a research powerhouse, driving discovery to transform children’s lives, in our region and around the world.
I encourage you to explore our 2024 edition to learn more about our progress.
Tina L. Cheng, MD, MPH
BK Rachford Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati
Director, Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation
Chief Medical Officer, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Explore the 2024 Research Annual Report
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About this blog
The Research Horizons blog features news and insights about the latest discoveries and innovations developed by the scientists of Cincinnati Children's. This blog does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
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