The Mellon Scholars program is the foundation of the Richard King Mellon Institute for Pediatric Research at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Scholars are comprised of all assistant professors in the tenure stream at UPMC Children’s Hospital, across all divisions.
Our goal is to:
- Foster career development.
- Create a stronger community of investigators.
- Retain talented scientists and physician-scientists.
Our Mellon Scholars and their Research Focus
- Rannar Airik, PhD – New strategies to treat kidney failure
- Kelly M. Bailey, MD, PhD – The Ewing sarcoma microenvironment and immune responses to pediatric sarcomas
- Erica Braverman, MD – Creating better chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells for pediatric sarcomas
- Daniela Brissett, MD - Developing innovative, community-engaged tools to measure and address adultification and its impact on the health and identity of marginalized youth
- Brian Campfield, MD – Fending off foreign attacks on the lung
- Shaun Carlson, PhD – The identification of therapeutic approaches to promote recovery after brain injury
- Takuto Chiba, PhD - Microvascular Protection Against Kidney Injury
- Jessica Daley, MD – Identifying and reversing mechanisms driving immunosuppression in Ewing Sarcoma
- Will DePas, PhD – Biogeography of bacterial infections
- Taylor Eddens, MD, PhD – Examining early life immune responses to viral infections and the connection to asthma development
- Catherine Forster, MD – Urobiome in UTIs
- Megan Culler Freeman, MD, PhD – Understanding how viruses cause paralysis
- Kristina Gaietto, MD - Pediatric asthma research with a focus on endotypes, omics, stress-related impacts, COVID-19 outcomes, and pulmonary function
- Lina Ghaloul Gonzalez, MD – Plain people (Amish/Mennonites) translational medicine
- Radha Gopal, PhD – Cardiovascular diseases associated with viral infection
- Katherine Guyon-Harris, PhD – Interventions to support positive parent-child relationships across the perinatal period
- Jessica Jarvis, PhD, MT-BC – Improving the efficacy and equity of pediatric rehabilitation services for children with chronic and serious illnesses
- Heather Joseph, DO - Early signals of inattention among infants and toddlers at familial risk for ADHD and behavioral interventions for parents and young children with ADHD
- Melissa Kane, PhD – Viruses and the immune system
- Laura Kirkpatrick, MD – Reproductive Health and Epilepsy
- Christine March, MD, MS – Optimizing health care delivery and outcomes for youth with diabetes
- Lisa Mauer, MD – The role of GRK2 in inhibition of the MALT1 proto-oncoprotein in lymphomagenesis
- Cody Nesvick, MD - Understanding and targeting the epigenetic mechanisms of atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors (ATRT) in young children
- Carolina Pinzon-Guzman, MD – Molecular mechanisms of foregut congenital anomalies (EA/TEF and CDH)
- Catherine Poholek, MD, PhD - Investigating the underlying etiologies of pediatric autoimmune disease to improve treatment options and the role of lipid metabolism and a cholesterol-binding protein called apolipoprotein E in lymph node stromal cells during the immune response
- Aiden Porter, MD - Exploring kidney cell stress responses to uncover drug targets for treating kidney injury
- Vikram Raghu, MD, MS - Cost-effectiveness and decision-making in pediatric intestinal failure and transplantation
- Jacquelin Rankine, MD, PhD – Optimizing school health services to improve health and educational outcomes
- Glenn Rapinski, MD, PhD - understanding interactions between the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the patient that lead to ventilator-associated infections, particularly in children who have tracheostomies
- Anne-Marie Rick, MD, MPH, PhD – Protection against newborn infections through maternal immunity
- Franziska Rosser, MD, MPH, FAAP – Epidemiological effects of outdoor air pollution on children with asthma
- Jenny Ruiz, MD, MSCE – Language discordant communication research in pediatric oncology/li>
- Anita Pradeep Saraf, MD, PhD – Developing a better understanding the role of genetic mutations, chronic inflammation and mechanical strain on cardiomyocytes
- Kelsey Schweiberger, MD, MS - The appropriate application of technology to improve child health outcomes, and the role that technology plays in physician-patient communication
- Laurie Silva, PhD – Viral and host determinants of virus replication and pathogenesis
- Emir Tas, MD - Sex-specific mechanisms of early cardiometabolic risk in youth with type 1 diabetes
- Mary Ellen Vajravelu, MD, MSHP – Improving outcomes and achieving health equity for youth with type 2 diabetes
- Anna Wang-Erickson, PhD - Infectious disease epidemiology, global health, bacterial genetics, vaccines and phage therapy development
- Tyia Wilson, PhD - Promoting resilience and reducing substance use in youth under chronic stress
- Yijen Wu, PhD –MuSIC 4 MIND - Multi-Systems Imaging Characterization for Mitochondrial Involvement in Neurological Disease
- Xiangwei Xiao, MD, PhD – Insulin cell function and preservation
