Aruna Natarajan, M.D.

Assistant Professor
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Critical Care

• BS Hindu College, Delhi University, 1978
• M.D. Armed Forces Medical College, Poona, India 1984
• Diploma in Child Health, Armed Forces Medical College, Poona, India 1989

Contact Information:

Georgetown University Medical Center Concentrated Care Center 5th Floor, Suite 5414 Washington, DC 20057 T: 202-444-2468 Contact Information

I am a Pediatric Intensivist with an interest in basic and clinical translational research, aimed to bridge the gap between the bench and the bedside. I work in the area of application of molecular advances in our understanding of cardiovascular diseases, specifically essential hypertension, to humans. Hypertension affects a billion people worldwide, and hypertensive coronary artery disease continues to be the leading cause of mortality in the U.S.A. Essential hypertension is increasingly thought to have its antecedents during childhood. I am currently conducting a NIH-sponsored clinical trial in the General Clinical Research Center to study the effects of salt intake and genetic makeup, on renal mechanisms underlying salt sensitive hypertension. I am also working towards a PhD in Physiology and Biophysics at Georgetown University. My basic science research focuses on the molecular bases of vascular function, specifically the role of ion channels in vasorelaxation, as it relates to hypertensive coronary artery disease in humans. My career goal is to further understand renal and non-renal molecular mechanisms underlying hypertension and its sequeleae, and to translate my experience in the laboratory to the pediatric population to understand pharmacogenomics of antihypertensive drugs.in children, and environmental and genetic factors in childhood that contribute to the development of salt-sensitivity and salt sensitive hypertension in adulthood.

Representative Publications:

• John E. Jones, Aruna R. Natarajan and Pedro A. Jose Pediatric Hypertension Edited by Drs Ronald J. Portman, Jonathan M. Sorof and Julie R. Inglefinger (2004). Cardiovascular and Autonomic Influences on Blood Pressure. (The Humana Press, Inc).
• Aruna R. Natarajan, Qi Rong, Alexander N. Katchman and Steven N. Ebert (2004). Intrinsic Cardiac Catecholamines Help Maintain Beating Activity in Neonatal Rat Cardiomyocyte Cultures Pediatric Research 56:411- 417
• Nesterova G, Leftrige CA, Appel HJ, Natarajan A, Bautista M and Hauser, GJ (2005). Frequency of errors in interpretation of chest radiographs by pediatric intensivists and their impact on the management of critically ill children. Crit Care Med 33:A11.

More Publications at PubMed