Boston Children's Research About Us

Boston Children’s Hospital has invested and led the way in life-changing pediatric innovation since its founding in 1869 as a 20-bed facility. From surgical advances to new treatments, to discoveries that change the biology textbooks, the hospital continues its leadership in advancing pediatric health and health equity in Massachusetts and across the globe. Many of our discoveries also benefit adults.

Vision and values

Boston Children’s Hospital embodies a culture of innovation and scientific discovery, empowering our clinicians and scientists to challenge the status quo. We are dedicated to preventing, treating, and curing diseases of childhood and giving every child the best chance at a healthy life, no matter how rare or complex their condition. We embrace bold questions and tough problems and invest in cutting-edge research tools and facilities to get the answers we need. We collaborate with other research organizations when we can’t find an answer alone.

Funding and facilities

Boston Children’s has the world’s largest and most highly funded pediatric research enterprise, investing $603 million in externally sponsored research in FY2024 alone. We have consistently led the nation in federal funding to children’s hospitals, and we are unmatched among children’s hospitals in the depth, breadth, quantity, and quality of our scientific research.

Adding to our roughly 1 million square feet of research space, we will open a new building before the end of the decade, expanding our laboratory space by approximately 20 percent.

Faculty honors

Our scientific faculty, who have academic appointments at Harvard Medical School, have garnered a disproportionate share of prestigious honors and awards. Of our current faculty:

• 37 have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine
• 14 are members of the National Academy of Sciences
• 24 are members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• 13 are current Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators; an additional eight were HHMI investigators in the past.
• Eight have received the Lasker Award, and three have received the Nobel Prize.

For a full list of our researchers, visit our faculty page.

Commitment to clinical innovation

We are dedicated to bringing our discoveries to the clinic and work closely with industry to make this happen through our Technology & Innovation Development Office (TIDO). In addition, our Innovation & Digital Health Accelerator (IDHA) works to enhance clinical care. In the past 20 years, we have spun out more than 50 startup companies.

History

The history of research at Boston Children’s Hospital is traced directly to our founding document in 1869. From early studies of infant diseases to the advanced genetic and molecular studies of today, our researchers have always pushed the boundaries. Read more about how Boston Children's history is preserved in our archives. 

Research strengths

We invest heavily in a variety of technologies and core facilities to translate research from the laboratory to clinical care. Our capabilities include:

• Clinical expertise and patient registries representing diverse conditions
• Genetics and genomics
• Bioinformatics and data science
• Disease models including disease-specific cell lines, induced pluripotential stem cells and organoids for discovery and drug screening
• Engineered tissues, including organs on chips
• Single-cell sequencing and cellular “barcoding”
• Automated, high-throughput image analysis
• Transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and other “omics”
• Gene editing with CRISPR/Cas9 technology
• Drug discovery platforms
• Biomaterials, bioengineering, and pediatric device development

By the numbers

• $603 million in FY24 research expenditures
• About 550 Harvard Medical School faculty members, who dedicate most of their time to research
• Approximately 1M square feet of research space
• 80 to 100 research publications each week, many of them in leading journals
• More than 50 companies started

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