Charitharth Vivek Lal, M.D., assistant professor in the UAB Pediatrics Division of Neonatology lead a the study recently published in Scientific Reports. Dr. Lal and other UAB researchers have discovered that an infant's airway — once thought to be sterile until after birth — is colonized by bacteria or bacterial DNA. This could be protective or a predictor for lung disease. To continue reading on UAB News, click here. 

Besides Dr. Lal, co-authors of the paper, “The Airway Microbiome at Birth,” from the UAB Department of Pediatrics are Drs. Colm Travers, Tamas Jilling, Brian Halloran, Waldemar A. Carlo, Jordan Keeley, Gabriel Rezonzew and Namasivayam Ambalavanan.