Mervin C. Yoder, Ph.D. – Assistant Dean for Entrepreneurial Research, Indiana University School of Medicine

Mervin C. Yoder, Jr., M.D., obtained a M.A. degree from Indiana State University in 1976, and attended Indiana University School of Medicine, graduating with highest distinction in 1980.  Dr. Yoder completed a three-year residency program in Pediatrics and a two-year fellowship program in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA from 1980-1985.

Dr. Yoder became an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine in 1985 and was awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 1991.  He was promoted to Professor of Pediatrics and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2000.  In 2004, Dr. Yoder was named the Richard and Pauline Klingler Professor of Pediatrics.

Dr. Yoder has become an international expert in understanding the cellular and molecular events that permit emergence of hematopoietic and endothelial cells from mesoderm precursors in the developing murine embryo.  His work has provided novel insights into the role of extraembryonic cells in establishing hematopoiesis in the embryo.  He has also served as the senior investigator in a collaborative project that identified the hierarchical organization of endothelial progenitor cells that both circulate and reside in the endothelial intima of mature vasculature and that participate in new blood vessel development.  This finding presents a new clinical and experimental paradigm for understanding vascular organization, formation, and repair.  He has published over 150 peer-reviewed and invited review articles and is co-author of a textbook in its fourth edition on the practical care of critically ill newborn infants.