USHA RAJ, MD
Professor and Head ,
Department of Pediatrics,
University of Illinois at Chicago
Dr. Usha Raj is the Head of Department of Pediatrics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has been a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics since 1981, a member of the Society for Pediatric Research since 1988 and a member of the American Pediatric Society since 1996. She was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1994. She is a member of many scientific organizations and is very active in the American Physiological Society and the America Thoracic Society. She served as a regular member on the National institutes of Health, Study Section LBPA and RIBT and as Chairman of a Special Study Section for the NIH.
Her research interests have been in Developmental Pulmonary Vascular Biology and her laboratory has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for over 23 years. As head of the Developmental Pulmonary Biology Research Group at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Dr. Raj is studying the mechanisms that control the pulmonary circulation in the fetus and newborn, and is trying to understand why some babies develop problems related to the lung blood vessels while others do not.
Her work has established and defined the very important role of pulmonary veins in regulation of microvascular pressures, fluid filtration and blood flow in the fetal and neonatal lungs. Another important contribution has been the discovery of an important role for platelet activating factor in the normal physiological regulation of pulmonary vasomotor tone in the developing lung. The contribution of this vasoactive compound and growth factor in the pathogenesis of chronic hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension is being currently studied. Her laboratory has identified the very important role of cGMP dependent protein kinase and its mechanisms of action on the pulmonary vasculature during the transition from fetal to neonatal life. And more recently, her group has identified a unique role for reactive species in protein modification and vascular function in the transition from fetal to neonatal pulmonary circulation.
Dr. Raj and other members of her research team, including Basil Ibe, PhD, Jie Liu, PhD, Ram Ramachandran, PhD, Joy Sarkar, PhD, and Sewite Negash, PhD., are researching the genetic and environmental basis of pulmonary vascular disease in the fetus and newborn. One of the fastest growing areas of contemporary biomedical research is proteomics, the study of protein interactions and identification of patterns in molecular cell structure. Proteins are far more difficult to analyze than DNA in that they are much more complex, numerous, and fragile than genes, and are often difficult to locate, separate, and identify.
She is also involved in fellow education and is very interested in increasing the number of pediatricians in the academic research track. She has trained over 25 fellows, several of whom are pursuing academic careers. She welcomes students, residents and fellows into her laboratory.
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