Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is the most common gastrointestinal surgical emergency in newborns, with mortality rates of around 15 to 30 per cent in the UK. But thanks to a study, funded by Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, and led by the UCL Institute of Child Health, there may be hope of a future treatment for the condition where severe inflammation destroys tissue in the gut.

A new study led by Great Ormond Street Hospital’s research partner the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH) has discovered that obesity can lead to a lack of vitamin D circulating in the body. Efforts to tackle obesity should therefore also help to reduce levels of vitamin D deficiency in the population, says the lead investigator of the study, Dr Elina Hypponen.

A team of scientists, led by Professor Francesco Muntoni of the UCL Institute of Child Health, have won a grant to develop and test a drug treatment for boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

The study will assess the safety and tolerability of the new drug in 12 children with DMD. “This funding is excellent news for the DMD community,” says Prof Muntoni, who explains that this approach could work for at least 70 per cent of DMD sufferers.

HRH The Princess Royal attended the official opening of the Newlife Birth Defects Research Centre (BDRC), last Thursday, 25 October 2012. The centre is based at the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH), Great Ormond Street Hospital’s research partner.

The first child stem cell-supported trachea transplant carried out in 2010 at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) is functioning well, according to a paper published in the Lancet today.

GOSHCC Professor of Developmental Biology and Genetics, Jane Sowden, is part of a research team who have shown for the first time that transplanting light-sensitive photoreceptors into the eyes of visually impaired mice can restore their vision.

I’m absolutely delighted to say that the independent regulator Monitor has authorised us to become an NHS Foundation Trust. We heard yesterday evening and we become a Foundation Trust today.

Doctors at the UCL Institute of Child Health, Great Ormond Street Hospital’s research partner, have made progress towards engineering donated intestines, so that they can be implanted without rejection.

Today Great Ormond Street Hospital celebrates 160 years since it first opened its doors! Find out how it developed from the 10 beds of The Hospital for Sick Children to what it has become today.

New research carried out by a team at the UCL Institute of Child Health, Great Ormond Street Hospital’s research partner, has added weight to the argument in favour of genetic testing of children before they are treated with certain antibiotics.