Claudia R. Morris, MD

Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine; Research Director, Div of Ped Emergency Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
Atlanta, Georgia

Claudia R. Morris, MD, FAAP is a Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, the Wilbur Fisk Glenn Jr. Distinguished Faculty Chair for Clinical & Translational Research and is the Research Director for the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM). She is also an attending physician in the pediatric Emergency Department at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She received her medical degree at Eastern Virginia Medical School, and completed her residency training in Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Oakland. She went on to do a chief resident year, as well a PEM fellowship at Children’s Hospital Oakland, and remained on as faculty until her relocation to Emory in 2012. Dr. Morris is an R01-funded investigator who has led several single and multi-center trials. She has a special interest in nutritional research that targets inflammation and oxidative stress. She has studied the arginine-nitric oxide pathway in both sickle cell disease (SCD) and asthma, and holds 3 INDs for nutritional interventions for the treatment of SCD and thalassemia. Dr. Morris discovered that an L-arginine deficiency is the consequence of hemolysis, a process in which red blood cells rupture and release their contents into the blood stream. She published the first therapeutic study for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension in SCD evaluating arginine, a nutritional supplement (Morris et al 2003, Am J Resp Crit Care Med), and published a randomized placebo-controlled trial of arginine therapy in children with SCD hospitalized for pain (Morris et al 2013, Haematologica). Dr. Morris found that an arginine deficiency plays a role in a number of diseases, including asthma and pulmonary hypertension. Her mentees have added chronic kideny disease and congenital heart disease to the growing list. Her research goal is to develop novel interventions that minimizes inflammation, hemolysis and morbidity in these disorders.

Presentation(s):

• A Symposium of Research by K Fellows (823134)

  Saturday, October 24, 2020
  8:30 AM – 9:45 AM EST