Dr. Bhatti is a clinical neonatologist and a post-doctoral trained basic, translational and clinical investigator. As an independently funded clinician scientist, she committed to improving outcomes of premature infants by understanding how blood vessel development is altered in inflammatory diseases. In particular, the focus of her research program is to elucidate the role of inflammation and surfactant proteins in abnormal blood vessel growth in the retina as it relates to retinopathy of prematurity.
MyNCBI Publications
Fun Fact: "I plan to open a knitting/art cafe (coffee/wine bar) after I decide to retire from medicine."
Academic Section(s):
Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine
Education:
MD - Aga Khan University Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan
Postdoctoral Fellowship-Cell Biology - Georgetown University, Washington DC
Pediatric Residency - Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey PA
Neonatology Fellowship - Penn State University College, Hershey PA
MS Health Evaluation Sciences - Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey PA
Board Certification(s):
- Neonatal-Perinatal Sub-Board Certification, American Board of Pediatrics
- Neonatal Resuscitiation Program (NRP) Hospital Based Instructor
- General Pediatrics Certification, American Board of Pediatrics
Clinical/Research Interests:
Dr. Faizah N. Bhatti is a neonatologist and NIH-funded clinician-scientist serving as Director of the Developmental Vascular Biology Group and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Bhatti holds academic appointments in the Department of Pediatrics, Ophthalmology, Cell Biology and the Oklahoma Center for Neurosciences. With funding from the NIH, industry sponsors and private foundations, her research integrates basic and translational approaches to examine neurovascular signaling in retinal, brain, and lung diseases. Dr. Bhatti examines the biological and molecular roles of inflammatory mediators on vascular development, structure and function in the retinal as it relates to retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Her lab focuses on early risk stratification for ROP, having discovered the pro-angiogenic effects of surfactant protein A (SP-A) and c type lectins. Simultaneously, she utilizes clinical data on preterm infants to study associations between inflammation, sepsis, growth and ROP. She is a principal investigator/sub-PI for several clinical trials involving therapeutics and clinical aspects of ROP in the neonatal subjects at OUHealth Children’s Hospital NICU. Dedicated to the clinician-scientist track, Dr. Bhatti has mentored more than 30 trainees, including medical students, pediatric and ophthalmology residents, fellows and graduate students. Many have been successful in pursuing academic fellowships and academic careers.
At the University of Oklahoma Dr. Bhatti served as Secretary of the Faculty Senate in 2025-26 and currently serves on the AI in Healthcare and Research Working Group, and the Cross-Campus Translational Biomedical Research working group. A national leader, she co-leads the Children’s Hospital Neonatal Consortium ROP Focus Group and serves on the Advisory Council, National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health and Prevent Blindness. She is Past President and currently serves on the board as Director of Communications at the Southern Society for Pediatric Research.
Select Honors & Accomplishments:
2015 SSPR Young Faculty Award
2013 SSPR Basic Science Young Investigator Award
2012 Trainee Mentor Award, Department of Pediatrics, OUHSC
2012 ARVO/Alcon Early Career Clinician-Scientist Research Award
2011 National Eye Institute/ARVO Travel Award
Select Publications:
- Song H, Wu W, Khan D, Zhong H, Meaders M, Pierce P, Vitiello P, Rogers L, Tipple T, Bhatti F. N. Endothelial Cell Specific Thioredoxin 1-Dependent Signaling In Oxygen-Induced Retinopathy. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. Under Review.
- Allen KB*, Rousselle D*, Aston CE, Colón Montañez K, Silveyra P, Chen W, Eckert J, Siatkowski R.M., Vitiello P.F. and Bhatti F.N. (2025). Surfactant Proteins A and D Nucleotide Variants: Association with Retinal Vascular Disease in Preterm Infants, Independent of Severity of Lung Disease. Pediatric Research October 2025. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-025-04435-w
- Johnson, B. J., Makkar, A., Sessler, R., DeShae, L., Siatkowski, R. M., Bhatti, F. N. (2024). Validation and Feasibility of the G-ROP Retinal Screening Criteria at a Level IV Tertiary Care Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. American Journal of Perinatology. 2024 May;41(S 01):e2376-e2382. doi: 10.1055/a-2113-8733 PMID: 37339675. DOI: 10.1055/a-2113-8733
- Stewart VT, Bhatti F, Chen W, Vitiello PF, Agbaga M, Chauhan N, Anderson RE. Effect of maternal dietary deuterated docosahexaenoic acid intake on oxygen-induced retinopathy in mouse pups. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences. 2023; 365:S396-S397. PMID: 0002-9629
- Bhatti, F. N., Yu, Y., Ying, G. S., Tomlinson, L. A., Binenbaum, G. (2023). Association of Cardiovascular Disease with Retinopathy of Prematurity. Ophthalmic epidemiology, 30(1), 95-102. PMID: 35137647. DOI: 10.1080/09286586.2022.2036766
- Melek, M.*, Towner, R., Bhatti, F. N. (2022). Early Pathological and Magnetic Resonance Detection of Cerebral Injury Using a Rat Model of Neonatal Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy. Jove, 188(e64183). DOI: 10.3791/64183
- Schafer, C. M., Gurley, J. M., Kurylowicz, K., Lin, P. K., Chen, W., Elliott, M. H., Davis, G. E., Bhatti, F. N., Griffin, C. T. (2020). An inhibitor of endothelial ETS transcription factors promotes physiologic and therapeutic vessel regression. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(42), 26494-26502. PMID: 33020273. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2015980117
- Venincasa, V. D., Bugg, V., Dvorak, J., Ding, K., Siatkowski, R. M., Bhatti, F. N.# (2019). Temporal Profile of Retinopathy of Prematurity in Extremely Premature Compared to Premature Infants. Journal of pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus, 56(2), 116-123. PMID: 30889266. DOI: 10.3928/01913913-20190205-01
- Ley, D; Hallberg, B; Hansen-Pupp, I; Dani, C; Ramenghi, L; Marlow, N; Beardsall, K; Bhatti F; Dunger D; Higginson JD; Mahaveer A; Mezu-Ndubuisi OJ; Reynolds P; Giannantonio C; Mirjam Weissenbruch MV; Barton N; Tocoian A; Hamdani M; Jochim E; Mangili A; Chung JK; Mark A Turner; Smith LE; Hellström A. Recombinant Human (rh)IGF-1/rhIGFBP-3 in Preterm Infants: A Phase 2 Randomized Controlled Trial. J Pediatrics. 2018 November.
- Vieira, F.*, Kung, J. W., Bhatti, F. N. (2017). Structure, genetics and function of the pulmonary associated surfactant proteins A and D: The extra-pulmonary role of these C type lectins. Annals Of Anatomy-Anatomischer Anzeiger, 211, 184-201. DOI: 10.1016/j.aanat.2017.03.002
- Bhatti, F. N., Ball, G., Hobbs, R.*, Linens, A., Munzar, S.*, Akram, R.*, Barber, A. J., Anderson, M., Elliott, M. H., Edwards, M.* (2015). Pulmonary Surfactant Protein A is Expressed in Mouse Retina by Müller Cells and Impacts Neovascularization in Oxygen-Induced Retinopathy. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (IOVS), 56(1), 232-242. PMID: 25406276. DOI: 10.1167/iovs.13-13652
- Noutsios, G. T., Silveyra, P., Bhatti, F. N., Floros, J. (2013). Exon B of Human Surfactant Protein A2 mRNA, Alone or Within its Surrounding Sequences, Interacts with 14-3-3; Role of Cis-Elements and Secondary Structure. American Journal of Physiology - Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, 304(11). PMID: 23525782. DOI: 10.1152/ajplung.00324.2012