PRIDE Collaborative
Pediatric Research in Infectious Disease, In Vitro Diagnostics and Epidemiology
The Pediatric Research in Infectious Disease, In Vitro Diagnostics and Epidemiology (PRIDE) Collaborative is a partnership between the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Division of Infectious Disease at Children's Mercy.
The mission of infectious disease research at Children's Mercy Kansas City is to excel in the research of pediatric infectious diseases as it pertains to epidemiology, diagnosis, disease prevention, and control of childhood diseases.
The overall goal is to integrate basic and translational research in infectious disease using the extensive patient and data base to aid in the development of new and improved antimicrobials, treatment regimens, and diagnostic tests. The collaborative will provide ample opportunities to students, residents, fellows and young faculty for active research, education and training in the field of infectious disease of children.
Epidemiology and outbreak investigations
The PRIDE group leads investigations in the areas of pediatric infectious disease epidemiology and outbreak investigations. The Kansas City-New Vaccine Surveillance network (KC-NVSN) was established in 2009 under the leadership of Drs. Selvarangan and Harrison to perform prospective, population-based, prospective, active surveillance for acute gastroenteritis in children. The KC-NVSN program was funded by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention co-operative agreement funding mechanism from 2009-2011 and continued funding in 2011-2016, and 2016-2021.
The PRIDE team under the leadership of Dr. Selvarangan and post-doctoral scientists Drs. Dithi Banerjee, Bishnu Adhikari and Neena Kanwar has performed several clinical trials and evaluation of various in vitro diagnostic tests for detection of infectious diseases in children.
The NIAID division of NIH established the Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs) in 1962. VTEUs conduct clinical trials of vaccines and treatments for infectious diseases. VTEUs have played a key role in developing new and improved vaccines and therapies against infectious diseases for over four decades, including many that have contributed to FDA licensure.
The research team
Rangaraj Selvarangan, BVSc, PhD. D(ABMM), FIDSA, Director, PRIDE Collaborative
PRIDE faculty in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Rangaraj Selvarangan, BVSc, PhD
Dithi Banerjee, PhD
Bishnu Adhikari, PhD
Neena Kanwar, PhD
PRIDE faculty in the Division of Infectious Disease
Jennifer Schuster, MD
Douglas Swanson, MD
Liset Olarte, MD
Susana Chavez, MD
William R. Brown, Missouri Endowed Chair; Director, Clinical Microbiology & Virology Laboratories; Director, Emerging Infections, Children's Mercy Research Institute; Professor of Pathology, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Clinical Professor of Pathology, University of Kansas School of Medicine