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

A photo of James M. Greenberg.

James M. Greenberg, MD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
A photo of Jae Kim.

Jae Kim, MD, PhD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

Faculty

A photo of Henry Akinbi.

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
A photo of Paritha Arumugam.

Paritha I. Arumugam, PhD

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Gene therapy for inherited disorders; Hereditary Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis (hPAP)
A photo of Maria Barnes-Davis.

Maria E. Barnes-Davis, MD, PhD

Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Functional neuroimaging (fMRI, MEG, EEG); neurodevelopmental outcomes of extremely preterm children; language; sleep and learning disorders
A photo of Tanya Cahill.

Tanya E. Cahill, MD

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Neurodevelopmental outcomes in NICU graduates
A photo of Hitesh Deshmukh.

Hitesh S. Deshmukh, MD, PhD

Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
A photo of James M. Greenberg.

James M. Greenberg, MD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Minzhe Guo.

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...
A photo of Beth Haberman.

Beth E. Haberman, MD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Beth Ann Johnson

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...
Heather Kaplan

Heather C. Kaplan, MD, MSCE

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Understanding variations in evidence-based care practices across hospitals; examining strategies for increasing the implementation of evidence into...
A photo of Alan Kenny.

Alan P. Kenny, MD, PhD

Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Lung progenitor development; stem cell differentiation; fetal malformations
A photo of Jae Kim.

Jae Kim, MD, PhD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
A photo of Paul Kingma.

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
A photo of Timothy LeCras.

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...
Visit the LeCras Lab
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Yutaka Maeda, DVM, PhD

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
A photo of Kristin Melton.

Kristin R. Melton, MD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Patient safety; medication errors; unplanned extubation; neural crest and craniofacial malformations; surfactant biology
Stephanie Merhar, MD

Stephanie L. Merhar, MD, MS

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Follow-up outcomes; advanced neuroimaging to predict outcomes in infants with brain injury and prenatal substance exposure
A photo of Vivek Narendran.

Vivek Narendran, MD, MRCP, MBA

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
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...
A photo of Amy Nathan.

Amy T. Nathan, MD

Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Strategies to prevent morbidities of prematurity
A photo of Nehal Parikh.

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
Visit the Parikh Lab
A photo of Anne-Karina Theresia Perl.

Anne-Karina Theresia Perl, MS, PhD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Lung organoids; lung development and regeneration; fibroblast function in development, regeneration and fibrosis; bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD);...
Visit the Perl Lab
A photo of Ward Rice.

Ward R. Rice, MD, PhD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Processing of surfactant protein C
A photo of Debora Sinner.

Debora I. Sinner, PhD

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Developmental biology; lung development; congenital defects
Visit the Sinner Lab
A photo of Daniel Swarr, MD.

Daniel T. Swarr, MD

Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Use of genomic technologies in inpatient pediatrics; applying computational methods (such as natural language processing and AI) to improve...
A photo of Bruce Trapnell.

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...
A photo of Laura Ward.

Laura P. Ward, MD, IBCLC, FAAP

Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests
Neonatal abstinence syndrome; breastfeeding
A photo of Scott Wexelblatt.

Scott L. Wexelblatt, MD

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
A photo of Kathryn Wikenheiser-Brokamp.

Kathryn A. Wikenheiser-Brokamp, MD, PhD

Professor, UC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
A photo of Yan Xu.

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...
Visit the Xu Lab
A photo of William Zacharias.

William J. Zacharias, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
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