Daniel J. Licht, MD

faculty photo
Professor of Neurology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Attending, Neurology ICU Consults, Children's Hospital, Philadelphia
Attending, PACT consults (Palliative Care), Children's Hospital, Philadelphia
Attending, Neuro-Cardiac Care Program, Children's Hospital, Philadelphia
Attending, Fetal Neurology Consults, Children's Hospital, Philadelphia
Department: Neurology

Contact information
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Division of Pediatric Neurology
10th Floor Colket Translational Research Bldg, rm 10030
3501 Civic Center Blvd
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Office: (267) 426-5025
Fax:
Education:
BA (Biochemistry)
New York University, 1984.
MD (Medicine)
New Jersey Medical School - UMDNJ, 1997.
Permanent link
 
> Perelman School of Medicine   > Faculty   > Details

Description of Research Expertise

I am a child neurologist with expertise in the care of the critically ill infants and children. My clinical practice informs my research endeavors as I try to understand how the delivery of care affects cerebral blood flow and brain metabolic use of oxygen. My research uses non-invasive imaging techniques, including MRI and Optics, which, when combined, offer both high anatomic resolution and time sensitivity.

As a consequence of my research in infants with severe congenital heart defects, I have begun exploring fetal research. I have developed an MRI technique to qualitatively assess fetal brain development as a tool to monitor fetal brain health. This is now being used to monitor a drug trial for a neuroprotective agent for fetuses identified with severe congenital heart defects. I am currently leading research to non-invasively image placental anatomy and function.

Description of Clinical Expertise

My clinical expertise is in the neurological care for children who are critically ill infants and children. I am the neurology liaison to the cardiac intensive care unit and am a consult attending for the Neonatal, Pediatric and Cardiac intensive care units. My special interests are the neurologic complications in the care of congenital cardiac disease and I am also an expert in pediatric stroke and founding member of the pediatric stroke team at CHOP.

My interests in congenital malformations including congenital heart defects and congenital diaphragmatic hernia, have recently led me to the relatively new field of Fetal Neurology. I am currently the only neurologist to perform Fetal Neurology consults to optimize the care for infants with congenital malformations.

Selected Publications

Gaynor JW, Burnham NB, Ittenbach RF, Gerdes M, Bernbaum JC, Zackai E, Licht DJ, Russell WW, Zullo EE, Miller T, Hakonarson H, Clarke KA, Jarvik GP, Calafat AM, Bradman A, Bellinger DC, Henretig FM, Coker ES.: Childhood exposures to environmental chemicals and neurodevelopmental outcomes in congenital heart disease. PLoS One 17: e0277611, Nov 2022.

Ko TS, Mavroudis CD, Benson EJ, Forti RM, Melchior RW, Boorady TW, Morano VC, Mensah-Brown K, Lin Y, Aronowitz D, Starr JP, Rosenthal TM, Shade BC, Schiavo KL, White BR, Lynch JM, Gaynor JW, Licht DJ, Yodh AG, Baker WB, Kilbaugh TJ.: Correlation of Cerebral Microdialysis with Non-Invasive Diffuse Optical Cerebral Hemodynamic Monitoring during Deep Hypothermic Cardiopulmonary Bypass. Metabolites 12: 737, Aug 2022.

Goldman-Yassen AE, Shifrin A, Mirsky DM, Vossough A, Licht DJ, Feygin T.: Torcular Dural Sinus Malformation: Fetal and Postnatal Imaging Findings and Their Associations With Clinical Outcomes. Pediatr Neurol 135: 28-37, Jul 2022.

White BR, Ko TS, Morgan RW, Baker WB, Benson EJ, Lafontant A, Starr JP, Landis WP, Andersen K, Jahnavi J, Breimann J, Delso N, Morton S, Roberts AL, Lin Y, Graham K, Berg RA, Yodh AG, Licht DJ, Kilbaugh TJ.: Low Frequency Power in Cerebral Blood Flow is a Biomarker of Neurologic Injury in the Acute Period after Cardiac Arrest. Resuscitation Jul 2022.

Moon JK, Lawrence KM, Hunt ML, Davey MG, Flake AW, Licht DJ, Chen JM, Kilbaugh TJ, Gaynor JW, Beiting DP.: Chronic hypoxemia induces mitochondrial respiratory complex gene expression in the fetal sheep brain. JTCVS Open 10: 342-349, May 2022.

Jacobwitz M, Favilla E, Patel A, Giglia TM, Taing K, Ravishankar C, Gaynor JW, Licht DJ, McGuire JL, Beslow LA.: Neurologic complications of infective endocarditis in children. Cardiol Young May 2022.

Lawrence KM, Radaelli E, McGovern PE, Licht DJ, Davey MG, Flake AW, Gaynor JW, Vossough A.: Radiographic and histologic characterisation of white matter injury in a sheep model of CHD. Cardiol Young Apr 2022.

Meyers B, Lee VK, Dennis L, Wallace J, Schmithorst V, Votava-Smith JK, Rajagopalan V, Herrup E, Baust T, Tran NN, Hunter J, Licht DJ, Gaynor JW, Andropoulos DB, Panigrahy A, Ceschin R.: Harmonization of Multi-Center Diffusion Tensor Tractography in Neonates with Congenital Heart Disease: Optimizing Post-Processing and Application of ComBat. Neuroimage Rep 2022.

Lafontant A, Mahanna Gabrielli E, Bergonzi K, Forti RM, Ko TS, Shah RM, Arkles JS, Licht DJ, Yodh AG, Kofke WA, White BR, Baker WB.: Comparison of optical measurements of critical closing pressure acquired before and during induced ventricular arrhythmia in adults. Neurophotonics 2022.

Bender, Dieter PhD Daniel Licht, MD Nataraj, Chandrasekhar: A Novel Embedded Feature Selection and Dimensionality Reduction Method for an SVM Type Classifier to Predict Periventricular Leukomalacia (PVL) in Neonates. Applied Sciences 11(23): 11156, November 2021.

back to top
Last updated: 03/15/2023
The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania