Pitt Pediatrics is proud to announce Melissa Kane, PhD has been named among the Investigators of this year’s Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease (PATH) program as part of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF). Kane is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in our Division of Infectious Diseases, as well as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Immunology. She is also a member of the Center for Microbial Pathogensis. 
According to the BWF, “The Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease (PATH) program provides opportunities for assistant professors to bring multidisciplinary approaches to studying human infectious diseases. The program aims to provide accomplished investigators at the assistant professor level with opportunities to study what happens at the points where the systems of humans and potentially infectious agents connect. The program supports research that sheds light on the fundamentals that affect the outcomes of these encounters: how colonization, infection, commensalism, and other relationships play out at levels ranging from molecular interactions to systemic ones.
PATH is a highly competitive award program that provides $505,000 over five years to study pathogenesis. The program intends to give recipients the freedom and flexibility to pursue new avenues of inquiry, stimulating higher-risk research projects that hold potential for significantly advancing our understanding of how infectious diseases work and how health is maintained.”
Kane’s funded research will focus on genetic and immunological mechanisms underlying protective antiretroviral responses. Her general research focus is on identifying genetic, immunological, cellular, and molecular mechanisms of retroviral resistance. She has published several important articles in the field of retrovirology and her accomplishments have been previously recognized by the Andy Kaplan Prize in Retrovirology and the Gilead Sciences Research Scholars Award.
Join us in celebrating this wonderful and prestigious accomplishment for Dr. Kane.