Perinatal Institute
Meet the Team

Meet our Experts

Researchers with the Perinatal Institute at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have expertise in the social sciences, public health, epidemiology, process and quality improvement, health care economics and advocacy policy, as well as the more traditional avenues of basic science, translational research and clinical trials. Insights from our research can be directly applied to the clinical challenges faced by infants during the perinatal period.

Co-Directors

James M. Greenberg, MD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

Jae Kim, MD, PhD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

Faculty

Henry T. Akinbi, MD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Pharmacokinetis/pharmacodynamics of psychotropic medications in neonates; role of lysozyme in airway host defense

Paritha I. Arumugam, PhD

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Gene therapy for inherited disorders; Hereditary Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis (hPAP)

Tanya E. Cahill, MD

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Neurodevelopmental outcomes in NICU graduates

Hitesh S. Deshmukh, MD, PhD

Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

James M. Greenberg, MD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

Mingxia Gu, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Development of heart, lung, and vasculature; human induced pluripotent stem cells; organoid; high-throughput drug screening; human genetics Visit the...

Minzhe Guo, PhD

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Developing novel computational methods and software tools to support single cell multi-omics data analysis and integration for scientific discovery...

Beth E. Haberman, MD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

Beth Ann Johnson, MA, MD

Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Medical education and simulation training; curriculum development; procedural experience and perceived procedural comfort in the NICU; how exposure...
Research Interests
Understanding variations in evidence-based care practices across hospitals; examining strategies for increasing the implementation of evidence into...

Alan P. Kenny, MD, PhD

Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Lung progenitor development; stem cell differentiation; fetal malformations

Jae Kim, MD, PhD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

Paul S. Kingma, MD, PhD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Innate immune systems; surfactant protein D; Neonatal lung growth; genetic basis of congenital malformations

Timothy D. Le Cras, PhD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Pathogenesis of vascular anomalies; vascular malformations; kaposiform lymphangiomatosis; capillary lymphatic venous malformations; pulmonary...

Yutaka Maeda, DVM, PhD

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

Kristin R. Melton, MD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Patient safety; medication errors; unplanned extubation; neural crest and craniofacial malformations; surfactant biology
Research Interests
Follow-up outcomes; advanced neuroimaging to predict outcomes in infants with brain injury and prenatal substance exposure

Yifei Miao, MBBS, PhD

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Organoids; human pluripotent stem cell; congenital cardiac and pulmonary defect; single ventricle defects; epigenetic regulation
Research Interests
Innate immunity of the skin with a particular focus on epidermal biomarkers and antimicrobial peptides on the skin surface; role of coconut oil...

Amy T. Nathan, MD

Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Strategies to prevent morbidities of prematurity

Nehal A. Parikh, DO, MS

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Early diagnosis of perinatal brain injury/delayed brain development; early detection and prevention of neurodevelopmental disabilities
Research Interests
Lung development and regeneration; fibroblast function in development, regeneration and fibrosis

Ward R. Rice, MD, PhD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Processing of surfactant protein C

Debora I. Sinner, PhD

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Developmental biology; lung development; congenital defects

Daniel T. Swarr, MD

Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Early endoderm and lung development; epigenetic regulation of gene expression; long non-coding RNAs; Congenital lung malformations; TEF/EA; VACTERL

Bruce C. Trapnell, MS, MD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Alveolar macrophage function; molecular techniques using gene knockout, transgenic and conditional gene expression mouse models and non-human...

Laura P. Ward, MD, IBCLC, FAAP

Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Neonatal abstinence syndrome; breastfeeding

Scott L. Wexelblatt, MD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

Kathryn A. Wikenheiser-Brokamp, MD, PhD

Professor, UC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Yan Xu, PhD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Yan Xu:  main area of research interests are bioinformatics and systems biology application in pulmonary research. Our current focus is to...

William J. Zacharias, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics