About the Children’s Mercy Research Institute

Research driven by the needs of children

Dedicated to research with a purpose, our priorities are driven by the specific needs of the children and families Children’s Mercy serves. This approach further strengthens the interconnectedness and impact of the hospital’s clinical and research programs, bringing science to the bedside to accelerate the pace of discovery and enhance care.

The CMRI’s world-class research enterprise includes a team of internationally recognized scientists and researchers whose sole focus is to serve the needs of children. 

Led by Shawn St. Peter, Surgeon-in-Chief and interim Chief Scientific Officer, and Steven Leeder, interim Executive Director, The CMRI, Associate Chair-Research, Department of Pediatrics, a distinguished and highly experienced leadership team supports the CMRI’s mission and vision of improving the health and wellbeing of children through world-class translational research. The dedicated leadership team at the CMRI includes:

• Mark Hoffman, PhD, Chief Research Information Officer
• Steven Leeder, PharmD, PhD, Deputy Director, interim Executive Director
• Jeanne James, MD, MBA, FAAP Chair of Pediatrics
• Shawn St. Peter, MD, Surgeon-in-Chief and interim Chief Scientific Officer
• Mary Tomlinson, Vice President of Research Administration

Learn more about our leadership team.

Championing inclusion and diversity

The mission of the Children’s Mercy Research Institute (CMRI) is to accelerate transdisciplinary research that improves the health and wellbeing of children everywhere. This encompasses children of all ages, genders, sexual orientations, races, ethnicities, physical and mental abilities, and social and economic backgrounds. Inclusion and diversity among research teams, participants, families, vendors and community partners is essential to fulfill this mission.

Read more about the CMRI's commitment to inclusion and diversity.

The future of integrated research

The CMRI is the home to an integrated research environment where no boundaries exist between science and medicine. The Institute’s new nine-story, 375,000 square foot building supports a collaborative approach to research, fostering a partnership among health care professionals, researchers, patients and families. We will work together to find the answers to pediatric medicine’s most challenging questions.

An unprecedented investment

The CMRI’s new building was kickstarted by two of Kansas City’s most iconic families who together generously donated $150 million to transform pediatric research. The donation from the Hall Family Foundation and the Sunderland Foundation represents the largest one-time gift ever made to a children’s hospital for pediatric research.

The gift not only transforms research at Children’s Mercy but the Kansas City skyline as well, with a dynamic window configuration featuring different colors that represent the genetic anomalies found in the DNA of children with specific rare diseases – just some of the difficult cases and questions the CMRI researchers are trying to solve.

Explore ways you can help support our work at the CMRI.

Setting a high bar for clinical research

Children and their families are the most valuable resource at the CMRI, and every interaction at a child’s bedside or in the clinic is an opportunity for our researchers and staff to learn. Discoveries made today that can change the course of a child’s health tomorrow are not possible without the children and families who volunteer in our clinical studies.

Protecting the health and wellbeing of these research volunteers, often called human subjects, is of utmost importance at the CMRI. Our human subjects research program has earned full accreditation by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs, Inc. (AAHRPP), an independent, nonprofit organization. Children and their families are the most valuable resource at the CMRI, and every interaction at a child’s bedside or in the clinic is an opportunity for our researchers and staff to learn. Discoveries made today that can change the course of a child’s health tomorrow are not possible without the children and families who volunteer in our clinical studies.

As the “gold seal,” AAHRPP accreditation ensures children and their families who research volunteers in clinical studies that our program meets the highest standards for ethics, quality and protections.

Learn how to get involved in a clinical study at Children's Mercy.

Questions that lead to answers

The answers to the toughest health care questions affecting children and their families begin in the culture of collaboration and innovation that is the heart of the CMRI. We strive to be a center of excellence globally recognized as the place bringing science to bear on pediatric medicine – from discovery research to disseminating our findings to the community and world at large.

Areas of Emphasis

Several dedicated Areas of Emphasis enhance the quest to find answers to pediatric medicine’s most challenging questions. These Areas of Emphasis – Genomic Medicine, Health Care Innovation, Population Health and Precision Therapeutics – provide a supportive framework for discovery through access to expertise and state-of-the-art resources for researchers and teams striving to translate scientific discoveries into medical advances. Read more about the CMRI’s Areas of Emphasis.

The CMRI also features the latest medical technologies, a robust applied informatics program, and state-of-the-art biorepository that further drive research and innovation.