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In 2007, the Richard King Mellon Foundation made a generous financial contribution to create the Richard King Mellon Institute for Pediatric Research (RKMI), some of which was spent constructing the Rangos Research Center. Since that time, additional financial support was obtained from a generous gift from the Tull Family Foundation to support pediatric research initiatives within the RKMI.
The RKMI began as a small group of investigators (termed “Mellon Scholars”) housed in the Rangos Research Center and functioned as a small, independent division within the Department of Pediatrics. In 2018, the RKMI expanded its mission with the objective to support talented scientists in the early stages of their careers performing cutting-edge pediatric research.
The overarching goal of the RKMI is to become the cornerstone of basic and clinical research within UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, encompassing a wide reach to facilitate synergy, communication, and mentorship across all research disciplines under the UPMC Children's umbrella, regardless of department or division. We believe that the diversity surrounding the professional experiences and scientific interests of the Mellon Scholars will accelerate collaboration across divisions and departments at UPMC Children's for the continual pursuit of excellence in pediatric healthcare.
Current Mellon Scholars:
Taylor Abel, MD – Brain surgery for epilepsy
Sameer “Sam” Agnihotri, PhD – Personalized treatment for brain cancer
Rannar Airik, PhD – New strategies to treat kidney failure
Kelly M. Baily, MD, PhD – The Ewing sarcoma microenvironment and immune responses to pediatric sarcomas
Corina O. Bondi, PhD – Therapeutic strategies after experimental traumatic brain injury
Thiago Bruder do Nascimento, MSc, PhD – Vascular biology and metabolic diseases
Brian Campfield, MD – Fending off foreign attacks on the lung
Joseph Thomas Church, MD – Prenatal therapies for congenital diaphragmatic hernia
Will DePas, PhD – Biogeography of bacterial infections
Catherine Forster, MD – Urobiome in UTIs
Lina Ghaloul Gonzalez, MD – Plain people (Amish/Mennonites) translational medicine
Tom Hooven, MD – Mechanisms and prevention of perinatal infections
Baoli Hu, PhD – Brain tumor cell behavior
Melissa Kane, PhD – Viruses and the immune system
Dwi U. Kemaladewi, PhD – Interventional genomics in rare diseases
Gary Kohanbash, PhD – Brain tumor vaccines
Marcus Malek, MD – Precision-guided surgery to find cancers
Anita McElroy, MD, PhD – Virus effects throughout the body
Amanda Poholek, PhD – Transcriptional and Epigenetic Regulation of Immune Cell Function
Franziska Rosser, MD, MPH, FAAP – Epidemiological effects of outdoor air pollution on children with asthma
Anita Pradeep Saraf, MD, PhD – Developing a better understanding the role of genetic mutations, chronic inflammation and mechanical strain on cardiomyocytes
Laurie Silva, PhD – Viral and host determinants of virus replication and pathogenesis
Amery Treble-Barna, PhD – Neurologic function after brain injury
Xiangwei Xiao, MD, PhD – Insulin cell function and preservation
Directory
Contact faculty and staff of the Mellon Institute.