The Institute for Infection, Inflammation, and Immunity in Children (i4Kids) is focused on improving children’s health by fighting infectious, inflammatory, and immune diseases through catalyzing new multi-disciplinary collaborations across diverse sciences (biomedical, physical, computer, social), engineering, and policy.  Based at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, i4Kids aims to become a leading center of research, discovery, prevention, and treatment of diseases in children as the foundation of improving the health of future generations. 

Children are 20% of the US population and 100% of our future, yet the NIH invests less than 10% of its research budget in children’s health.

Philanthropic support is essential to building a well-integrated research institute where operations and infrastructure, education and training, and research synergistically advance biomedical research. While the NIH is the largest governmental source of research funding, resources are limited and restrictive, and children’s health has not been prioritized in the budget. i4Kids depend on philanthropy to support areas like operations, education, and training, which are the underpinnings of producing and implementing innovative discoveries.

What kind of i4Kids initiatives will your funding support?

1.Education and Training:

We are committed to training the next generation of pediatricians and researchers as well as engaging with the public to increase trust and scientific understanding.  We are particularly interested in supporting people from underrepresented backgrounds and those who are first in their families to enter the biomedical field.  Our initiatives include:

Outreach to local schools like the Neighborhood Academy including:

 -Career days

 -Summer research and clinical shadowing experiences

 -Science curriculum partnership

Medical Student Scholarships:

-$1,000 scholarships to support medical students interested in Pediatrics, especially those who are first-generation college graduates

-Mentorship opportunities within Pediatrics

-Research program to cure Acute Flaccid Myelitis

-Pittsburgh Phage Project to fight antimicrobial infections

-Pilot Grant Projects with current projects focusing on benefiting children with peanut allergies, asthma, group B strep infections, and celiac disease