General Pediatrics Research Team | Research | Department of Pediatrics | UC Davis Health

Dr. Boyd's clinical interests focus on: dysmorphology; delineation of new syndromes; congenital anomalies - craniosynostosis, oral clefts, facial asymmetry syndromes, exstrophy-epispadias complex; and lysosomal storage disorders. His research interests focus on: clinical and molecular dysmorphology; genes causing congenital defects; genetic analysis of multifactorial diseases; genetic epidemiology; and disorders of intracellular trafficking.

Research Laboratory:

• Boyd Genetics Lab

Publications:

• PubMed

Dr. Fernandez y Garcia's research is focused on building the evidence for improving intergenerational mental health through pediatric primary-care based interventions. He also investigates pediatric healthcare disparities arising from social determinants of health, in an effort to best determine how healthcare and medical education systems can address those disparities.

Publications:

• PubMed

Dr. Hoyt-Austin’s research focuses on how to best support breastfeeding dyads following birth hospitalization. She has interests in studying improvement of breastfeeding education in medical training and supporting breastfeeding dyads through telehealth.

Publications:

• PubMed

Dr. Kair conducts clinical research focused on improving maternal and child health through designing and implementing evidence-based interventions aimed at overcoming breastfeeding barriers and disparities.

Publications:

• PubMed

Dr. Kuppermann's research interests include the epidemiology of meningococcal disease in children, laboratory evaluation of pediatric trauma patients, radiography of the cervical spine in pediatric trauma, and pediatric diabetic ketoacidosis and risk of cerebral edema.

Publications:

• PubMed

Dr. Kurzrock's research interests include reconstructive techniques, stem cell biology, and tissue engineering specific to the bladder.

Publications:

• PubMed

Dr. McDonald's research has focused on new approaches to managing spasticity in children with cerebral palsy and the role of exercise in childhood progressive neuromuscular disease. Other areas of interest include energy expenditure during locomotion, qualitative measures of physical activity, pediatric trauma, and spina bifida.

Publications:

• PubMed

Dr. Pleasure's research focuses on the role of neural stem cells in the generation of oligodendroglia. He also studies how inflammation of white matter contributes to certain autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and several inherited childhood diseases such as adrenoleukodystrophy.

Publications:

• PubMed

Dr. Romano's research interests include comparative evaluation of health care outcomes, the use of outcomes data to improve the quality and effectiveness of health care, and the role of physicians, nurses, and other professionals in optimizing the quality and safety of health care.

Publications:

• PubMed

Dr. Shaikh conducts research aimed at improving healthcare quality, specifically with respect to pediatric nutrition. Her research broadly deals with identifying factors that influence physician decision-making with respect to pediatric nutrition, and evaluating health system and telehealth applications (e.g., clinical telemedicine, distance education, internet communication) in improving the quality of clinical care in pediatric obesity.

Publications:

• PubMed

Dr. Tancredi's research interests include developing efficient statistical design and analysis plans for observational and experimental clinical research studies, especially studies that involve correlated data, as arise in cluster-randomized trials, longitudinal studies, and survey that use complex probability designs.

Publications:

• PubMed

Dr. Tarantal's research program primarily centers on fetal diseases and corrective in utero therapies with a focus on stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. Translational activities using the nonhuman primate model includes; gene therapy; cell-based therapies/tissue engineering; fetal/infant models of human congenital and acquired diseases of the blood and kidney; fetal:maternal microchimerism; and in vivo imaging.

Publications:

• PubMed