Pediatrics About Us Message from the Chair Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Contact Us Education & Training Residency Programs Fellowship Programs Research Faculty & Labs Scholarly Activity Divisional Expertise Allergy/Immunology Cardiology Child Abuse Critical Care Developmental & Behavioral Endocrinology Gastroenterology General Pediatrics Genetic & Genomic Medicine Hematology Hospitalist Infectious Diseases Metabolic Disorders Neonatal/Perinatal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatric Surgery Pulmonology Rheumatology Faculty Division of Pediatric Endocrinology Home About Campus & Community Resources Pediatrics: Divisional Expertise > Endocrinology Training the Next Generation of Pediatric Endocrinologists The Division of Pediatric Endocrinology is dedicated to training future healthcare professionals to properly diagnose and treat children with a variety of conditions, including growth disorders, transgender healthcare needs, diabetes, disorders related to puberty and weight, and conditions related to the pituitary, thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal glands. Under an affiliation agreement with UCI Health and the UCI School of Medicine, our faculty members provide training and clinical services at Gottschalk Medical Plaza on the UCI campus, Children’s Health of Orange County (CHOC) and a pediatric endocrinology clinic in Torrance in the South Bay of Los Angeles. Clinical Strengths The division offers consultation services for children with a range of conditions, including: Adrenal gland disorders, including Cushing syndrome and Addison’s disease Bone metabolism Disorders of glucose metabolism Disorders of sexual development, including ambiguous genitalia and precocious or delayed puberty Diabetes Gender diversity Growth disorders, including short stature, Turner syndrome and gigantism Obesity Parathyroid gland disorders Pituitary gland disorders Thyroid disorders Water and electrolyte imbalance Prenatal & Pediatric Research Our division has two research scientist faculty members: Karen Lindsay, PhD, RDN, and Lauren Gyllenhammer, PhD. Karen Lindsay, PhD Karen Lindsay’s research primarily focuses on nutrition, glycemic control and psychological well-being across the first 1,000 days—from conception until a child is 2 years old. She has an NIH-funded project that investigates the interplay of maternal diet and stress in pregnancy and the impact on gestational glucose-insulin metabolism. She completed a community-based pilot project, a statewide needs assessment of nutrition services and resources for families in the first 1,000 days. Lindsay’s ongoing research in this field includes developing and testing mindfulness interventions for pregnant people to improve dietary habits, psychological well-being and glycemic control, as well as an investigation of how prenatal diet and glycemic control influence newborn metabolic health and future cancer risk via the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) axis. The majority of these studies to date have engaged low-income and diverse populations, as her research seeks to find practical solutions to maternal and child health and nutrition in underserved populations. Lindsay also conducts nutrition and endocrinology research with non-pregnant adult populations. She is co-investigator on a national multisite teaching kitchen intervention trial for adults with obesity and metabolic syndrome, for which she leads the nutrition education classes for the UCI participant cohort. She is also co-investigator on a pilot study to investigate the acceptability and impact of a fasting mimicking diet on glycemic control among Asian Americans with prediabetes. Lauren Gyllenhammer, PhD Lauren Gyllenhammer’s research focuses on factors in early life that can influence the risk for childhood obesity and metabolic dysfunction, particularly among racial and ethnic minority populations. She has an NIH-funded project that focuses on the interplay between biological and psychological processes in early life that impact child adipose development and distribution and risk for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Her work includes an emphasis on the elucidation of cellular mechanisms, particularly focused on mitochondrial biology and the utilization of state-of-the-art imaging techniques. Most recently Gyllenhammer’s work has employed an experimental stem cell culture system derived from human newborn clinical samples, and she is the co-investigator on two NIH-funded projects where she currently oversees the collection and isolation of over 500 newborn hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cell samples. Gyllenhammer also has an NIH-project funded through the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program to investigate changes to mitochondrial content and bioenergetic function in a large epidemiological-sized cohort of 1,200 mother-child dyads. Both the ECHO and stem cell cohorts are enriched for racial and ethnic minority groups, which will inform which factors in early life are the most salient across diverse study populations and within the specific racial and ethnic groups. Division of Pediatric Endocrinology Faculty Our faculty members are board-certified pediatric endocrinologists. Our registered dietician faculty member Karen Lindsay, PhD, also serves as a teacher and research mentor for MD students. Amrit Pal Singh Bhangoo, MD Associate Professor — Division of Endocrinology, Pediatrics Mark W. Daniels, MD Assistant Professor — Division of Endocrinology, Pediatrics Lauren Gyllenhammer Assistant Professor In Residence, Pediatrics Karen L Lindsay, PhD Assistant Professor — Division of Endocrinology, Pediatrics Early Career Chair in Integrative Health, Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine, Research Centers and Institutes Ajanta Naidu, MD Professor, Division Chief, UCI Pediatric Endocrinology, Pediatrics Vice Chair, Faculty Affairs, Pediatrics Volunteer Faculty Cynthia Antonio, NP Daina Dreimane, MD Timothy Flannery, MD Nikta Forghani, MD Marjan Haghi, MD Sejal Kadakia, MD Himala Kashmiri, DO Lynda Polgreen, MD Amruta Thakkar, MD Connect with Us Contact us for more information about the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology. Divisional Contacts Ajanta Naidu, MD Division Chiefanidu@uci.edu Catherine Brock Administratorcmbrock@hs.uci.edu Clinical Services Click on the links below for information about our clinical services offered at UCI Health and Children's Health of Orange County (CHOC). Pediatric Endocrinology & Diabetes Services Gender Diversity Program CHOC's Endocrinology Services