Cambridge Children's Hospital

30/10/2026

During October, we have shone a big shiny light on research! 🔬 🔦

We have focused on:
🔹 Why Cambridge Children's Research Institute - the CCRI - is a BIG deal
🔸 What it means to be involved in research
🔹 Why child health research is underfunded
🔸 Mental health research in challenging times
🔹 How research brings hope to children and families
🔸 Gut health research, based on the seventh centre at our CCRI

We wanted to close our research campaign with some final words from Professor Sam Behjati, Director of Cambridge Children's Research Institute.

Early next week, we will wrap up all the content and share it with you, just in case you missed anything!

29/10/2026

Imagine if your nurse - the person looking after you - had the same condition. They totally understood what you were going through. They'd faced some of the same challenges as you. They'd spent time in hospital. They'd struggled to find a treatment that worked. And they'd taken part in research trials themselves.

Kelly Spike is that person. She is a clinical research nurse at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and part of the team at the Centre for Children's Gut Health. She has Crohn's Disease and, over the years, has been very unwell as doctors worked to find a treatment to help her. Now Kelly has shared her story to show how clinical care and research are intertwined, as they will be at Cambridge Children's Research Institute.

She said: "Working with young people with IBD and their families feels like a full circle moment. To get to use everything I know as a nurse, and having experience of IBD, feels really special and rewarding."

28/10/2026

It's time to get up close to some beautifully weird and wonderful stem cells!

The team at the Centre for Children's Gut Health, led by Professor Matthias Zilbauer, have shared a brilliant explainer of how they use stem cells to grow patient derived organoids for their research on paediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Crohn’s Disease, and Ulcerative Colitis.
With the help of young patients, the team takes donated cells to grow miniature versions of organs (organoids) that can be used study diseases, test new medicines, and observe how cells regenerate. This helps the team develop safer treatments and better outcomes for patients.

We are delighted that the CCGH will have a presence at the new Cambridge Children's Research Institute when it opens > https://orlo.uk/FAAV3

Thank you CCGH team for sharing this lovely content with us. You can find out about the CCGH here > https://orlo.uk/HUsOJ

27/10/2026

It’s been confirmed that the Cambridge Centre for Children's Gut health (CCGH), which launched in 2025, will become the seventh research centre to have a presence within the Cambridge Children's Research Institute when it opens.

Matthias Zilbauer, University of Cambridge Professor of Paediatric Gastroenterology, said this will provide opportunities for scientists at the CCGH to expand their work, building on their existing clinical and translational research programme, and develop new collaborations. He said current treatments are largely trial and error, work for around only half of patients, and often lose effectiveness over time, leaving many children with progressive disease and reduced quality of life.

Arthur from Cambridgeshire was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease when he was nine and has struggled to find treatment that works. His mum Sian said: "We have to assume that this is going to be forever, but there is always this little thought that research will find something that can help. Research happening does give some hope."

Read the full story > https://orlo.uk/LTJXK

The CCRI will sit within the heart of the new Cambridge Children’s Hospital, the first specialist children’s hospital for the East of England. Its will collectively tackle some of the most serious impediments to health and wellbeing affecting children and young people in the UK and globally.

26/10/2026

The Cambridge Children’s Hospital ambition for holistic care, includes supporting families of seriously ill children when they need it most. We share this goal with It’s Never You charity, whose founders Ceri and Frances have campaigned tirelessly to make the wellbeing of parents, carers and siblings an integral part of children’s hospital care.

We are excited to work with them to make wraparound care for families a reality, and share learnings that help ensure this model becomes the benchmark for care, everywhere.

Cambridge Children's Hospital and It’s Never You have agreed to work together on a future pilot informed by the upcoming government-commissioned Hugh’s Report, helping shape how families facing serious childhood illness are supported.

Our shared ambition is to make the wellbeing of parents, carers and siblings an integral part of children’s hospital care, with learning that could help improve support across the NHS.

For Frances and me, this is deeply personal. The future hospital will stand just a short distance from where Hugh was treated and died, aged six.

When Hugh was diagnosed, we saw how important it is for care to extend to the whole family. Our vision aligns with Cambridge Children’s Hospital’s commitment to supporting parents, carers and siblings alongside the child. Together, we want to help make that shared vision a reality.

Dr Rob Heuschkel, Clinical Director for Cambridge Children’s Hospital, said: “We fully endorse the principles of Hugh’s Report and are committed to embedding the recommendations into our clinical model of care. We are looking forward to working closely with Ceri and Frances on this.”

Children’s Commissioner for England for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, said: “This pilot with Cambridge Children’s Hospital is such a promising step forward and I hope Hugh’s legacy is taken on by the wider system to drive change for children and families.”

Hugh’s Report which has been commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care will examine the mental health impact of life-threatening illness on families and identify how support can be improved. This collaboration offers an opportunity to put its recommendations into practice.

We cannot change what happened to Hugh. But we can change what happens next. ❤️

Cambridge Children’s Hospital image: Hawkins\Brown and White Arkitekter

22/10/2026

Yesterday we heard from Dr Aditi Vedi about baby Oliver, who was born with a lump on his thigh. Everyone thought it was cancer, but Whole Genome Sequencing revealed that it wasn't. Oliver didn't need chemo and he didn't need surgery.

We caught up with Oliver and his parents, Sara and Michael, who talked to us about the rollercoaster of emotions, between anxiety and relief. Sara said: "It is hard to believe how far we have come in four years. From the uncertainty and fear of those early weeks to watching Oliver grow into the happy, loving little boy he is today, we feel incredibly grateful for every day with him."

Cambridge Children's Research Institute will have seven centres, including one dedicated to genomic medicine and another entirely focused on childhood cancer.

ALT TEXT
We start with an image of a little boy in a green fireman's helmet, with a big smile on his face. The words say - This is Oliver. He's four. He love helicopters, police cars and paw patrol.
The next image is of Oliver in his school uniform on his first day of primary school. He has sandy coloured hair and a big smile.
Next we see Oliver as a proud big brother to George. They are sitting on the sofa together. George has fair hair and a sweet chubby baby smile.
The next image is of Oliver, age around 4, standing on an airfield with a helicopter behind him. He looks very happy. The words say - Oliver had his whole genome sequenced just after he was born. Here's what happened.

21/10/2026

Cambridge Children’s Research Institute will focus on precision medicine, finding ways to treat the specific biology of a patient. At our conference back in March, Dr Aditi Vedi, a consultant academic paediatric oncologist at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, gave a speech about how rapid Whole Genome Sequencing is changing the story of children’s cancer.

In this clip she talks about a baby called Oliver who was born with a lump on his leg and how whole genome sequencing changed the course of his life.

It took THIRTEEN years (1990-2003) and around $13bn for the first human genome to be sequenced, although even then it wasn't complete. These days a comprehensive WGS analysis is estimated to be in the thousands of pounds and, in some cases, can be done in just 24 hours, allowing clinicians to act rapidly and in the best interest of the child, often avoiding invasive procedures and harsh cancer treatments.

Watch Aditi’s whole speech to find out more about rapid whole genome sequencing for children with cancer > https://youtu.be/WFao6L3EkK8

19/10/2026

Hope 🫶

That is what many parents, carers, and young people have told us research means to them. Being able to get involved in research that might lead to better treatments for them now, or for children in the future, gives purpose when life is feeling really tough. It brings a sense of hope that things might improve.

Oliver was diagnosed with a rare cancer when he was a toddler. When the chemotherapy stopped working and the disease started to spread, it appeared that hope was diminishing. However, Oliver was offered the opportunity to join a trial. Over a decade later he is healthy and living a normal life. His mum Danielle has written about how research changed the course of Oliver's life 👉 https://orlo.uk/2A66A

Danielle said: "Although it was scary at first not knowing how Oliver would respond to the medication or what the side effects might be, the trial team looked after us incredibly well. The treatment has enabled Oliver to manage his condition for more than a decade and has allowed him to live a much more normal life than we ever thought possible."

Oliver's sister Macie has been a young ambassador for the Cambridge Children's Hospital project for the last five years. She has been a champion for siblings, remembering the many times she spent with her brother in hospital or was left at home with grandparents. Macie has written about that experience 👉 https://orlo.uk/A6JzP

16/10/2026

Our site on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus places Cambridge Children's Hospital and the embedded Cambridge Children's Research Institute (CCRI) in the company of other world-leading biomedical research organisations, including Cancer Research UK, AstraZeneca and Abcam.

The Campus brings together academia, industry and healthcare and gives us an opportunity to partner, accelerate innovation and impact beyond the walls of our hospital. Our CCRI will be hosted by the University of Cambridge, with its 800 year history of making some of the world's most important scientific discoveries. We will build on that legacy and drive the next generation of breakthroughs for children and young people, not just in Cambridge but for the region and further afield.

Here are just some examples of the life-changing paediatric research already happening in Cambridge…
🔸 The Generation Study: Little Safi (pictured) was one of 100,000 babies to have their genomes sequenced as part of a study to help spot more than 200 treatable rare conditions sooner. She was diagnosed with isolated growth hormone deficiency, meaning she was able to start treatment early.
🔹 Whole genome sequencing for children with cancer: A research study published in 2024 showed that one test can read a tumour’s complete genetic makeup, helping doctors understand what is driving the cancer.
🔸 Gene therapy: The CHORD trial, which started in May 2023, aims to show whether gene therapy can provide hearing for children born with auditory neuropathy. Opal (pictured) responded to sound within four weeks of the gene therapy infusion.
🔹 100,000 Genomes Project: The programme has been helping to speed up diagnoses by mapping people’s individual DNA through whole genome sequencing, leading to ground-breaking breakthroughs. Owen (pictured) has been one of the children to benefit.

Want to learn more about these incredible breakthroughs and other research stories, head to our website 👉 https://orlo.uk/JUmSi

15/10/2026

The Cambridge Children's Research Institute will have a centre entirely dedicated to mental health and neurodevelopment.

Professor Tamsin Ford, our Mental Health Research Lead, described a "perfect storm" with more children struggling with anxiety, depression, eating disorders and self-harm, while mental health research remains chronically underfunded. She has recently contributed her expertise in child and adolescent mental-health epidemiology to a major independent review of mental health conditions, ADHD and autism, and how support can be better matched to people’s needs. Read about this review and Professor Ford's thoughts on the mental health research landscape > https://orlo.uk/yIBQx

She said: "Six months of illness can represent most of an academic year, at precisely the time when young people are taking important examinations and making choices that affect their future. We should therefore be front-loading resources into early detection, effective treatment and helping children get back to functioning and back into school as quickly as possible."

Professor Ford is Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge and has an honorary contract with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. She is also Governing Body Fellow at Hughes Hall, Cambridge.