Co-Division Director
Professor
Virginia Walker Jones Endowed Chair in Neonatology
Program Director, Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship Program
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 K08, two with a K23, one with R01 funding, three 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 and serve on several subcommittees. I have >450 publications to date, of which >100 are as first or senior author. My basic science research focuses on mechanisms of lung injury and development, while clinical research focuses on prevention and treatment strategies for bronchopulmonary dysplasia. I am the PI for multiple NIH projects including the UAB Site in Pre Vent and Post-Vent, the Outcomes of Babies with Opioid Exposure study, the Let-7b in BPD project, the UG1 HEAL project, and the Vital Signs in Opiod-Exposed Neonates study. In brief, I have a demonstrated record of successful and productive mentorship and leadership in multicenterclinical, translational, and basic science research projects in neonatology.