Tai-Wei Wu, MD

Dr. Tai-Wei Wu is an attending neonatologist and Director of Neonatal Neuroprotection Program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He completed his Pediatric Residency training at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and Perinatal-Neonatal Medicine Fellowship training at LAC+USC Medical Center and Children's Hospital Los Angeles. His research interest is in the area of neonatal brain injury and hemodynamics. Dr. Wu studies complex hemodynamic changes in newborns undergoing therapeutic hypothermia for hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) by comprehensive bedside monitoring, including point of care ultrasounds, continuous cardiac output monitoring, and end-organ oxygenation.  His understanding of cerebral blood flow and metabolism coupling is further enhanced by magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy, which measures cerebral metabolites and temperature non-invasively. Uniquely, he has developed a transport protocol to safely conduct MR studies during therapeutic hypothermia by active cooling. MR spectroscopy is obtained both during and after therapeutic hypothermia, allowing for comparison of cerebral metabolic changes in relation to core temperature modulation.  His ultimate goal is to identify modifiable factors in the neonatal intensive care setting that will improve neurological outcomes of infants with brain injury. Dr. Wu has numerous peer-reviewed publications in the field of neonatal hemodynamics and newborn asphyxia. He is also the author of several book chapters and invited reviews and a reviewer for notable journals in the field. He is currently the co-investigator of a NIH funded national multi-center trial for the use of erythropoietin in newborn asphyxia.