Our Team of Experts Neonatologists
Neonatologists are pediatricians with special expertise in caring for sick or premature infants. Our neonatologists are world leaders in caring for babies requiring intensive care after birth. Babies who undergo fetal surgery are cared for in a special surgical unit in the Intensive Care Nursery.
For further information regarding neonatology please refer to the
Department of Pediatrics website.
David H. Rowitch, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief, Division of Neonatology
Specialties: Neonatology
Dr. David Rowitch is chief of neonatology and professor of pediatrics and neurosurgery at UCSF. In addition to caring for patients, he leads a laboratory that is investigating genetic factors that determine cellular development in the brain and its response to injury. Rowitch is also interested in neurological problems in premature infants, as well as brain cancer.
Rowitch earned his medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge in England. Subsequently, he completed an internship and residency in pediatrics and fellowship in newborn medicine at Children's Hospital in Boston. Rowitch also participated in a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard College in Cambridge. His work in the field of neurobiology has earned him numerous awards, including the National Institute of Health Clinical Investigator Award, Basil O'Connor Starter Scholar Award from the March of Dimes Foundation, Kimmel Foundation Scholar Award and the James S. McDonnell Foundation Research Award.
Yao Sun, M.D., Ph.D.
Director of Neonatal Clinical Programs
Neonatologist
Dr. Yao Sun, a neonatologist and perinatologist, is medical director of the William H. Tooley Intensive Care Nursery at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. He uses his expertise in medical informatics, a field at the juncture of medicine and computer science, to keep the intensive care nursery on the cutting edge of patient diagnoses and treatments. Sun comes to UCSF from Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center, where he was director of neonatology.
Sun is an associate professor of clinical pediatrics in the UCSF Division of Neonatology. He received his medical degree from UCLA, received a doctorate in computer science from MIT, and completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in neonatology at Children's Hospital Boston.
Roberta L. Keller, M.D.
Neonatologist
Director of ECMO Program
Dr. Roberta Keller is a neonatologist, an expert in caring for sick newborn babies, particularly those who are born with congenital lung or heart diseases. In addition to caring for newborns, Keller has a special research interest in trying to better understand and treat lung and heart disorders affecting the newborn, such as congenital diaphragmatic hernia and patent ductus arteriosus. She has been invited to lecture at many organizations around the country on this subject, and her research has been published in numerous journals.
She completed her medical degree, residency in pediatrics, and fellowship in neonatal-perinatal medicine at UCSF, before joining the department of pediatrics faculty in 2003. Keller is the coordinator of the UCSF Neonatology Clinical Consensus Program and during her fellowship, she was the recipient of the Glaser Pediatric Research Network fellowship.
Thomas K. Shimotake, M.D.
Neonatologist
Specialties: Neonatology
Dr. Shimotake has been a member of the UCSF Department of Pediatrics/Division of Neonatology since 2003. He completed a two-year research assistantship at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD before earning his medical degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Medicine. He subsequently received his residency training in Pediatrics and fellowship training in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at The University of Chicago Wyler Children's and Lying-In Hospitals. He is board certified in both Pediatrics and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine.
Dr. Shimotake has a special research interest in lung surfactant metabolism. Surfactant is a vital lung fluid required for normal breathing and is deficient in premature newborns with Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS). Dr. Shimotake is interested in the factors that regulate how surfactant is recycled and maintained in the lung. Over the past four decades, many important discoveries leading to the understanding and treatment of Respiratory Distress Syndrome in the newborn were conducted at the UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute.
Elizabeth Rogers, M.D.
Neonatologist
Assistant Clinical Professor
Elizabeth Rogers completed her undergraduate degree in Slavic Languages and Literature and History of Science at Harvard University in 1998. She then received her medical degree from Stanford University in 2003 and completed residency training in pediatrics at University of California San Francisco. Her major interests are in the neurodevelopmental follow up of premature and critically ill neonates, developmental care in the NICU, medical student and resident education in neonatal and pediatric critical care, neonatal resuscitation, and family-centered and palliative care.
