Leading International Expert in Metabolic Liver Disease to Direct Hepatology Program at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC

Patrick McKiernan, M.D., a leading expert in metabolic liver disease, has been appointed director of the Pediatric Hepatology Program at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, part of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition. Dr. McKiernan will also join the staff of the hospital’s Center for Rare Disease Therapy.

Dr. McKiernan specializes in treating children with inherited metabolic disease and has an interest in developing less invasive therapies to help patients avoid or delay the need for liver transplantation. His research focus covers the clinical aspects of inherited metabolic liver disease, portal hypertension, novel endoscopic techniques, non-invasive markers of hepatic fibrosis, and immunosuppression following liver transplantation. He is actively involved in research on stem cell therapy for metabolic liver diseases and recently was the U.K. principle investigator on a stem cell study involving children with urea cycle disorders and Crigler-Najjar syndrome.

“Dr. McKiernan is among the world’s leading physician-scientists with expertise in pediatric hepatology, specifically inherited metabolic disease,” said Mark Lowe, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at Children’s Hospital. "His appointment enhances Children’s ability to provide care for children from around the world with complex metabolic conditions in need of the highest level of care.”

Dr. McKiernan also has a special interest is tyrosinemia, an inherited disorder caused by an enzyme deficiency that can lead to life-threatening liver and kidney failure. In a study published in 2014, Dr. McKiernan and his colleagues found that children whose tyrosinemia was identified at birth through newborn screening and started on the drug nitisinone developed normally and showed no signs of liver or kidney disease.

Dr. McKiernan comes to Children’s from Birmingham Children’s Hospital in the United Kingdom, where he was a hepatologist in the liver unit since 1994. He trained in medicine and pediatrics at Queen's University in Belfast.

Dr. McKiernan is a member of the British Medical Association, British Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, British Association for the Study of the Liver, and American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. He also is an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

As an international expert in metabolic disease, Dr. McKiernan is part of the Center for Rare Disease Therapy at Children’s, an integrated team of experts who have developed innovative therapies to treat a multitude of rare diseases.

Children’s has performed more than 330 liver transplants for patients with metabolic disease, which is more than any other center, including adult facilities. In addition, Children’s is a leading center for liver transplantation as a therapeutic option for children with maple syrup urine disease (MSUD). Children’s developed the first liver transplant protocol for MSUD in 2004 and since then has successfully performed more liver transplants in patients with MSUD than any other center in the world with 100 percent patient and graft survival.

For more information on Dr. McKiernan and the Pediatric Hepatology Program at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, please visit www.chp.edu/hepatology.