Child Health Discovery Fund
For children and families facing the most complex, rare, or life-threatening conditions, every moment matters. The sooner we can make research breakthroughs, the faster we can translate them into life-changing diagnostic tools, treatments, and cures.
Thanks to advancements in genomic sequencing, precision medicine, and more, we are entering a revolutionary period in pediatric care. We can now detect diseases earlier, understand them more deeply, and treat more precisely.
Unfortunately, early-stage trials—an essential step in research—are often passed over by traditional funders who favor more conservative or proven approaches over high-risk, high-reward ideas. This challenge is further compounded by the fact that less than 5% of the National Institutes of Health budget supports pediatric research, despite its ability to unlock important findings throughout the lifespan.
Through the Children’s Discovery Institute (CDI), a collaboration between St. Louis Children’s Hospital, its Foundation, and WashU Medicine, we are making research breakthroughs to benefit children now and into adulthood.
Our Approach
The Child Health Discovery Fund of the CDI provides a launch pad for early research, allowing investigators to demonstrate proof of concept that secures larger grants. For every dollar that St. Louis Children’s Hospital Foundation grants to a CDI project, it results in significant support from the NIH and other organizations.
Philanthropic support of the Child Health Discovery Fund will:
- Enhance our understanding of the origins of diseases across the lifespan. For example, if we identify childhood risk factors for a certain cancer, we could actively mitigate risk and provide preventative care.
- Help us stay competitive with, and be a leader among, other pediatric hospitals. We may be the only hospital in the country—or the world—providing a certain type of experimental therapy for a child’s particular illness or disorder.
- Create opportunities to pursue research ventures that might not have sufficient pathways for funding. In this way, we remain nimble in our ability to advance innovative and urgent research.
The Path Forward
Gifts to the Child Health Discovery Fund will expand the scope of innovative research to encompass more areas of child health. Your commitment to funding groundbreaking discoveries will fuel the hope that earlier, more accurate diagnoses will lead to improved outcomes for more kids, now and in the future.