Our training program is currently in its 5th year of funding. The trainees who were funded by this T32 are shown below. Eight candidates (Drs. Margaret Satchell, Kimberly Statler, Trung Nguyen, Yong Han, Mary Hartman, Paul Shore, Mandeep Chadha and Melinda Fiedor) have completed our program, 2 are in their second year of training (Drs. Ericka Fink & Yi-Chen Lai). The research accomplishments include two funded K12 awards (Statler, Nguyen) and one submitted (Fink) along with a K-23 (Shore) and RO-8 (Lai) currently submitted, and an American Heart Association, Texas Affiliate to Dr. Nguyen. Dr. Hartman, is completing some additional clinical training. The publications of all of our trainees while working on the T32 are provided below including a bibliography and awards, respectively. As of the time of submission of this renewal, our trainees, while funded by this T32, have published or in press 23 peer-reviewed manuscripts (18 as first author), and 62 abstracts (43 as first author). They have also been authors or co-authors of 2 reviews and 11 chapters or editorials. Numerous manuscripts are still in preparation or being submitted for publication. Each of our trainees has given multiple presentations at the major national or international meetings in the related fields. Seven of the 10 fellows funded by the T32 have received awards at major scientific meetings—2 have received multiple awards. Finally, our fellows have published in excellent journals. The average impact factor for cited papers was 3.86.

CURRENT TRAINEES | VIEW FORMER TRAINEES

Dr. Jennifer Arnold
joined our fellowship program in July 2006 after having completed a pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital and fellowship in neonatology at Magee Women’s Hospital.  She joined our T32 training program in Pediatric Neurointensive Care and Research in July 2006. In July 2007, and is carrying out an important clinical trial on the use of simulation for resident training in neonatal intubation and resuscitation skills. Dr. Arnold is being mentored by a team that includes Drs. Melinda Fiedor-Hamilton, Robert Kanter, Robert Clark and Patrick Kochanek. Dr. Arnold has accepted a position at Stoneybrook University as a Clinical Assistant Professor in Pediatrics in the Division of Neonatology.

James Bales
is an MD/PhD student currently attending the University of Pittsburgh as a member of the Medical Scientist Training Program.  He did his undergraduate education at Washington State University in Pullman, WA.  In 2007, he finished the first two years of his medical degree and has transitioned into the graduate years of his program.  James is doing his graduate training in the lab of Dr. C. Edward Dixon examining the molecular changes in striatal neurotransmitter systems, particularly dopamine, following traumatic brain injury and their relation to functional deficits.

Dr. Sandra Buttram
joined our fellowship program in 2003.  She did her residency at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and during her fellowship in the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Program at Children’s Hospital, carried out research at the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research and was co-mentored by Drs. Edwin Jackson and Patrick Kochanek.  Dr. Buttram’s research focused on the application of novel Luminex technology assessment of multiple cytokines in the response to experimental sepsis and clinical traumatic brain injury.  Dr. Buttram presented her work at the 2006 SCCM Congress and has just submitted a manuscript to the Journal of Neurotrauma on the effect of therapeutic hypothermia on the cytokine response after severe traumatic brain injury in infants and children.  After completing her fellowship training, Dr. Buttram joined the faculty in the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Phoenix Children’s Hospital in Phoenix, AZ.


Dr. Alia Dennis
joined our fellowship program in July 2004.  She is a senior fellow in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine who has been working in the area of combined traumatic brain injury and hemorrhagic shock in a program funded to Dr. Kochanek from the United States Army.  She has characterized this model including both histology and cerebral blood flow—as assessed by magnetic resonance imaging in collaboration with our colleagues at the Pittsburgh NMR Center at Carnegie Mellon University.  Dr. Dennis has presented this work at both the 2006 National Neurotrauma Society meeting and the 2007 Congress of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.  For her work presented to the SCCM, she received the 2007 In-training award—which is given for the top abstract submitted by a fellow to the Congress.  Recently, she published a manuscript on blast-induced traumatic brain injury in the 2007 Yearbook of Intensive Care.

Dr. Jennifer Exo
joined the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine fellowship program in July 2006, and recently selected the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research to carry out her research.  Jennifer did her residency at Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital.  Dr. Exo has just begun experiments—and is testing novel resuscitation strategies in a mouse model of combined traumatic brain injury and hemorrhagic shock.  Currently, she is comparing polynitroxylated albumin and hypertonic saline to conventional resuscitation fluids such as hetastarch and lactated Ringers solution and is assessing both acute and long-term outcome parameters, along with markers of oxidative stress in this model, which is being mentored by Drs. Kochanek, Bayır, and Dixon, is supported by a program project grant from the United States Army. 


Dr. Tomas Drabek
joined our fellowship program in January 2004.  He trained in anesthesiology in Prague, Czechoslovakia including special expertise in cardiac anesthesia.  After doing research as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Minnesota, he chose to continue to develop his academic skills working in the area of novel resuscitation approaches in cardiac arrest.  Dr. Drabek has built upon the work in our Center in the area of Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation (EPR) for otherwise lethal exsanguination cardiac arrest and has developed a rat model of EPR to serve as a tool both to study molecular mechanisms and to screen novel therapies.  Dr. Drabek has published the first description of that new model recently in the journal Critical Care Medicine.  He has also been involved in our large animal work with EPR.  This year, Dr. Drabek will serve as the 2007 Charles Schertz Fellow in the Department of Anesthesiology.

Dr. Mioara Manole
began fellowship training in our Center July 2006 as a T32 fellow.  Dr. Manole is the first pediatric emergency medicine fellow to be funded by our T32 program from NICHD.  She did her pediatric residency training at Mercy Children’s Medical Center in Pittsburgh and recently completed clinical pediatric emergency medicine fellowship training at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.  Dr. Manole is studying the cerebral blood flow response to asphyxial cardiac arrest in a developing (post-natal day 17) rat model under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Clark and the investigative team at the Pittsburgh NMR Center for Biomedical Research/Carnegie Mellon University.  Dr. Manole received 2nd prize for her presentation at the Annual Pulse of Pittsburgh Fellow Research Day sponsored by the Pennsylvania/Delaware Affiliate of the American Heart Association in February 2007.


Dr. Steven Robert
is a fellow in the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine program at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.  He did his residency at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Dr. Robert is working on the role of high mobility group box-1 (HMGB-1) in septic shock under the mentorship of Drs. Mitchell Fink and Rajesh Aneja.  He presented the initial findings of his research at the 2007 Congress of the Society of Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Robert has just accepted a position in our T32 fellowship training program at the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research and plans to continue to develop his research in this important area of inflammatory signaling in sepsis.

Dr. Rosanne Salonia
is currently a fellow in the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine program at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.  She did her residency training at SUNY Upstate Medical University Hospital.  Dr. Salonia is interested in the area of inflicted childhood neurotrauma and the development of novel diagnostic tools for this important condition.  She has recently begun research in this area working under the mentorship of Dr. Rachel Berger.

Dr. Ajit Sarnaik
joined our fellowship program in July 2005.  He did his pediatric residency training at Children’s Hospital of Michigan.  He is currently a fellow in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. Ajit is working under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Clark with co-mentoring from Dr. Yvette Conley and is studying P-glycoprotein polymorphisms and their relationship to outcome after severe traumatic brain injury.  In February 2007, Dr. Sarnaik received an educational scholarship from the SCCM for his work in this area.  Dr. Sarnaik will join our T32 training program in Pediatric Neurointensive Care and Research beginning in July 2007.


Dr. David Shellington
is a fellow in the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine program at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.  He did his residency training in pediatrics at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth. Dr. Shellington is studying the inflammatory response to the important combination of severe traumatic brain injury and hemorrhagic shock in a new mouse model that has been developed in our center.  He is examining both the local response to this combined insult in brain and the systemic inflammatory response in this important condition.  His initial area of focus is on microglial activation in brain and the systemic and cerebral cytokine response—with a goal of developing and testing novel anti-inflammatory therapies.  Dr. Shellington is working under the mentorship of Dr. Kochanek on a project funded by the United States Army.

Dr. Craig Smith
joined our fellowship program in July 2005.  He did his pediatric residency training at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and is currently a second year fellow in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine.  Dr. Smith is working under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Clark studying the role of poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) in experimental traumatic brain injury.  In February 2007, Dr. Smith received the scientific award from the Society of Critical Care Medicine for his work on the effect of gender on sub-cellular localization of PARP-activation after experimental traumatic brain injury in developing rats.  Dr. Smith will join our T32 training program in Pediatric Neurointensive Care and Research beginning in July 2007.

Karen Walson, MD
joined our fellowship program in 2005.  She did her residency training at Georgetown University Hospital.  Dr. Walson is working on a fascinating project investigating the role of peroxidases in the evolution of secondary damage across the settings of CNS injury, shock, and multiple organ failure under the mentorship of Dr. Hülya Bayır.  The overall hypothesis of this project centers around the concept that the release of substances such as cytochrome c and free iron in these insults, can set the stage for the generation of peroxidase activity leading to oxidative stress and both parenchymal vascular secondary injury.  Dr. Walson presented an initial report of her findings at the 2007 Congress of the SCCM.  Her work represents a collaboration between the University of Pittsburgh Center for Free Radical and Antioxidant Health, the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research, and the Department of Critical Care Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.