Last year, the Department of Pediatrics received more than $25 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support a wide range of research projects that will help improve child health in Wisconsin and beyond. This placed the department 18th nationally among pediatrics departments receiving NIH funding in 2024, according to Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research.
“Federal funding is the backbone of our research program,” said Jim Gern, MD, professor, Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology, and vice chair of research for the Department of Pediatrics. “Our outstanding and dedicated researchers continue to receive grant awards from the NIH to fund groundbreaking science.”
NIH funding in the department over the last decade has totaled nearly a quarter of a billion dollars: $247,836,636.
“The department’s sustained success in obtaining funding for programs to understand what determines child health and what causes diseases such as cancer, infections, and chronic inflammatory diseases will bring new treatments and cures to our patients,” Gern added.
A few of the projects led by faculty researchers who received NIH funding in 2024 include investigations into the influence technology and digital media have on health behaviors and well-being in adolescents, liver health and the microbiome, childhood allergy and the neonatal environment, vaping cessation in adolescents and young adults, and improving the potency of T cell therapies against cancer.
Total research funding during the department’s 2024 fiscal year was $40.3 million. In addition to NIH funding, the department was awarded grants from federal, industry, non-profit, state, institutional, and philanthropic sources. Read more about the department’s research success in its 2024 Annual Report.