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Robyn Filipink, MD

  • Associate Professor

Administrative Assistant: Cleo Harmonson

Robyn Filipink is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. After completing medical school at the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biological Sciences, she completed her residency in Pediatrics and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (NDD) at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and started her faculty position at Children’s. Dr. Filipink’s certifications are in Pediatrics, Neurology with Special Qualifications in Child Neurology and Neuro Developmental Disabilities. She was awarded the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Department of Pediatrics Junior Clinician Award during her first year on faculty.

Filipink is the Director of the Movement Disorders clinic and the Tourette syndrome clinic. She evaluates, educates and treats patients with a range of symptomsincluding tics, chorea, tremor, ataxia, dystonia, Parkinsonism and related genetic neurodegenerative disorders. Her expertise in NDD expands her care to patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder, neurodegenerative disorders and genetic syndromes. Filipink is the Director of the Fragile X Center. She provides initial evaluations, referrals and long term follow up to children, adults and their families who have Fragile X syndrome and Fragile X Associated syndromes. This clinic participates in the Fragile X Clinical and Research Consortium.

Professional and Scientific Society Memberships

  • American Academy of Neurology, 2005-Present 
  • Child Neurology Society, 2006-Present 

Education & Training

  • BS, Biology, Canisius College, 1998
  • MD, State University of New York School of Medicine and Biological Sciences, 2002
  • Residency in Pediatrics, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, 2002-2004
  • Residency in Child Neurology, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, 2004-2008

Selected Publications

Girirajan S, Rosenfeld JA, Coe BP, Parikh S, Friedman N, Goldstein A, Filipink RA, McConnell JS, Angle B, Meschino WS, Nezarati MM, Asamoah A, Jackson KE, Gowans GC, Martin JA, Carmany EP, Stockton DW, Schnur RE, Penney LS, Martin DM, Raskin S, Leppig K, Thiese H, Smith R, Aberg E, Niyazov DM, Escobar LF, El-Khechen D, Johnson KD, Lebel RR, Siefkas K, Ball S, Shur N, McGuire M, Brasington CK, Spence JE, Martin LS, Clericuzio C, Ballif BC, Shaffer LG, Eichler EE (2012) Phenotypic heterogeneity of genomic disorders and rare copy-number variants. N Engl J Med. 367 (14): 1321–1331. 

Loma IP, Asato MR, Filipink RA, Alper G (2008) Neuromyelitis optica in a young child with positive serum autoantibody. Pediatr Neurol. 39 (3): 209–212. 

Winter JC, Filipink RA, Timineri D, Helsley SE, Rabin RA (2000) The paradox of 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine: An indoleamine hallucinogen that induces stimulus control via 5-HT1A receptors. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 65 (1): 75–82. 

Winter JC, Fiorella DJ, Timineri DM, Filipink RA, Helsley SE, Rabin RA (1999) Serotonergic receptor subtypes and hallucinogen-induced stimulus control. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 64 (2): 283–293. Review. 

Helsley S, Filipink RA, Bowen WD, Rabin RA, Winter JC (1998) The effects of sigma, PCP, and opiate receptor ligands in rats trained with ibogaine as a discriminative stimulus. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 59 (2): 495–503. 

Academic and Research Interests

  • Fragile X Syndrome
  • Deep Brain Stimulation
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder