Director: Akif Undar, PhD

During the past 21 years, the Pediatric Cardiovascular Research Center at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital has established a multidisciplinary research team with the goal of improving outcomes for children undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass procedures and mechanical circulatory support systems. Our research center brings together teams from multiple academic departments and disciplines. It combines basic science, engineering and clinical applications under the unified mission of pediatric cardiovascular research. Scientists and clinicians in the center represent the departments of Pediatrics, Surgery, Bioengineering, Anesthesiology, Comparative Medicine, Public Health Sciences, Pharmacology and Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Our major objective is the development of novel technologies and methodologies to be used in minimizing the adverse effects of cardiovascular operations and cardiopulmonary bypass in neonates, infants and children. Particular attention will be focused on reducing the associated morbidities of cerebral, myocardial, pulmonary and renal injury.