Lina Chalak, M.D.

Lina Chalak, M.D., M.S.C.S., is a Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She is the founding director of the Neurointensive Care program and of the Fetal Neonatal Neurology Fellowship Program. Board certified in general pediatrics, general pediatrics recertification, neonatal-perinatal medicine, and neonatal-perinatal recertification, Dr. Chalak joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2008. 

Dr. Chalak earned her medical degree and completed a residency in pediatrics at American University of Beirut. She subsequently completed fellowships in both neonatal-perinatal medicine and pediatrics at UT Southwestern/Children’s Health Dallas. In 2011, she received a Master of Clinical Science Distinction from UT Southwestern’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.  

An active physician-scientist, Dr. Chalak’s research focuses on asphyxia, hypothermia, and neonatal brain injury. The recipient of multiple federally funded awards, her current projects include: cerebrovascular autoregulation and neuronal biomarkers in HIE, as well as neuronal and inflammatory biomarkers involved in neuronal injury pathways. She has led the PRIME mild asphyxia collaborative study and pioneered a “Neurovascular bundle” for a critical real time evaluation of the coupling of cerebral blood flow and neuronal activity in newborns with asphyxia She leads a multi-science research team of physiologists, biomedical engineers with a novel neurovascular bundle for evaluation of the coupling of cerebral blood flow and neuronal activity. She serves on NIH sections, American Pediatric Society (APS) and society of pediatric research SPR executive council.