Sanford Children’s Health Research Center

“Junk DNA” drives embryonic development

“Junk DNA” drives embryonic development

Mark Mercola, Ph.D., and his team discovered that microRNAs play an important role in the allocation of cells into three germ layers—ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm—during development that give rise to all tissues and organs in the body.

Exciting clinical trial news for children with inherited bone disease

Exciting clinical trial news for children with inherited bone disease

José Luis Millán, Ph.D., has studied hypophosphatasia, an inherited disease that makes bones fragile, for the past 15 years. In a recent clinical trial, patients were treated with a new enzyme replacement therapy, showing significant improvement.

Rare bone disorder reveals new insights into autism

Rare bone disorder reveals new insights into autism

Researchers at Sanford-Burnham recently used a mouse model to investigate human multiple hereditary exostoses. They foundt symptoms that meet the three defining characteristics of autism: social impairment, language deficits, and repetitive behavior.

About the Sanford Children's Health Research Center

I have the utmost confidence that this collaboration will promote solutions to some of the most troubling health issues that affect children.

- Denny Sanford

Naming donor and Honorary Trustee

The Sanford Children's Health Research Center is a collaboration between Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Sanford-Burnham in La Jolla, California. These sister sites combine expertise in basic science, clinical research, and state-of-the art technology to conquer diseases affecting children, such as type 1 diabetes, congenital heart disease, muscular dystrophy, congenital disorders of glycosylation, hypophosphatasia, and multiple hereditary exostoses. Scientists in this center are also studying RNA biology, chemical biology, and stem cells to better understand how these diseases develop and how they might be prevented or treated. Their achievements include the first successful treatment for hypophosphatasia; the first successful treatments for some types of congenital disorders of glycosylation; the first chemical agonists of HNF4, a molecular switch that controls generation of insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells, providing a new path forward for future treatment of juvenile diabetes; discovery that the adult pancreas contains residual stem cells capable of being converted into insulin-producing beta cells; identification of chemicals that convert stem cells into heart cells and advanced pre-clinical applications of those cells for addressing heart disease; and discovery of non-coding RNAs involved in AIDS pathogenesis, revealing new therapeutic strategies for HIV.

Learn more about our children's health research in the following fields:

Research - Children's Health: About

Recent Developments

Sanford Children's Health Research Programs

Scientists in Sanford Children’s Health Research Center are focused on providing solutions to egregious—and often life-threatening—childhood diseases. To achieve this goal, they are combining basic research that reveals the fundamental causes of children’s diseases with innovative technologies that help translate those discoveries into clinical benefits. Explore each program below to learn more.

Research - Children's Health: Research Programs
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