I am currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Columbia University and the Pediatric Endocrine Fellowship Director at  Columbia University Medical Center- Children's Hospital. I have trained as Pediatric Endocrinologist with a record of achievement in both the clinical and the laboratory arenas. In addition to my clinical training, I finished a Master of Science Training Program in Clinical Research, a NIH-funded program offered by the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. This program provided me with a solid foundation in epidemiology, statistics, data analysis, hypothesis development, and study design. During my fellowship and early faculty career I have developed a special interest in fetal development as well as fetal programming of adult diseases, such as obesity, insulin resistance, hyperandrogenemia and diabetes.

I have spent a significant part of my time doing basic science research that asks relevant questions in the area of fetal programming of adult disease, and how that relates to my patient population. I had actively collaborated with Dr. Rebecca Simmons, a well known expert in adult complications of altered fetal growth, who has developed a hypoxic rodent model of intrauterine growth restriction, Dr Charron, a well known expert on the epigenetic basis of disease. Dr. Charron and I were poised to make novel contributions to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that program susceptibility to obesity and metabolic disease due to an adverse maternal metabolic milieu such as obesity and/or insulin resistance.

Currently as the Pediatric Endocrine Fellowship Directo my job is to guide and mentor the fellows (one fellow a year for 3 years) in their research projects, I am in charge of the fellows’ education, including organizing and implementing the board reviews course and the continuity clinic infrastructure. I am the current mentor of our second year fellow Dr. Klein. Dr. Klein recently submitted a research application for an Endocrine Fellows Foundation Research Grant to support his pilot study entitled: “Risk Gradient and Correlation of Minimally and Non-invasive Measures of Cardiometabolic Health in Pediatric Metabolically Healthy Obese and Metabolically Unhealthy Obese Subjects”. The foundation of Jason’s study is to differentiate metabolically healthy from unhealthy overweight/obese adolescents by using a comprehensive anthropometric, laboratory and vascular assessment. Since the risks associated with obesity are not consistent among populations, it is crucial to understand the differences between metabolically healthy and unhealthy obese children in order to achieve appropriate intervention and prevention for our patients.

I have published my research in more than 40 peer reviewed articles in journals such as The Journal of Clinical Investigations, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, Diabetes, Endocrinology and American Journal of Physiology, to name a few. Several of these publications (including review articles) were in the area of fetal programming of adult disease. Similarly, I have presented my research findings in the area of fetal programming of adult disease at both national and International Meetings.

Over the years, I have developed a special interest in the diagnosis and treatment of adolescent PCOS and my main aim has been to promote awareness of the disease and treatment. I have been invited to national meetings and currently I am an active member of the androgen excess society which mission has been in the last years to re-evaluate the diagnosis and treatment of PCOS in teenagers.

I am an active member of the Pediatric Endocrine Society (PES), currently I serve as a committee member that organizes the national PES annual meeting, and recently I have been nominated to serve on the SPR Fellows Basic Research Awards Selection Committee by the SPR.

As a physician-scientist, my scientific as well medical contributions, will have a substantial effect on the lives of patients born to an adverse maternal metabolic environment that develop obesity, signs of insulin resistance, hyperandrogenemia and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Given my research focus and my comprehensive expertise and management of neonatal as well as pediatric condition such as insulin resistance, obesity, hyperandrogenemia and type 2 diabetes mellitus, together I will provide a unique prospective and ability to diagnose and treat this conditions.