Department of Pediatrics

Cell and Molecular Immunology and Cardiovascular Disease.

Primary research focused on clinical outcome measures in Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) and surrogate outcomes for clinical trials, and exercise and participation in SMA.  Also lead the Northwestern PT GoBabyGo! Program examining early mobility adaptations and use in young children.

A major pediatric research priority and the long-term goal of my laboratory is the identification of the etiology and pathogenesis of Kawasaki Disease (KD), the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children in developed nations. KD can result in coronary artery aneurysm (CAA) formation with resultant myocardial infarction and/or sudden death. Clinical and epidemiologic data are consistent with an infectious cause of KD, but the etiologic agent remains unknown.We hypothesize that a "new" virus enters through the respiratory tract and infects bronchial epithelium, traveling in macrophages ...

Newborn care involving breastfeeding, nutrition, safety, skin care, and vaccine medicine

I am an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Dermatology at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and an Attending Pediatric Dermatologist, Dermatologic Surgeon and Laser specialist at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. I received my medical degree from McGill University in 1988, and completed internship (1989) and residencies in Pediatrics (1991) and Dermatology (1994) at the University of Arizona. I received Board Certification in Pediatrics (1995-2006), Dermatology (1995-2025) and Pediatric Dermatology (2004-2025). I am a fellow of the American Academy of Dermatolog...

My primary research interest is the induction of transplant tolerance; as it applies to the prevention and treatment of a/cGVHD in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and prevention and treatment of rejection in solid organ transplantation. As director of the Therapeutic Apheresis Program, I am very active in the field of apheresis, and am committed to providing state of the art apheresis procedures in all children. 

I am interested in using quantitative pharmacologic approaches (modeling and simulation) to improve the understanding of drug disposition and effects in children. Pharmacometric interpretation of both population and clinical trial data can lead to more efficacious and safer treatments as well as provide guidance for the design of efficient, definitive pediatric clinical trials.

My clinical interests are in pediatric neuromuscular disorders that include, but are not limited to, spinal muscular atrophy, muscular dystrophy, myasthenia and neuropathy. Running collaborative clinical trials and identifying biomarkers with good reliability and validity characteristics has been a primary focus.