Faculty Research Interests
Many faculty members actively engage in research projects. Harbor-UCLA is affiliated with the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (La BioMed), an on-campus organization that is one of the most prominent independent research institutions in the country. Supporting over 150 investigators, LA BioMed provides the funding and the infrastructure for clinical research programs.
LA Biomed and Harbor-UCLA are also part of the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). Many investigators participate in the CTSI, which includes inpatient and outpatient facilities that were formerly part of the General Clinical Research Center and Perinatal Clinical Research Center. With the mission of creating a borderless clinical and translational research institute that brings UCLA innovations and resources to bear on the greatest health needs of Los Angeles, the CTSI is an academic-clinical-community partnership designed to accelerate scientific discoveries and clinical breakthroughs.
Examples of faculty research interests:
Ruey-Kang R. Chang, M.D., M.P.H., Division of Pediatric Cardiology. Outcomes of pediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery, exercise physiology, and preventive cardiology. Wireless technologies related to heart sounds and electrocardiograms and designs of medical devices.
Richard B. Mink, M.D., Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. Role of purine metabolism in hypoxic-ischemic brain injury. Clinical aspects of TBI and the long-term effects of treatment.
Tom Kallay, M.D., Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. Medical education with an emphasis on simulation-based techniques.
Wai-Nang Paul Lee, M.D., Division of Pediatric Endocrinology. Metabolic phenotyping or metabolic profiling. Applied to characterize the metabolic profile of mouse models of diabetes and to study the function of peroxisomes.
Catherine S. Mao, M.D., Division of Pediatric Endocrinology. Endocrine disruptors and various aspects of obesity, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. Research ethics including data and safety monitoring.
Jennifer K. Yee, M.D., Division of Pediatric Endocrinology. Fatty acid pathways as potential targets for obesity prevention. Mechanisms of the development of obesity. Stable isotope techniques to study the fatty acid metabolic pathways of prenatal nutritional programming of adult obesity. Plasma fatty acid composition of infants exposed to in utero nutritional imbalance. Timing of development of cardiovascular disease in young adults with Type 2 Diabetes.
Laszlo G. Boros, M.D., Division of Pediatric Endocrinology. Stable isotope-based dynamic metabolic profiling (SIDMAP) technology and its applications for drug testing. Mechanisms of drug resistance in pre-clinical drug testing studies using detailed analysis of the metabolic network.
George Gershman, M.D., Ph.D., Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology. Peptic ulcer disease, food allergy, chronic diarrhea and nutrient malabsorption, biliary disease, and advanced endoscopic technique, such as endoscopic ultrasonagraphy.
Paul Fu, Jr., M.D., M.P.H., F.A.A.P., Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine. Biomedical and public health informatics, specifically focusing upon the issues surrounding adoption of health information technologies. Use of aggregated clinical data to support real-time automated quality measurement and population health analysis.
Carol Berkowitz, M.D., F.A.A.P, F.A.C.E.P., Division of General and Emergency Pediatrics. Severe non-fatal injury in children. Review of non-fatal, non-accidental injury in hospitalized children. Child maltreatment. Women in medicine, medical education, and pediatric emergency medicine.
Kelly Callahan, M.D., F.A.A.P., Division of General and Emergency Pediatrics. Child Abuse and Neglect, Foster Care Children, Evaluation and Treatment of Burns, Basic Childhood Illnesses, “Visual Diagnosis.”
Kelly D. Young, M.D., M.S., Division of General and Emergency Pediatrics. Ways to improve pain management for children undergoing painful medical procedures, and ways to predict which children are more likely to have significant anxiety and difficulty with procedures. Pediatric cardiopulmonary arrest and pediatric post-traumatic seizures.
Joseph L. Lasky III, M.D., Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology. Developing novel therapies for pediatric cancers, specifically brain tumors. Methods to stimulate the immune system to attack brain tumors. Targeting the immune system against putative brain tumor stem cells.
Eduard H. Panosyan, M.D., Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology. Understanding the potentially variable response of pediatric brain tumors to different inhibitors of relevant signaling and metabolic pathways. Creating pre-clinical models for developmental therapeutics, by establishing a repository of oncosphere cultures derived from pediatric brain tumor cells, which can be used for testing novel compounds.
Margaret A. Keller, M.D., Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the brain in HIV-infected patients. Clinical trials in HIV –infected children, adolescents, and pregnant woman including pharmacokinetics of antiretroviral drugs and prevention of maternal to infant transmission of HIV.
Kenneth Zangwill, M.D., Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Vaccine-preventable diseases, including epidemiology and vaccines, including influenza (seasonal and pandemic), rotavirus, hepatitis A, meningococcal conjugate, and DTaP-IPV-HepB vaccines.
Sylvia H. Yeh, M.D., Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Epidemiology and clinical evaluation of vaccines for the prevention of infectious diseases, with a particular interest in pertussis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neiserria meningitidis, respiratory viruses as well as combination vaccines. Vaccine delivery to the general population looking at disparities in vaccine access, recording and availability.
Henry J. Lin, M.D., Division of Medical Genetics. Genetic factors related to the development of intestinal tumors. First large population genetic study of acetylation (NAT2) mutations; first gene-diet interaction associated with cancer (GSTM1-sulforaphane). Role of prostaglandin D2 in suppressing intestinal tumors. Potential approaches for prevention or treatment of familial adenomatous polyposis and sporadic colorectal neoplasia.
Patricia Dickson, M.D., Division of Medical Genetics. Intrathecal enzyme replacement therapy for mucopolysaccharidosis type I, immune tolerance to enzyme replacement, and developing enzyme replacement therapy for mucopolysaccharidosis type III.
Virender K. Rehan, M.D., Division of Neonatology. Neonatal lung injury/repair with special emphasis on lung injury repair following exposure to insults such as hyperoxia, infection, and nicotine. The pathogenesis and prevention of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD) for the premature infant.
John S. Torday, M.Sc., Ph.D., Division of Neonatology. Lung cell phenotypic heterogeneity and gene regulatory network determinants of lung evolution, particularly as they relate to development, homeostasis, repair and aging. Evolutionary biology of the lung as an approach to clinical diagnosis and treatment of chronic lung disease.
Lynne Smith, M.D., Division of Neonatology. Effects of prenatal drug exposure on the developing brain. Non-invasive brain imaging techniques in children exposed to drugs in utero. Collaborative investigator for the Infant Development Environment and Lifestyle (IDEAL) study, a longitudinal study addressing many aspects of prenatal methamphetamine exposure. Appropriate interventions for exposed children and their families.
Basil O. Ibe, Ph.D., Division of Neonatology. Biochemical control of pulmonary function in the perinatal period, particularly role of endogenous lipid metabolites such as platelet activating factor (PAF), eicosanoids, and role of G protein coupled receptor signaling molecules in the regulation of pulmonary hemodynamics. The role of inflammatory lipids and proteins in the pathogenesis of episodes of vaso-occlusion and the acute chest syndrome in sickle cell disease.
Agnes Chen, M.D., Division of Neurology. Central nervous system disease in the mucopolysaccharidoses. Intrathecal enzyme replacement therapy for mucopolysaccharidosis I.
Updated 9/11