Anbalagan completes national program for early-career researchers
Posted on July 20, 2026 by Casandra Andrews
Saminathan Anbalagan, M.D., successfully completed the SPR Journeys & Frontiers Research program, co-led by the Society for Pediatric Research and the American Pediatric Society, a prestigious longitudinal peer-guidance initiative for early-career investigators. A neonatologist at USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital, he also serves as an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Whiddon College of Medicine.
Now in its sixth year, the American Pediatric Society & Society for Pediatric Research Journeys & Frontiers in Pediatric Research Program is a transformative career development initiative that empowers early-career investigators to advance the future of pediatric medicine. Investigators in the U.S. and Canada are nominated by their department chairs to join the program.
“Participating in this program was an invaluable step in my development as an academic neonatologist and physician-scientist at USA Health,” Anbalagan said. “Through eight small-group virtual sessions, mentorship from established pediatric investigators, peer networking, research discussions, and the PAS Mini-Gordon Conference, the program provided a supportive forum for navigating the challenges of an early independent research career.”
Candid career stories, he said, and mentoring from established scientists and co-attendees helped him to think more strategically about building a sustainable academic niche, developing collaborations, pursuing independent funding, and balancing clinical requirements with research.
The research feedback was particularly relevant, Anbalagan said, because he is exploring the novel role of Alzheimer 's-related amyloid precursor protein in neonatal lung injury and bronchopulmonary dysplasia. It also helped to strengthen his approach to translating laboratory findings into clinically meaningful questions, while complementing his ongoing work in neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome, or NOWS.
Overall, his research aims to identify a novel cause of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a serious chronic lung disease that affects many extremely premature infants. The study investigates whether amyloid precursor protein (APP) and its byproducts, amyloid-beta proteins, contribute to lung injury caused by prenatal inflammation and oxygen exposure after birth. Using innovative animal models, his team is working to determine whether blocking APP signaling can protect developing lungs and improve normal blood vessel and air sac formation.
He is currently the only investigator at USA Health performing a technically demanding chorioamnionitis surgical model, providing a unique platform to study how prenatal inflammation combined with postnatal oxygen exposure drives BPD and to identify potential new therapies for vulnerable newborns.
His other leadership roles include serving as the director of the NOWS Care Program at Children's & Women's Hospital and as assistant director of the Pediatric Residency POCUS Program, an initiative that focuses on point of care ultrasound training for new physicians at USA Health and within the community.
“The Journeys program,” he said, “expanded my national community of mentors and peers and reinforced my confidence and commitment to becoming an independently funded investigator who connects mechanistic discovery with improved outcomes for vulnerable neonates.”