Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA launches program in nano...( Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA toda...)

Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA today announced the launch of the Mattel UCLA NanoPediatrics Program, which will explore the future of personalized medicine for children, including the opportunities and risks involved. The program is one of the world's first dedicated solely to nanomedicine and pediatric patients.

"Why develop a nanopediatrics program? Because children are not small adults," said Dr. Edward McCabe, physician-in-chief of Mattel Children's Hospital and founding director of the new program. "We know that drugs affect children they metabolize, excrete and may even utilize, developmentally, specific receptors differently than adults.

"Unless children are included as a research priority for the application of nanotechnology, then we will simply be applying approaches developed for adults. This flawed strategy will place children at risk, as opposed to a program in which children will be the focus from the outset."

Nanotechnology involves manipulating atoms and molecules to create tiny devices, smaller than one-thousandth the diameter of a human hair (a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter). It is anticipated that nanomedicine, fueled by nanotechnology, will enable more personalized medical care that will be both predictive and preventive.

While considerable attention has been paid to nanomedicine, UCLA's nanopediatrics program, initially organized in May 2008, may be the first initiative to examine the promises and risks of nanodiagnostics and nanotherapeutics for children in a formal and organized manner.

Created thanks to a generous $1.8 million gift from the Mattel Children's Foundation, the program will support a nanopediatrics research core and pilot funding for projects that will potentially enable investigators to obtain grants from the National Institutes of Health.

"The Mattel Children's Foundation is excited to support this groundbreaking program in nanopediatrics, which ca
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