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Research

Down syndrome-associated leukaemias: current evidence and challenges

Children with Down syndrome (DS) are at increased risk of developing haematological malignancies, in particular acute megakaryoblastic leukaemia and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. The microenvironment established by abnormal haematopoiesis driven by trisomy 21 is compounded by additional genetic and epigenetic changes that can drive leukaemogenesis in patients with DS.

Research

Cases of trisomy 21 and trisomy 18 among historic and prehistoric individuals discovered from ancient DNA

Aneuploidies, and in particular, trisomies represent the most common genetic aberrations observed in human genetics today. To explore the presence of trisomies in historic and prehistoric populations we screen nearly 10,000 ancient human individuals for the presence of three copies of any of the target autosomes. We find clear genetic evidence for six cases of trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) and one case of trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome), and all cases are present in infant or perinatal burials.

Research

Australian children living with rare diseases: health service use and barriers to accessing care

Children with rare diseases experience challenges at home and school and frequently require multi-disciplinary healthcare. We aimed to determine health service utilization by Australian children with rare diseases and barriers to accessing healthcare.

Research

The neglect of a child with intellectual disability as reported in Australian news media: A Foucauldian discourse analysis

People with intellectual disability experience a high risk of being neglected and family members are often identified as the perpetrators. Analysing the media provides insight into public narratives about social problems. A search of Australian newspapers published between 2016 and 2021 identified 27 articles that predominately reported on a single case of familial neglect of an individual with intellectual disability.

News & Events

Five researchers from The Kids awarded Early Career Child Health Researcher Fellowships

Five researchers from The Kids Research Institute Australia have been awarded three-year fellowships with the aim of keeping more WA-based PhD graduates involved in child health research.

News & Events

Participation key to quality of life for kids with disability

The Kids Research Institute Australia researchers have called for a greater focus on creating opportunities for children with disability to participate in the community, after finding a clear link between participation and better quality of life.

Research

Development of an International Database for a Rare Genetic Disorder: The MECP2 Duplication Database (MDBase)

The natural history of MECP2 duplication syndrome (MDS), a rare X-linked neurodevelopmental disorder with an estimated birth prevalence of 1/150,000 live births, is poorly understood due to a lack of clinical data collected for research. Such information is critical to the understanding of disease progression, therapeutic endpoints and outcome measures for clinical trials, as well as the development of therapies and orphan products.

Research

Factors influencing the attainment of major motor milestones in CDKL5 deficiency disorder

This study investigated the influence of factors at birth and in infancy on the likelihood of achieving major motor milestones in CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder (CDD). Data on 350 individuals with a pathogenic CDKL5 variant was sourced from the International CDKL5 Disorder Database.

Research

Enabling successful life engagement in young people with ADHD: new components beyond adult models of recovery

To examine the lived experiences of young people successfully managing life with ADHD and investigate the applicability of adult models of Recovery to these individuals.

Research

The Use of Serious Gaming to Improve Sensorimotor Function and Motivation in People with Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review

The aim of this systematic review was to review the evidence for serious gaming interventions in improving sensorimotor function in children and adults with cerebral palsy (CP). Seven databases were searched with terms related to serious gaming and CP.