As a leader in pediatric health care and the world’s premier center for pediatric transplantation, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh’s Hillman Center for Pediatric Transplantation is dedicated to transforming lives through research and scientific study. With research support from government agencies, insurers and the community, UPMC Children’s continues to improve the medical management of pediatric transplant patients and, consequently, increase survival rates for all pediatric transplant patients.
Our research programs and clinical trials are helping to advance pediatric transplantation, with special focus on immunotherapy, transplantation tolerance, organ preservation, bioengineering, living intestine transplants and post-transplant therapies, including the reduction of steroid-based and immunosuppressive drugs.
UPMC Children's is also at the forefront of pediatric heart and lung transplant research. Lab researchers and clinicians work side-by-side to study relevant cardiovascular and transplant-related problems in children. The goal is not only to increase the overall body of knowledge about heart disease and transplantation in children, but also to discover methods to enhance success of the procedures.
In the Pediatric Transplant Research Laboratory, UPMC Children’s investigators are developing ways to improve the effectiveness of anti-rejection medicines so that each child can receive the most appropriate drug at a dose that prevents rejection, but without side effects.
A research team at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute is studying specific biological factors that may enable some patients to be successfully weaned from all immunosuppressive therapy. When precise clinical markers can be determined, it may be possible to develop simple tests that could help predict transplant tolerance.
Through groundbreaking research and advanced training programs, Children’s has developed innovative therapies for previously fatal liver and intestinal disorders. Patients of Children’s pediatric intestinal transplant program represent the world’s first and most successful series of small intestine transplants. Children’s also offers pediatric living-related liver transplants as a lifesaving alternative to the national cadaver organ shortage.
