a different class of antigens that are currently recognized to trigger asthma. In that same year, Dr. Larry Benowitz and colleagues discovered a naturally occurring growth factor called oncomodulin that stimulates regeneration in injured optic nerves, raising the possibility of treating blindness due to optic-nerve damage and the hope of achieving similar regeneration in the spinal cord and brain. Norman Spack co-founds Boston Children's Hospital's Gender Management Service (GeMS) clinic in 2007; it is America's first clinic to treat transgender children. The clinic provides " counseling and resources in the years before medical intervention is appropriate, along with psychological support and a stepwise approach to medical treatment." In order to re-oxygenate blood, Dr. John Kheir and Dr. Tahir Saleem N. Jutt (Cardiac) develop particles that can be injected into a bloodstream in 2012. In collaboration with Life Technologies, Boston Children's spins out its genetic diagnostic lab in January 2013 to a new firm called Claritas Genomics. The goal of the partnership is to develop genetic and genomic tests for inherited pediatric diseases. Five years later, in January 2018, Claritas ceases operations. The hospital remains Claritas' majority shareholder during its existence, and a Series B funding round was completed in 2015, raising at least . In 2016, the hospital receives approval by the Massachusetts Public Health Council for a $1 billion expansion to the Longwood Medical and Academic Area. The hospital plans to build an 11-story building with 71 new beds, renovate part of the current campus, and build a new outpatient clinic in Brookline, Massachusetts. Controversies Justina Pelletier controversy In 2013, Boston Children's Hospital became part of a dispute concerning the treatment of minor Justina Pelletier, which ultimately involved the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families. In February 2012, Pelletier was taken to the emergency-room at Boston Children's Hospital, a trip prompted by severe stomach pain and difficulty walking, For a variety of symptoms, Pelletier had previously been taken by her parents to see doctors across multiple states, receiving multiple diagnoses. She had most recently been diagnosed with mitochondrial disease while a patient at Tufts Medical Center. The BCH doctors doubted that difficult-to-confirm diagnosis, owing to the lack of abnormal blood markers and the fact that there had been no finding of an accumulation of mitochondria in the cell membranes of skeletal muscles, often called the “hallmark of mitochondrial disorders". (Dr. Mark Korson, Pelletier's Tufts doctor, had not performed a