Can you name a disease where inflammation is not one of the major drivers? Scott Canna, MD, rheumatologist at UPMC Children’s Hospital and a Mellon Scholar with the Richard King Mellon Foundation Institute for Pediatric Research, asks our hosts this question and talks about modulating our immune system in both rare and common diseases. Dr. Canna has been actively researching ways to better understand and treat inflammatory disorders for over a decade.

Kathryn “Cassie” Torok, MD, director of the Pediatric Scleroderma Clinic at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, is one of the few doctors in the nation that is considered an expert on pediatric scleroderma and patients will travel from other cities to meet with her. Learn about this uncommon condition and the clinical work and research coming from the Pediatric Scleroderma Clinic.

The cells in our body work together as a system to help us function and Amanda Poholek, assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Department of Immunology, is interested in what happens when these cell interactions “go wrong” and result in diseases. Dr. Poholek discusses transcription factors, the proteins that help direct our genetic information, and the breakthrough technology of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS or NextGen), which provides rapid and accurate genome analysis.

Michael Morowitz, MD, is an associate professor of Surgery and an attending physician in the Division of Pediatric and General Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Morowitz’s research focuses on Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC), a mysterious disorder of intestinal inflammation in premature newborn infants. His lab studies the microbiome, the vast collection of microorganisms that cover our bodies, inside and out.

A family’s access to specialty pediatric care can sometimes depend on their home address. Kristin Ray, MD, director of Health Systems Improvements with Children’s Community Pediatrics (CCP), and a Mellon Scholar with the Richard King Mellon Foundation Institute for Pediatric Research, aims to improve the pediatric health care delivery system to make quality care more readily available to all. Dr. Ray discusses two interventions that can help with these challenges, telemedicine and electronic consultations, and the future of this specialty care delivery.

Thomas Diacovo, MD, is chief of the UPMC Newborn Medicine Program and director of Neonatal Cardiovascular Research at the Heart Institute. Dr. Diacovo discusses how he became interested in Thrombosis research, his journey to Pittsburgh, and his research testing new drugs for neonatal intensive care patients, particularly those with congenital heart disease who are at high risk for forming blood clots. Dr. Diacovo also credits the parents of our patients for the success of his clinical trials.

Bernhard Kühn, MD, is the director of research in Cardiology and an associate director for the Richard King Mellon Institute for Pediatric Research. The Kühn Lab focuses on cardiomyocytes and creating therapies that can help the heart muscle heal itself to recover from a heart attack or to help it restore a congenital heart defect to normal cardiac function without requiring surgery. He also reflects on the helpful collaboration with the cardiac surgery team here at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Alejandro Hoberman, MD, chief of the Division of General Academic Pediatrics and president of Children’s Community Pediatrics, has contributed research on urinary tract infections and acute otitis media, and in this episode, the focus is on the ears. He discusses the role of antibiotics, duration of treatment, resistance, adverse outcomes, allergies, and more. Dr. Hoberman also talks about the role that new technologies and multimedia tools play in treatment and discussions with parents.

After six years of medical school in Romania, Mioara Manole, MD, came to the U.S. and discovered her passion for pediatric emergency medicine and the unique challenges it can bring. In addition to seeing patients in our emergency department, she is also the director of Basic and Translational Research in the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine.

Learn about Dr. Manole’s journey to emergency medicine and how her research translates to her clinical work, including the creation of the FLO2 NeuroCap, a noninvasive device that measures brain oxygenation and neuronal activity in children after cardiac arrest or other brain injuries.

In the late ’80s, a young George Mazariegos, MD, had a one-month rotation with transplant pioneer Thomas E. Starzl, MD. Today, he is chief of Pediatric Transplantation at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and director of Pediatric Transplantation at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute. Our hosts cover all things pediatric liver transplantation in Pittsburgh: What conditions require a transplant, what our center has accomplished, growing our transplant network, improving care after transplantation, and more.