Claire Baldauf, MD

Attending Neonatologist
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Keck School of Medicine of USC

Dr. Claire Baldauf is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She earned her medical degree from the University of California, Davis before coming to Los Angeles for Pediatrics residency training at UCLA. She stayed on at UCLA to complete Neonatal-Perinatal medicine fellowship in 2017. During fellowship Dr. Baldauf was an NIH K12 scholar through the National Institute of Child Health and Development, researching the effects of fetal growth restriction on brain development. In 2020, Dr. Baldauf joined the faculty at USC, where she attends at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. Dr. Baldauf is a recipient of the Research Career Development Award 2023 for her work focusing on in-utero and placental development in babies with congenital heart disease. She also works with the Center for Personalized Medicine on a project investigating placental development in mothers with pre-eclampsia.

Dr. Baldauf is the clinical leader for the CHLA Placenta Bank which opened in July 2023. The bank freezes donated placental tissue and stores it for future research. A healthy placenta is critical to a healthy pregnancy, yet remains understudied. The bank aims to change that by promoting research in the fields of maternal-fetal medicine and fetal/neonatal health.

Learn more about the CHLA Placenta Bank.

Clinical Interests

In-utero development, intra-uterine growth restriction, infants of diabetic mothers, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, neurodevelopmental outcomes

Education

Medical School

UC Davis School of Medicine

Internship

UCLA Medical Center

Residency

UCLA Medical Center

Fellowship

UCLA Medical Center

Accomplishments

Certification

Pediatrics: American Board of Pediatrics
Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine: American Board of Pediatrics

Memberships

2014-present: Member, Western Society for Pediatric Research
2011-present: American Academy of Pediatrics
2008-present: California Medical Association
2005-present: Lifetime Member, National Society of Collegiate Scholars

Medical Awards

Research Career Development Award from the CHLA Saban Research Institute
Interdisciplinary Research Award from CHLA Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
NIH/NICHD Child Health Research Career Development Award (K12)
Harry Winston Fellowship Award
Marshall Klaus Perinatal Research Award
Award for Excellence in Public Health Science at UC Davis
Shapiro Award for superior abstract and poster presentation

Publications

Baldauf C, Sondhi M, Shin BC, Ko YE, Ye X, Lee KW, Devaskar SU. Murine maternal dietary restriction affects neural Humanin expression and cellular profile. J Neurosci Res. 2020 May;98(5):902-920. doi: 10.1002/jnr.24568. Epub 2019 Dec 15. PMID: 31840315; PMCID: PMC7744116.

Ye X, Shin BC, Baldauf C, Ganguly A, Ghosh S, Devaskar SU. Developing Brain Glucose Transporters, Serotonin, Serotonin Transporter, and Oxytocin Receptor Expression in Response to Early-Life Hypocaloric and Hypercaloric Dietary, and Air Pollutant Exposures. Dev Neurosci. 2021;43(1):27-42. doi: 10.1159/000514709. Epub 2021 Mar 26. PMID: 33774619; PMCID: PMC8344089.

Research

Placental mediators of fetal and neonatal disease, the placenta in congenital heart disease, mitochondrial function in pregnancy, fetal brain development

Newborn and Infant Critical Care Unit

4650 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
United States