Profile

We are responsible for in-born and out-born babies requiring tertiary level care derived from the Greater Western Los Angeles area and the surrounding northwestern regions.  The neonatal intensive care unit is a 25 bed unit, all of which are level III beds.  An active, high-risk perinatal service is under the auspices of the perinatology division that consists of four perinatologists. There are ~350 transports/year to the NICU (both air and ground), and there are ~2,000 high-risk deliveries at UCLA resulting in ~500 admissions to the NICU/year.  We are also responsible for the Well Baby Nursery (maximum daily census of 26).  The division consists of 12 full-time faculty members, eight Ph.D. post-doctoral researchers and six fellows.  The Division also provides NICU attending coverage at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital (16 bed NICU, 2000 deliveries), and Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center (8 bed NICU, 2000 deliveries).  UCLA has been the leading Neonatal Center in Southern California, a major referral center for high risk mothers and neonates.

The High Risk Follow-up Clinic includes post discharge evaluation of the medical needs and psychosocial needs of infants discharged from the NICU and referrals from outside NICUs.  The overall philosophy is to provide an evaluation of the needs of the patient and family, provide transition between the NICU and Pediatrician, and help each child grow and develop to the best of his/her abilities. 

The Division has a strong laboratory-based research component in the area of: perinatal/neonatal metabolism and its influence upon hypoxic/ischemic brain injury, and on the long-term effects of perinatal/neonatal interventions; molecular mechanisms by which glucocorticoid attenuated genes play a role in hyperoxic lung injury; stem cell research with an emphasis on the ECMO program; clinical trials in neonatal metabolism using stable isotope technology and neuroimaging in neonatal diagnosis; molecular mechanisms linking perinatal infections with bronchopulmonary dysplasia; molecular pathogenesis of neonatal infections; mechanisms of innate immunity to infectious agents in neonates, with particular emphasis on the role of vitamin D in host defense; fetal glucose metabolism and insulin signaling, fetal and neonatal growth, and neonatal nutrition; cellular and molecular basis of vascular remodeling during initial blood vessel formation in early embryonic development; and clinical international pediatrics.  Federal funding from the National Institutes of Health supports most of these projects.