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May Chen

May Chen, MD

Neonatology

Johns Hopkins Affiliations:
  • Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty

Languages

  • Chinese - Mandarin
  • English

14 Insurances Accepted

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Gender

Female

About May Chen

Professional Titles

  • Associate Director, Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Training Program
  • Director, Neonatal Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Program

Primary Academic Title

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Background

May Chen is the associate director of the neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship training program at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her area of expertise is diagnosing and treating premature babies and newborns with high-risk or complex health conditions. She specializes in neonatal-perinatal medicine and neonatology. 

Dr. Chen graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She later completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in neonatology, each at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She became a faculty member in the division of Neonatology in 2018. 

Research Interests

Brain Injury, Near-infrared Spectroscopy., Neonatal Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy, Neuroprotection, Point-of-care ultrasound

Research Summary

Dr. Chen’s primary research interests are the use of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) for treatment of neonates and neonatal brain injury, and she leads development of the Johns Hopkins neonatal POCUS program as its director. In this role, she collaborates with fellow neonatologists (Drs. Michelle Gontasz, Keith Leung and Kartikeya Makker), pediatric intensivists (Drs. Katherine Hoops and Amanda Levin), pediatric cardiologists (Drs. Dennis Delany and Melanie Nies) and pediatric emergency medicine colleagues (Dr. Kate Deanehan) to extend POCUS education to their respective divisions. 

Dr. Chen has received internal funding (a Johns Hopkins Children’s Center innovation grant and a Women’s Board grant) for development of a multidisciplinary POCUS curriculum, and she presented her research work at the national American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) conference in 2023. 

Dr. Chen has taught at regional POCUS workshops at Johns Hopkins and at Children’s National Hospital. Dr. Chen has additional research interests in neonatal brain injury, specifically cerebellar injury after hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy in an animal model working with Dr. Jennifer Lee Summers (anesthesiology) and Dr. Lee Martin (pathology/neuroscience).  

 

Selected Publications

  •  Chen MW, Reyes M, Kulikowicz E, Martin L, Hackam DJ, Koehler RC, Lee JK. Abdominal near-infrared spectroscopy in a piglet model of gastrointestinal hypoxia produced by graded hypoxia or superior mesenteric artery ligation. Pediatric Research. 2018;83(6):1172-1181. PMID: 29538356 

  •  Lee J, Santos PT, Chen MW, O’Brien CE, Kulikowicz E, Adams S, Hardart H, Koehler RC, Martin LJ. Combining hypothermia and oleuropein subacutely protects subcortical white matter in a swine model of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2021;80(2):182-198. PMID: 33212486

  • Liu X, Tekes A, Perin J, Chen M, Soares BP, Massaro AN, Govindan RB, Parkinson C, Chavez-Valdez R, Northington FJ, Brady K, Lee J. Wavelet autoregulation monitoring identifies blood pressures associated with brain injury in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Front. Neurol. 2021;12:662839. PMID: 33995258

  • Moon J, Chen M, Gandhy SU, Strawderman M, Levitsky DA, Maclean KN, Strupp BJ.  Perinatal Choline Supplementation Improves Cognitive Functioning and Emotion Regulation in the Ts65Dn mouse model of Down Syndrome. Behavioral Neuroscience.  2010;124(3):346-361.

  • El Demerdash N, Chen MW, O’Brien CE, Adams S, Kulikowicz E, Martin LJ, Lee JK. Oleuropein activates neonatal neocortical proteasomes, but proteasome gene targeting by AAV9 is variable in a clinically relevant piglet model of brain hypoxia-ischemia and hypothermia. Cells. 2021; 10(8):2120. PMID: 34440889

  • Li R, Lee JK, Govindan RB, Graham EM, Everett AD, Perin J, Vezina G, Tekes A, Chen MW, Northington F, Parkinson C, O'Kane A, McGowan M, Krein C, Al-Shargabi T, Chang T, Massaro AN. Plasma biomarkers of evolving encephalopathy and brain injury in neonates with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). J Pediatr. 2023; 252:146-153.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2022.07.046. PMID: 35944723

  • Primiani CT, Lee JK, O’Brien CE, Chen MW, Perin J, Kulikowicz E, Santos P, Adams S, Lester B, Rivera-Diaz N, Olberding V, Niedzwiecki MV, Ritzl EK, Habela CW, Liu X, Yang ZJ, Koehler RC, Martin LJ. Hypothermic protection in neocortex is topographic and laminar, seizure unmitigating, and partially rescues neurons depleted of RNA splicing protein RBFOX3 in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic male piglets. Cells. 2023; accepted for publication.

  • Santos PT, O’Brien CE, Chen MW, Hopkins CD, Adams S, Kulikowicz E, Singh R, Koehler RC, Martin LJ, Lee JK. Proteasome biology is compromised in white matter after asphyxic cardiac arrest in neonatal piglets. J Am Heart Assoc. 2018; 7(20):e009415. PMID: 30371275

  • Chen MW, Akinboyo IC, Sue PK, Donohue PK, Ghanem KG, Detrick B, Witter FR, Page KR, Arav-Boger R, Golden WC. Evaluating congenital syphilis in a reverse sequence testing environment. J Perinatol. 2019; 39(7):956-963. PMID: 31076626

  • Chen MW, Lee JK, Vezina G, Tekes A, Perin J, Li R, O’Kane A, McGowan M, Chang T, Parkinson C, Krein C, Al-Shargabi T, Northington FJ, Brady KM, Massaro AN, Govindan RB. The utility of cerebral autoregulation indices in detecting severe brain injury varies by cooling treatment phase in neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Dev Neuroscience. 2022; 44(4-5):363-372. doi: 10.1159/000522314. PMID: 35100588

  • Chen MW, Santos P, Kulikowicz E, Koehler RC, Lee JK, Martin LJ. Targeting the mitochondrial permeability transition pore for neuroprotection in a piglet model of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. J Neurosci Res. 2021;99(6):1550-1564. PMID: 33675112

Honors

  • Thrasher Early Career Award Program Grant
  • Innovation Grant Recipient, Johns Hopkins Children's Center

Memberships

  • American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
  • Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM)
  • American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM)
  • Society for Neuroscience (SfN)
  • Newborn Brain Society

Locations

  1. Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center
    • 4940 Eastern Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21224
    • The Johns Hopkins Hospital
      • 1800 Orleans Street, Baltimore, MD 21287

      Expertise

      Education

      Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

      Fellowship, Pediatrics and Neonatology, 2018

      Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

      Residency, Pediatrics, 2015

      Albert Einstein College of Medicine

      Medical Education, MD, 2012

      Board Certifications

      Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine

      American Board of Pediatrics, 2020

      Pediatrics

      American Board of Pediatrics, 2015

      Insurance

      Johns Hopkins providers accept various commercial health insurance plans. However, they may not be included in all of an insurance company's plans or offerings. This may include Exchange, Medicaid, Medicare, and specific limited benefit plans. Exceptions to participation also exist based on your employer’s benefits package and the provider's location or specialty. Please contact your insurer directly to make sure your doctor is covered by your plan. For more details, please review our Insurance Information.
      Search plans
      • Aetna
      • CareFirst
      • Cigna
      • First Health
      • Geisinger Health Plan
      • HealthSmart/Accel
      • Humana
      • Johns Hopkins Health Plans
      • MultiPlan
      • Pennsylvania's Preferred Health Networks (PPHN)
      • Point Comfort Underwriters
      • Private Healthcare Systems (PHCS)
      • UnitedHealthcare
      • Veteran Affairs Community Care Network (Optum-VACCN)