Raghavendra Rao, M.D.

MMC 39, D-136 Mayo
420 Delaware St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612-625-3260 Tel
612-624-8176 Fax
raoxx017@umn.edu

Raghavendra Rao, M.D. is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Neonatology. He earned his M.D. at Mysore University in India. In addition to his postgraduate training in Mangalore and Chandigarh, India, he spent a year in Pediatric Residency at the University of Minnesota before completing his Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship at the University of Minnesota. When not attending on the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital, Dr. Rao is involved in research on neurodevelopment during the perinatal period under normal and adverse conditions. He is also interested in research studies on the regulation of iron uptake in the developing brain. Dr. Rao has been published in Pediatric Research, Seminars in Neonatology and Journal of Nutrition (to name just a few) in addition to abstracts and contributions to book chapters. He is an invited lecturer, presenting his research in the United States and abroad.

Dr. Rao is also a core faculty member of the Center for Neurobehavioral Development and a member of the Graduate Program in Neuroscience.  His research focus is regional brain development under typical and adverse perinatal conditions.  He is specifically interested in understanding the effects of iron deficiency, chronic hypoxia, acute hypoxia-ischemia, and acute hypoglycemia in the developing hippocampus.  He utilizes high-field NMR spectroscopy and immunohistochemistry in his research, which has been funded by the NICHD and the University Pediatrics Foundation.

Center for Magnetic Resonance Research

Lab of Drs. Raghu Rao and Michael Georgieff