Paul Szabolcs, MD 4401 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15224

Dr. Paul Szabolcs is a highly esteemed pediatrician and specialist in hematology and oncology, offering his expertise at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. With a distinguished academic background, Dr. Szabolcs received his medical degree summa cum laude from the Semmelweis University School of Medicine in Budapest, Hungary. He further honed his skills with pediatric training at Bellevue Hospital/NYU Medical Center and specialized training in hematology/oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center/Cornell-NY Hospital Medical Center in New York City. His postdoctoral laboratory training took place at both Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Rockefeller University in the Department of Physiology and Cellular Immunology.

Dr. Szabolcs launched his independent laboratory at Duke University, where he earned tenure. In 2011, he was recruited by UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh to establish and lead the Division of BMT-Cell Therapy. Under his leadership, patients from over 25 states in the US and several countries have sought curative or disease-halting therapies, tested in innovative clinical trials. His clinical focus includes designing biologically rational, reduced-toxicity transplantation regimens for patients with life-threatening inherited conditions that can lead to neurodegeneration, immune deficiency, and autoimmune diseases.

A pioneer in the field, Dr. Szabolcs specializes in bone marrow transplantation following solid organ transplantation to enhance immunity, tolerance, and organ survival. His laboratory is dedicated to identifying critical parameters of post-transplant immunity, aiming to predict tolerance and improve survival after HLA mismatched cord blood and bone marrow transplantation. These studies are crucial for developing cell therapy strategies to reduce infections, rejection, autoimmunity, and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD).

Dr. Szabolcs is an active member of several prestigious organizations, including the American Society of Hematology (ASH), American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT), and Clinical Immunology Society (CIS). He serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Transplantation and Cytotherapy.

Dr. Szabolcs is married to Dr. Maria L. Escolar, director of UPMC Children’s Neurodevelopment in Rare Disorders (NDRD) at the Center for Rare Disease Therapy. They have two daughters. Outside of his professional commitments, Dr. Szabolcs enjoys listening to jazz, classical, and popular music, and working outdoors with his hands and tractors.

For a comprehensive list of Dr. Szabolcs’ publications, please visit PubMed.