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Patrick J. Mckiernan, MD

  • Professor of Pediatrics
  • Director of Hepatology

Administrative Assistant: Caroline Badaczewski

He qualified in 1983 and trained initially in Pediatrics in Belfast. He then trained in hepatology and transplantation at. Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where he spent 25 marvellous years. He was a Consultant Pediatric Hepatologist in Birmingham from 1994 until 2016. Since 2016 he has been Director of Hepatology at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.  

He cares for children with all forms of liver disease and for those undergoing liver transplantation. He has a particular interest in inherited metabolic liver disease and portal hypertension.

Outside work his interests include his family and a rapidly increasing number of grandchildren in four countries. He likes to keep fit by cycling.

Professional and Scientific Society Memberships

  • British Medical Association, 1983
  • British Society of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, 1986
  • British Association for the Study of the Liver, 1989
  • The Society for the Study of Inborn Errors of Metabolism, 1989
  • British Inherited Metabolic Diseases Group, 1991
  • European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, 1993
  • American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, 1999
  • North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, 2018

Education & Training

  • BSc (Hons), Physiology, The Queen's University of Belfast, 1980
  • MD, Medicine, Surgery, and Obstetrics, The Queen's University of Belfast, 1983
  • Internship in Medicine and Surgery, Belfast City Hospital, 1983-1984
  • Regional Training Program in Pediatrics, MRCP UK, 1984-1991
  • Regional Training Program in Pediatrics, Birmingham UK, 1991-1994

Selected Publications

Perez JL, McDowell MM, Zussman B, Jadhav AP, Miyashita Y, McKiernan P, Greene S. Ruptured intracranial aneurysm in a patient with autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease. J Neurosurg Pediatr 2018:1-5.

Smets F, Dobbelaere D, McKiernan P, et al. Phase I/II Trial of Liver Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Pediatric Liver Based Metabolic Disorders: A Prospective, Open Label, Multicenter, Partially Randomized, Safety Study of One Cycle of Heterologous Human Adult Liver-Derived Progenitor Cells (HepaStem(R)) in Urea Cycle Disorders and Crigler-Najjar Syndrome patients. Transplantation 2019;103(9):1903-15.

Johansen L, Haller W, Thyagarajan M, Kelly D, McKiernan P. Hepatic Lesions Associated with McCune Albright Syndrome. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 2019;68:e54-e7.

Mohring, T., Karch, A., Falk, C. S., Laue, T., D'Antiga, L., Debray, D., Hierro, L., Kelly, D., McLin, V., McKiernan, P., Pawlowska, J., Czubkowski, P., Mikolajczyk, R. T., Baumann, U. and Goldschmidt, I. Immune Status in Children Before Liver Transplantation-A Cross-Sectional Analysis Within the ChilsSFree Multicentre Cohort Study. Frontiers in immunology 2019;10:52.

McKiernan, P. J., A. Ganoza, J. E. Squires, R. H. Squires, J. Vockley, G. Mazariegos, K. Soltys, Q. Sun and R. Sindhi. Evolving trends in liver transplant for metabolic liver disease in the United States. Liver transplantation 2019;25:911-21.

Del Brio Castillo R, Squires JE, McKiernan PJ. A novel mutation in VPS33B gene causing a milder ARC syndrome phenotype with prolonged survival. JIMD reports. 2019;47(1):4-8.

Celik, N., Squires, J. E., Soltys, K., Vockley, J., Shellmer, D. A., Chang, W., Strauss, K., McKiernan, P., Ganoza, A., Sindhi, R., Bond, G., Mazariegos, G. and Khanna, A. Domino liver transplantation for select metabolic disorders: Expanding the living donor pool. JIMD reports. 2019;48(1):83-9.

Strauss, K. A., C. E. Ahlfors, K. Soltys, G. V. Mazareigos, M. Young, L. E. Bowser, M. D. Fox, J. E. Squires, P. McKiernan, K. W. Brigatti, E. G. Puffenberger, V. J. Carson, and H. J. Vreman. Crigler-Najjar syndrome type 1: pathophysiology, natural history, and therapeutic frontier. Hepatology. 2019.

Celik, N., B. Kelly, K. Soltys, J. E. Squires, J. Vockley, D. A. Shellmer, K. Strauss, P. McKiernan, A. Ganoza, R. Sindhi, G. Bond, G. Mazariegos, and A. Khanna. Technique and outcome of Domino Liver Transplantation from patients with Maple Syrup Urine Disease: Expanding the donor pool for Live Donor Liver Transplantation. Clin Transplant. 2019:e13721.

van Vliet, K., W. G. van Ginkel, R. Jahja, A. Daly, A. MacDonald, C. De Laet, R. Vara, Y. Rahman, D. Cassiman, F. Eyskens, C. Timmer, N. Mumford, J. Bierau, P. M. van Hasselt, P. Gissen, P. J. Goyens, P. J. McKiernan, G. Wilcox, A. A. M. Morris, E. A. Jameson, S. C. J. Huijbregts, and F. J. van Spronsen. Emotional and behavioral problems, quality of life and metabolic control in NTBC-treated Tyrosinemia type 1 patients. Orphanet journal of rare diseases. 2019;14(1):285.

Full Publication List via NIH PubMed »

Research Grants

Albireo. McKiernan (PI), 11/01/2018-31/10/2020. A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Phase 3 Study to Demonstrate Efficacy and Safety of A4250 in Children with Progressive Familial Intrahepatic Cholestasis Types 1 and 2 (PEDFIC 1). Clinical trial of IBAT inhibitor treatment. $65,434

TARGET PharmaSolutions, Inc. McKiernan (PI), 08/01/2017- 08/01/21. A 5-year Longitudinal Observational Study of Patients with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver or Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis. An observational study of children with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. $120,000