Acosta, Boone and OjoThe UAB Department of Pediatrics welcomed three new faculty members in the month of January. Please join us in making them feel at home!

Edward Acosta, Pharm.D., professor in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases
Neal Boone, M.D., assistant professor in the Division of Neonatology
Babajide Ojo, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition

Edward Acosta, Pharm.D., professor in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, joins us from the UAB Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology. He earned his doctoral degree in clinical pharmacology from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN. Dr. Acosta completed his research fellowship at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN. His research interests include drug assay development using mass spectrometry and quantitation of antivirals and a multitude of other drugs on specimens derived from domestic and international clinical trials in support of new and supplemental pediatric approvals. His team applies noncompartmental analyses and complex state-of-the-art population pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic models to concentration-time and -response data to optimize pediatric dosing strategies.

Neal Boone, M.D., assistant professor in the Division of Neonatology, earned his medical degree from the University of Mississippi Medical School in Jackson, MS. Dr. Boone completed his pediatric residency at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, AR. He completed his Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC. His interests include mother’s own milk provisions for very low birth weight infants, perinatal health disparities, quality improvement and medical education.

Babajide Ojo, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, earned his doctoral degree in nutritional sciences from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, OK. Dr. Ojo completed his postdoctoral research at Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA. He received the NIH MOSAIC K99/R00 award in 2023. His research interests include using patient-derived intestinal organoids and murine models to determine how the environment (dietary components, therapies) shapes epithelial metabolism and differentiation in intestinal health and inflammatory bowel diseases.