Areas of interest

Birth asphyxia Cerebral Palsy Fetal growth restriction (FGR) Preterm birth

Research group

Neurodevelopment and Neuroprotection

Biography

Associate Professor Atul Malhotra is a Senior Neonatologist at Monash Newborn, Monash Children’s Hospital and Clinician Scientist/ NHMRC fellow in the Department of Paediatrics, Monash University.

His clinical research interests focus on improving respiratory and neurological outcomes of high-risk infants. He has a keen interest in neonatal evidence based medicine, having been involved in a number of large randomised clinical trials and cohort studies. He is passionate about neurodevelopment following high-risk birth and is the Head of the Early Neurodevelopment Clinic at Monash Children’s Hospital.

His basic science interests include understanding and treating brain injury related to high risk perinatal conditions. His basic science PhD was on “Novel strategies for early detection and treatment of fetal growth restriction related brain injury” completed at the Ritchie Centre, Hudson Institute of Medical Research.

He has been instrumental in the translation of preclinical therapies from the laboratory to the clinic, including regenerative cell therapies. He led a world-first trial of placental stem cells for chronic lung disease of prematurity, and is the Principal Investigator of a umbilical cord blood derived cell therapy trial in extremely premature infants (CORD-SaFe), currently recruiting. He is the co-director of the Newborn Cell Therapies Group of School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health.

One of his other research interests includes medical device innovation/ artificial intelligence. Together with colleagues in the Faculty of Engineering at Monash University, their Biomedical Signal Processing Lab focuses on improving cardio-respiratory monitoring in newborn infants.

He is also passionate about education, and served as the inaugural Co-Chair of Monash Children’s Hospital Simulation Centre. He has been running simulation based education programs in Australia and around the world, and is the co-founder of the global health interprofessional education program, ONE-Sim Education.