About
Dr. Alison Chu has been a UCLA faculty member since 2013, andis board certified in both Pediatrics and Perinatal-Neonatal Medicine.She has been recognized as one of Los Angeles Magazine’s Top Doctors! When Dr. Chu is not caring for patients at UCLA Ronald Reagan or Santa Monica NICUs, Dr. Chu's research interests are centered around the mechanisms underlying vascular diseases of the neonate. She has received funding from the American Heart Association as well as the NICHD, amongst others, to study placental vascular insufficiency that underlies intrauterine growth restriction. More recently, her interests have extended to understanding the vascular disease seen in retinopathy of prematurity, bothby using basic models of oxygen-induced retinopathy as well as by using advanced imaging techniques in human neonates. She has recently received R01 funding (in 2021) from the National Eye Institute for this work. She has published a number of peer-reviewed research articles, review articles, a book chapter, and a neonatology textbook, serves on the editorial board of Neoreviews and Pediatric Annals, and is a board member for the Western Society for Pediatric Research.
Languages
Education
Medical Board Certification
Fellowship
Residency
Internship
Degree
Recognitions
- Super Doctors® Southern California Rising Stars 2019, 2021, 2023
- Top Doctors, Los Angeles Magazine, 2020, 2021
- 2019 WSPR Mead Johnson Nutrition Junior Faculty Travel Award January 2019
- See More
Hospital Affiliations
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center
UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital
Medical Services
Research
Publications
- Chang CC*, Chu A*, Meyer S, Ding Y, Sun MM, Abiri P, Baek KI, Gudapati V, Ding X, Guihard P, Guihard P, Bostrom KI, Li S, Gordon LK, Zheng JJ, Hsiai TK. Three-dimensional imaging coupled with topological quantification uncovers retinal vascular plexuses undergoing obliteration. Theranostics. 2021 Jan 1;11(3):1162-1175. PMID 33391527 (*co-first authors)
- Chu A, Dhindsa Y, Altendahl M, Tsui I. Prenatal intrauterine growth restriction and risk of retinopathy of prematurity. Scientific Reports. Oct 2020;10(1):17591. PMID: 33067506.
- Douglass M, Strobel KM, Richley M, Mok T, de St. Maurice A, Fajardo V, Young A, Rao R, Lee L, Benharash P, Chu A, Afshar Y. Maternal-Neonatal Dyad outcomes of maternal COVID-19 requiring extracorporeal membrane support: a case series. Am J Perinatol. 2021 Janl38(1):82-87. PMID: 33069171.
- Wong BM, Chu A, Tsui I. Regression of cystoid macular edema three weeks after laser for retinopathy of prematurity. Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina. 2020 Aug 1;51(8):472-475. PMID 32818280 (cover art)
- Langston S, Pithia N, Shin MS, Garg M, de St. Maurice A, Chu A. Lack of utility of tracheal aspirates in the management of suspected neonatal pneumonia in intubated neonates. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. Mar 2020;1-6. PMID: 32209148.
- Kothari N, Chu A, Huang M, Lin F, Lin BR, Manoharan N, Gui W, Huang A, Tsui I. Arm-mounted optical coherence tomography angiography in extremely low birth weight neonates with retinopathy of prematurity. Am J Ophthalmol Case Rep. Feb 2020; 18: 100624. PMID 32154434.
- Wadehra M, Sun M, Casero D, Chen M, Aguirre B, Parikh S, Matynia A, Gordon L, Chu A. Epithelial membrane protein-2 promotes VEGF signaling and pathological neovascular growth in murine hyperoxia-induced retinopathy. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2020 Feb;61(2):3. PMID: 32031575.
- Sangkhae V, Fisher AL, Wong S, Koenig MD, Tussing-Humphreys L, Chu A, Lelíc M, Ganz T, Nemeth E. Effects of maternal iron status on placental and fetal iron homeostasis. J Clin Invest. 2020 Feb;130(2):625-640. PMID 31661462.
- Chu A, Najafzadeh P, Sullivan P, Janzen C, Mah V, Wadehra M. Aldehyde dehydrogenase isoforms are differentially expressed in inflammatory macrophage and extravillous trophoblast cell populations in term human placentas affected by intrauterine growth restriction. Placenta. 2019 Jun;81:9-17. PMID: 31138432.
- Chu A, Casero D, Thamotharan S, Wadehra M, Cosi A, Devaskar SU. The placental transcriptome in late gestational hypoxia resulting in murine intrauterine growth restriction parallels increased risk of adult cardiometabolic disease." Scientific Reports. 2019 Feb;9:1243. PMID: 30718791.
Insurance
- Aetna
- Anthem Blue Cross
- Blue Shield of California
- Centivo
- Cigna
- First Health
- Health Net of California
- Interplan (part of HealthSmart)
- L.A. Care
- Medicare Advantage
- MultiPlan
- UFCM Health System
- Prime Health Services
- Private Healthcare Systems (PHCS)
- TRICARE
- UnitedHealthcare
The list of health care plans above may not be comprehensive and could change.
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Recognitions
- Super Doctors® Southern California Rising Stars 2019, 2021, 2023
- Top Doctors, Los Angeles Magazine, 2020, 2021
- 2019 WSPR Mead Johnson Nutrition Junior Faculty Travel Award January 2019
- Western Society for Pediatric Research, Carmel, CA
- Abbott Nutrition Award in Research by a Young Investigator January 2018
- Western Society for Pediatric Research, Carmel, CA