Community project funding/congressionally directed spending - construction - children's research institute ("CRI"), based within children's wisconsin (children's), advances pediatric medical…

Community project funding/congressionally directed spending - construction - children's research institute ("CRI"), based within children's wisconsin (children's), advances pediatric medical research in wisconsin and beyond, with more than 1,000 active clinical studies, including ~200 interventional clinical trials, currently underway. CRI takes discoveries from the laboratory and converts them to new therapies, diagnostics, and other innovations at patients' bedsides. Pediatric research is vital to providing the best care for kids today and into the future. Pediatric researchers have access to CRI-supported shared service cores include flow cytometry, aquatics (zebrafish), histology, tissue banking, microscopic imaging, and biostatistics. Children's requests an appropriation of $400,000 for the purchase of a new flow cytometer, a critical piece of laboratory equipment utilized by several different CRI research groups, including those studying pediatric cancer and immune disorders. A flow cytometer provides a well-established method to identify cells in solution and is most commonly used for evaluating peripheral blood, bone marrow and other body fluids. Flow cytometry studies are used to identify and quantify the cells of the immune system and to characterize hematological malignancies. Flow cytometry has been around for approximately 30 years and has been critical to developing targeted cancer therapies by detecting markers on the surface of cells. Funding for a new flow cytometer would help mitigate the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on our research endeavors and help children's continue to be a leader in developing surgical and monitoring innovations, diagnostic tools and new treatments to improve the health and well-being of kids in wisconsin.