Co-Division Director
Professor
Virginia Walker Jones Endowed Chair in Neonatology
Program Director, Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship Program
Division of Neonatology
Additional Titles
Director, Sergio B. Stagno Research Endowment
Director, Neonatal Research
Director, TReNDD Program
Education
Medical School
Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER)
Pondicherry, India MBBS, Medical Degree
Internship
JIPMER Pondicherry, India
Pediatric Residency
Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India; MD (Pediatrics)
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Neonatology Fellowship
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Interests
As Director of the Translational Research in Normal and Disordered Development (TReNDD) Program and the Division of Neonatal Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, I have contributed in recent years to the training of multiple junior faculty (including three with a current K08, one with R01 funding, one with an AHA SDG, and one with industry funding). I lead a basic science laboratory in addition to managing and directing single center and multicenter observational and interventional clinical studies. The University of Alabama at Birmingham is a regional perinatal center with approximately 350 VLBW infant births per year (200+ ELBW infants/year), and our center is a member of the NICHD Neonatal Research Network (I am alternate center PI), the Global Network, and the MFMU Network. In the Neonatal Research Network, I am chair of the Budesonide in Babies (BiB) subcommittee, co-chair of the Genomics subcommittee, and serve on the Late Hypothermia and MoCHA subcommittees. I have >300 publications to date, of which 90 are as first or senior author. The focus of my research is on biomarkers and prediction of outcomes in premature infants. I have recently published on genomic analyses in BPD, intercenter variations in outcome, and prediction models of extremely premature outcomes. I am PI of one of only five research centers in the Pre-VENT project funded by the NIH, and the NIH HEAL project on outcomes of infants with opioid exposure. In brief, I have a demonstrated record of successful and productive mentorship and leadership in multicenter clinical, translational, and basic science research projects in neonatology.