Precision Medicine Research at Children’s Hospital Colorado

For many years, DNA sequencing was prohibitively expensive and took months to get results. Today, the cost is manageable, and we can get results in weeks or days. It’s one example of how groundbreaking researchers at Children’s Colorado and other innovative institutions are helping bring the most advanced care to more kids. Precision medicine researchers across our organization advance technology, diagnostics, therapeutics and knowledge so kids get the right treatment for them, at the right moment.

What our precision medicine research means for kids

In many ways, our precision medicine research aims to shrink timelines — to expedite bringing research breakthroughs to clinical practice. We want to reduce the time it takes for a child to get a diagnosis for a rare condition or troubling symptoms. We aim to quickly find effective treatments for therapy-resistant diseases and conditions without existing treatments. We work to discover new therapeutics, while supporting safe and sustainable practice, as fast as we can.

But ultimately, precision medicine research is about giving kids more time — helping children live longer and have more quality days.

Our Precision Medicine Institute enables and advances research in all our disciplines by bringing advanced technology, data and support to any researcher who needs it. We’re constantly expanding our genetic testing capabilities and our genetic database. This allows us and our partners to find treatment options for individual patients today and to make discoveries that could impact hundreds and thousands of children in the future. Research helps us understand the unique genetic changes in each child and whether we can treat them with something common, like a vitamin, or by repurposing an existing drug. Furthermore, understanding these genetic changes lets us know if we need to try to develop a novel drug, just for them.

The more we expand our research capabilities and the amount of data we collect, the more likely we are to discover treatment options that we hadn’t even considered when we started the research.