Our History

2021

The Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus opened on a nearly 12-acre portion of the former, historic Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Northwest Washington, D.C., combining its strengths with those of public and private partners including Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC and Virginia Tech, along with industry, universities, federal agencies, start-up companies and academic medical centers. This makes the Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore metro area one of the nation’s fastest-growing life science and biotechnology hubs.

2020

Children’s National Research Institute mobilizes its scientists to address the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on understanding the virus and advancing solutions to ameliorate the impact today and for future generations.

Tarik Haydar, Ph.D., was named Director for the Center for Neuroscience Research, and Ruth Pack Wolf and William B. Wolf, Sr., Professor of Neuroscience and Randi Streisand, Ph.D., was named The Gerard B. Lambert Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Medicine.

2019

Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC and Children’s National announced a collaboration to launch JLABS @ Washington, DC, a 32,000-square foot facility to be located at the new Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus in Washington, D.C. Children’s National Hospital and Virginia Tech announced a formal partnership that will include the construction of a 12,000-square foot Virginia Tech biomedical research facility within the new Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus.  

2018

Children’s National marked the official start of construction on its pediatric research and innovation campus with a groundbreaking event.

Anthony Sandler, M.D., was named the director of the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation and Stephen Teach, M.D., M.P.H., was appointed as the first Wendy Goldberg Chair of Translational Child Health Research. Children’s National is awarded an NIH grant to stimulate and integrate research into the GME Residency Program by developing a dedicated research track. Children’s National Research Institute was awarded over $75 million in research funding. 

2017

Vittorio Gallo, Ph.D., was appointed Chief Research Officer, Children’s National Hospital and Scientific Director, Children’s National Research Institute. 

Catherine M. Bollard, M.D., M.B.Ch.B., was appointed as the Director for the Center for Cancer and Immunology Research.

Eric Vilain, M.D., Ph.D., was appointed as Director for the Center for Genetic Medicine Research and as the next A. James Clark Distinguished Professor of Molecular Genetics.

Kolaleh Eskandanian, Ph.D., M.B.A., P.M.P., was appointed Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer, Executive Director, Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation, Kerstin Hildebrandt, M.S.H.S. was named Vice President, Research Administration, and Carmen Mendez, became Vice President, Grants and Contracts and Finance.

Michael J. Bell, M.D., was installed as the DC Lawyers’ Care for Children Professor of Critical Care Medicine.

Children’s National investigators filed 30 invention disclosures, 7 patent applications and 7 patents were issued.

2016

Children’s National signed an agreement with the U.S. Army to accept the transfer of nearly 12 acres of land from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center property in Northwest Washington, D.C.  – an acquisition that nearly doubles the health system’s footprint in the city. The transfer was a milestone in the 146-year history of Children’s National, as it will allow meaningful expansion of its life-saving pediatric research in such areas as neuroscience, genetics, clinical and translational science, and cancer and immunology. Children’s National investigators filed 19 patent disclosures, 12 patent applications and 3 patents were issued.

2015

Charles Berul, M.D., was installed as the Van Metre Companies Professor of Cardiology. 

CNRI receives over $74 million in total research funding.

2014

Roger J. Packer, M.D., and Yuan Zhu, Ph.D., were installed as the inaugural Gilbert Family Professors in Neurofibromatosis.

Nobuyuki Ishibashi, M.D., became the first Foglia-Hills Professor of Pediatric Cardiac Research and Diego A. Preciado, M.D., Ph.D., was installed as the inaugural Joseph E. Robert, Jr., Professor of Pediatric Otolaryngology.

Pamela Hinds, Ph.D., R.N., is installed as the William and Joanne Conway Chair of Nursing Research, the first nursing research chair in a hospital setting. CNRI receives a $64 million in grant support.

2013

Children’s National opens the Sheikh Zayed Institute’s Pain Medicine Care Complex, one of only a few programs in the country focused exclusively on managing pain for infants, children and teens. The Institute hosted the first International Symposium on Pediatric Surgical Innovation.  

2012

The total annual research funding increased to $73 million, with NIH funding staying constant at $39 million.

Lisa M. Guay-Woodford, M.D., was appointed as Director for the Center for Translational Research, director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Children's National and was named the Richard L. and Agnes F. Hudson Chair in Health Services Research. 

Yang Liu, Ph.D., was installed as the next Dr. Robert J. and Florence T. Bosworth Professor of Cancer and Transplantation Biology Research, Director of the Center for Cancer and Immunology Research, and Pan Zheng, M.D., Ph.D., is named the Thomas Willson and Lenore Williams McKnew Professor of Pediatric Oncology Research.

2011

Children’s National Research Institute is awarded accreditation by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP). Total annual research funding increased to $64 million; $39 million from NIH alone. Children’s National Research Institute ranks sixth in NIH funding among children’s hospitals and 10th among the combined 131 children’s hospitals and university departments of pediatrics.

Jeffrey Dome, M.D., Ph.D., became the first Thomas Willson & Lenore Williams McKnew Professor of Pediatric Oncology. 

2010

Children's National Medical Center, in partnership with the George Washington University Medical Center, received the first NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award given to a children's hospital. The Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Children's National was established with a $21 million grant to foster innovations in solving health problems of children and families. The NIH funds research in pediatric clinical pharmacology to study the use of pain medication in premature infants. The program has had continuous NIH funding including a postdoctoral training program.

Marshall L. Summar, M.D., was installed as the first Margaret O'Malley Professor of Genetic Medicine and David L. Wessel, M.D., was appointed the first IKARIA Distinguished Professor of Critical Care. 

2009

Children's National received a $150 million gift from the government of Abu Dhabi  –  the largest gift ever given for pediatric surgery  –  which launches the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation. The Sheikh Zayed Institute researches treatments and technology designed to make surgery more precise, less invasive and pain free. The opening of the Sheikh Zayed Institute brings the total amount of Children's National Research Institute lab space to 123,000 square feet.

Richard A. Jonas, M.D., was installed as the first Cohen-Funger Distinguished Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery, while Anthony D. Sandler, M.D., became the first Diane and Norman Bernstein Professor of Pediatric Surgery.

2008

Children’s National opened an additional floor of laboratory space (20,000 square feet) at an institutional cost of $18 million, bringing the total amount of Children's National Research Institute laboratory research space to 100,000 square feet. The NIH-funded research on N-carbamylglutamate in the treatment of hyperammonemia studies led to groundbreaking new treatments in urea cycle disorders. 

2007

The Gilbert Family Neurofibromatosis Institute was established with generous contributions from the Gilbert family.

2006

Children's National Research Institute’s diverse grant portfolio saw an impressive 300 percent increase in annual total grant portfolio from the NIH since 2000, as well as an increasingly strong portfolio of funding from agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Defense, private donors and foundational supporters.

Mendel Tuchman, M.D., was named Scientific Director of Children’s National Research Institute.

2005

John N. van den Anker, M.D., Ph.D., was installed as the first Evan and Cindy Jones Professor of Pediatric Clinical Pharmacology and Paramjit T. Joshi, M.D. becomes the first Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

2004

Children’s National was awarded a primary NIH General Clinical Research Center grant by the National Institutes of Health; one of the first given to a freestanding pediatric hospital.  Children’s National was awarded an NIH grant for improving pediatric asthma care in the District of Columbia (IMPACT DC). Continuously funded this program addresses health disparities by integrating evidence-based interventions into community-based driven processes.  

2003

Mendel Tuchman, M.D., was named the first Mary Elizabeth McGehee Joyce Professor of Genetics Research. His NIH-funded research focused on the molecular bases of inherited urea cycle disorders and ureagenesis regulation. NIH awards Children’s National a Rare Disease Clinical Research Network Consortia grant to establish the Urea Cycle Disorder Consortium (UCDC). The UCDC is an international collaborative consortium with sites in the United States, Canada and Europe. The consortium has received continuous NIH funding through 2023.

Children’s National received an NIH award to establish the D.C Baltimore Center to Improve Child Health Disparities in collaboration with Howard University.

The NIH-funded Pediatric Clinical Research Center receives a $ 2.5 million gift from Mary Elizabeth McGeehe Joyce.  

2002

Vittorio Gallo, Ph.D., became the first Ruth Pack Wolf and William B. Wolf, Sr., Professor of Neuroscience and the Director of the Center for Neuroscience Research.

2001

Children’s National received the initial NIH award to establish the District of Columbia Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (DC-IDDRC). For more than twenty years, with continued funding from NIH, Children’s National Hospital (lead institution) has played a crucial role in bringing together four major academic institutions in D.C. – Children’s National, the George Washington University, Georgetown University and Howard University – to create, grow and sustain a vigorous center and a supportive environment for IDDRC investigators.  

Children’s National was awarded the Child Health Research Career Development Award from the NIH. This program, with over 20 years of continuous funding, has supported the training of the next generation of pediatric-scientists.

With a gift of $1 million, the Colonel Harland Sanders Foundation established the CNRI Neurosciences Laboratories. 

2000

The Ruth Pack Wolf and William B. Wolf, Sr., Professorship in Neuroscience and the Cohen-Funger Distinguished Professorship in Cardiovascular Surgery were established. Children’s National was awarded an NIH General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) grant as a satellite of the Georgetown University Medical Center GCRC. 

1999

Patricio Ray, M.D., was installed as the first Robert H. Parrott Professor of Pediatric Research. The Richard L. and Agnes F. Hudson Professorship in Health Services Research and The Mary Elizabeth McGehee Joyce Professorship in Genetics Research were established. Children’s National received a nearly $1 million grant from the NIH to build out additional laboratory space.

1998

Mark L. Batshaw, M.D., became the first Director of Children's National Research Institute and was installed as the Fight for Children Chair of Academic Medicine. Stephan Ladisch, M.D., was named the first Scientific Director of CNRI. At that time, Children's National had no NIH Career Development Awards, known as K Awards, which developed an infrastructure for junior faculty to begin research. Today, Children’s National junior faculty have 26 NIH K Awards, ensuring future leaders in translational research and medicine. 

1997

NIH annual funding for research at Children’s National reached $7,548,458 with total research funding increasing to over $16 million.

1995

Children’s National constructed a fifth floor of research laboratories in the hospital, adding 40,000 square feet of space and total research funding increased to $14.7 million.  

1993

The Engelhard Foundation helped to establish the Bosworth Chair, which was first held by Stephan Ladisch, M.D., who published many influential studies that pointed to novel strategies to impede the growth of brain tumors.

1992

The Clark Family Foundation established the A. James Clark Professor of Molecular Genetics. 

1990

CNRI initially occupied 40,000 square feet of laboratory space at Children’s National and later added an additional floor with 40,000 square feet of laboratory research space to be developed.

1989

Children’s National leadership conceived and developed a strategic plan that resulted in the formation of a separate entity within Children’s National Medical Center, called Children's National Medical Center Research, which was later changed to Children’s National Research Institute (CNRI).

1968

The Charles Engelhard Foundation helped endow the Parrott Chair, the hospital’s first endowed professorship.

1964

Judson Randolph, M.D., the Children’s National chief surgeon at the time, developed the first pediatric surgical residency program in the country. Today, the Children’s National surgery department trains more than 150 surgical residents each year.

1961

Children’s National allocated $500,000 for its research program. Since then, Children’s National Research Institute (CNRI) has grown and is the ninth most funded National Institutes of Health pediatric department and sixth among children’s hospitals.

1959

A three-story facility for research was built with funds from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Variety Club of Washington.

1956

Robert Parrott, M.D., was named first Director of the Research Foundation, serving until 1985.

1947

Children’s National began its research program with an initial budget that consisted of a contribution by the Medical Staff of $2,792, a gift of $1,000 from the Child Welfare Society and a Public Health Service grant of $6,000 for polio studies.