Pediatric Surgery

The research focus of the Division of Pediatric Surgery is the study of cardiovascular physiology after burn injury, including utilizing heart rate variability and machine learning techniques for the early detection of sepsis. Specifically, the group examines the effect of burn injury on cardiac function, mitochondrial dynamics, cardiac fibrogenesis, and intestinal smooth muscle function. Furthermore, the group collaborates extensively with the UTMB Biochemistry Department to identify novel derivatives of natural compounds that can positively modulate fibrogenesis.

The Pediatric Surgical lab has capabilities to perform advanced cardiovascular monitoring on patients as well as small and large animals. The group possesses extensive experience in machine learning and data mining techniques to identify patterns in large datasets and its labs are outfitted with modern cell culture, fluorescence microscopy, RT-PCR, and immunohistochemistry facilities.