For the second consecutive year, researchers at Children's National and the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences were selected to compete in STAT Madness, an annual bracket-style competition that chooses the year’s most impactful biomedical innovation by popular vote.
This year’s entry, “Sensitive liquid biopsy platform to detect tumor-released mutated DNA using patient blood and CSF,” leverages a powerful new technique to look at a patient’s blood to better diagnose, monitor, and treat an especially aggressive type of pediatric brain tumor.
In 2018, our first-ever STAT Madness entry advanced through five brackets in the national competition and, in the championship round, finished second. That innovation, which enables more timely diagnoses of rare diseases and common genetic disorders, helping to improve kids’ health outcomes around the world, also was among four “Editor’s Pick” finalists, entries that spanned a diverse range of scientific disciplines.
This year’s research is now in the quarterfinals, competing against Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. VOTE to name Children’s National/GW research the No. 1 biomedical innovation of the year!
Nicknamed our “DNA Detectives,” our researchers competing this year are: Javad Nazarian, PhD, MSC, Lindsay B. Kilburn, MD, Heather Gordish-Dressman, PhD, Suresh N. Magge, MD, John S. Myseros, MD, Eugene I. Hwang, MD, and Roger J. Packer, MD, who all work at both Children’s National and the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Additional authors include Eshini Panditharatna and Madhuri Kambhampati at Children’s National; Mariam S. Aboian, Nalin Gupta, Soonmee Cha, Michael Prados and co-senior author Sabine Mueller, all of the University of California, San Francisco; Cassie Kline, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital; John R. Crawford, UC San Diego; Katherine E. Warren, National Cancer Institute; Winnie S. Liang and Michael E. Berens, Translational Genomics Research Institute; and Adam C. Resnick, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
This bracket closes at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday. VOTE today!
