2025 brought groundbreaking clinical and research advances at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and the Stanford School of Medicine, giving children and families new pathways to healing and hope. Here are just a few highlights—thank you for helping to brighten the future for children and families!
Hope, Healed: Gene Therapy Breakthrough for Epidermolysis Bullosa
Families affected by a painful and life-limiting skin condition, epidermolysis bullosa (EB), have new hope: a phase 3 clinical trial shows gene-therapy skin grafts can dramatically heal EB wounds. Packard Children’s Hospital is one of just a handful of hospitals, and the only one west of Colorado, authorized to deliver this groundbreaking treatment. Led by Jean Tang, MD, PhD, this is the first FDA-approved therapy from Stanford’s Center for Curative and Definitive Medicine and builds on two decades of innovation and paves the way to treat other single-gene disorders, from cystic fibrosis to inherited heart and neurological conditions.
One Step Closer to a 3D Printed Heart
Alison Marsden, PhD, and Mark Skylar-Scott, PhD, from Stanford’s Basic Science and Engineering (BASE) Initiative are one step closer to 3D-printing a human heart using a child’s own stem cells—a transformative breakthrough for kids with life-threatening heart conditions. Their innovative computer modeling tools design and print “vascular trees”—intricate networks of blood vessels needed to sustain a living, printed organ—imagining a future without organ shortages, long waitlists, or rejection risks.
Hope for Children with Brain Tumors
A new CAR‑T cell therapy developed by Michelle Monje, MD, PhD, and Crystal Mackall, MD, has shown real promise for children with diffuse midline gliomas, including the devastating, and until now universally fatal diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). In a small trial, nine participants experienced improvements in walking, swallowing, and/or talking. Tumors in four kids shrunk by more than half—and one patient remains tumor-free four years after diagnosis. In February, Dr. Monje was awarded The Brain Prize—the most prestigious prize in neuroscience—for her pioneering work on DIPG and this potentially lifesaving therapy.
Summer Scamper 2025: A Celebration of Community and Children’s Health
Nearly 3,000 participants joined our 15th annual Summer Scamper, raising a record $930,000 for Packard Children’s Hospital and child and maternal health programs at the Stanford School of Medicine. Since 2011, the joyful community event has raised over $7 million, directly supporting lifesaving care, innovative research, and family-centered services—from visits with a Child Life specialist to access to interpreters working in 50+ languages.
Opening Two State-of-the-Art Spaces for Care and Innovation
នេះ។ Axe & Blaise Wanstrath Neonatal Intensive Care Unit opened in spring 2025—the first NICU space at Packard Children’s Hospital with private rooms. The new NICU offers a quieter environment that reduces infection risk for vulnerable babies, shortens hospital stays, and boosts parental involvement. Private rooms also let parents stay overnight and give medical teams space to deliver advanced, lifesaving care at the bedside.
Packard Children’s new Bass Center Clinic and Infusion Center opened in May 2025, and provides children and families a more comfortable, less stressful treatment environment and improves infection control. Made possible by generous donor support, this modern space has 15 private infusion rooms and 14 exam rooms, giving children and families privacy and compassionate, cutting-edge care during their treatment journeys.
Our Commitment to Community Health
Our donor partners play a vital role in ensuring kids, moms, and families receive the care they need when it matters most. With expected reductions in Medi-Cal and federal research funding, philanthropy that fuels compassionate care, groundbreaking research, and innovative treatments is more important than ever. Contributions to the Lucile Packard មូលនិធិកុមារ provide flexible support for the needs of our hospital and the School of Medicine, including important programs not covered by insurance, and invest in partnerships that improve health outcomes, expand access to care, and address the broader factors that affect well-being in the communities we serve.
Advancing Research and Care for Kids with Kidney Disease
ក $15 million gift from the David Koch Jr. Foundation is launching Stanford’s Kidney Health Innovation Program to advance research, enhance clinical care, and transform kidney health for children and young adults. At the program’s core will be the David Koch Jr. Foundation Kidney Health Innovation Awards, fueling cross-disciplinary research to increase our understanding of kidney disease and find new treatments. Packard Children’s, ranked among the top 10 pediatric nephrology programs nationwide, performs more kidney transplants than any other U.S. children’s hospital—with a 100% survival rate at one and three years.
Driving the Continued Modernization of our Home for Moms and Babies
Carol and Ned Spieker’s $25 million gift to Packard Children’s Hospital is leading the continued reimagination of our hospital’s West Building to facilitate care for pregnant moms and newborns with health challenges. The vision for the West Building transformation includes state-of-the-art labor and delivery rooms and maternity rooms, and a transformed NICU. There are still many opportunities to support the West Building transformation.
Community philanthropy is transforming children’s health, and we’re grateful for your partnership in making these and so many other advances possible this year. Here’s to continued progress—and even greater impact—in the year ahead!
