Physician Biographies
The physicians who perform examinations for OTIS Research Studies are leaders in the field of Dysmorphology/Teratology.
Principal Investigator:
Kenneth Lyons Jones, MD, Medical Director, CTIS Pregnancy Risk Information
Principal Investigator:
Kenneth Lyons Jones, MD, Medical Director, CTIS Pregnancy Risk Information
Dr. Kenneth Lyons Jones is the Chief of the Division of Dysmorphology/Teratology at the Department of Pediatrics at UCSD and Medical Director of CTIS Pregnancy Risk Information. In these activities he has been involved in research, teaching, clinical work and University and public service.
Dr. Jones’ research has focused on the clinical delineation of birth defects, mechanisms of normal and abnormal morphogenesis and the recognition of new human teratogens. The work on recognition of new human teratogens is primarily focused through CTIS Pregnancy Risk Information, a service which he established under a different name in 1979 and which is funded by the State of California.
Dr. Jones has authored over 200 research articles in peer reviewed scientific journals as well as several books, and is the author of Smith’s Recognizable Patterns of Human Malformation. He is considered to be the father of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) since he was one of 2 doctors at the University of Washington who first identified FAS in the United States in 1973.
As Chief of UCSD Medical Center's Division of Dysmorphology/Teratology, Dr. Jones is in clinical service throughout the year, and trains fellows in dysmorphology. Teaching goes on virtually every day as he sees patients in clinics and serves as consultant on hospital inpatient services throughout San Diego County.
Dr. Jones is past president of the Western Society for Pediatric Research and the Teratology Society as well as the Co-Chair of the Scientific Working Group on Diagnostic Guidelines for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder, convened by the National Center of Birth Defects & Developmental Disabilities. He is also a member of 2 committees established by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); the Pregnancy Labeling Advisory Committee and the Subcommittee established in 2000 to evaluate the continued misuse of Accutane during pregnancy. Dr. Jones also serves on various other boards and committees.
Stephen R. Braddock, MD
Dr. Braddock received his B.S. from the University of Notre Dame in 1984. He received his M.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine in 1988. He completed an internship and residency with the University of Utah Affiliated Hospitals Department of Pediatrics. He has also completed a fellowship in Medical Genetics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center/UCLA in Los Angeles and a dysmorphology fellowship at the University of California-San Diego. He is board-certified in both Pediatrics and Medical Genetics. Dr. Braddock was the founder and Medical Director of the Missouri Teratogen Information Service (MOTIS) and the Central Missouri Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Center at the University of Missouri, as well as a member of the Midwest Regional FAS Training Center. In 2006 he joined the faculty as Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Virginia. He has continued to be involved in the evaluation and treatment of individuals with birth defects and education of health-care professionals and the general public regarding teratology.
Carol Clericuzio, MD
Carol Clericuzio, M.D. is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center (UNM HSC) and the recently semi-retired Chief of the Division of Clinical Genetics/Dysmorphology. She is board certified in Clinical Genetics and Pediatrics and has received training in dysmorphology from Kenneth Lyons Jones, M.D. and Jon Aase, M.D. Dr. Clericuzio has a great interest in teratology as well as syndromes with cancer predisposition, such as Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. She is the Principal Investigator of the New Mexico Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Project which provides evaluation and treatment for affected individuals and has been evaluating children for sequelae of in utero alcohol exposure in the Southwest for over 25 years. At the UNM HSC, Dr. Clericuzio collaborates with Piyadasa Kodituwakku, Ph.D, Pediatric Neuropsychologist, on defining the behavioral phenotype of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disor.der, as well as a number of basic scientists supported by a National Institutes of Health grant for Alcohol Research Training in Neurosciences program. During her 27 year career at the UNM School of Medicine she has received a number of honors for outstanding teaching and clinical service, including the Regents’ Lectureship Award presented by the Dean.
Luther K. Robinson, MD
Dr. Robinson is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the State University of New York School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Robinson graduated from Oberlin College and earned his medical degree at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. After completing his residency in Pediatrics at the University of California San Diego Dr. Robinson undertook postdoctoral training in Dysmorphology (altered structural development) under the mentorship of Kenneth Lyons Jones, M.D. Dr. Robinson became interested in teratogens (environmental agents that cause birth defects) such as alcohol and how exposures to these agents disturb normal embryonic and fetal development. Dr. Robinson is Medical Director and founding father of the New York Pregnancy Risk Network. Dr. Robinson also has a long-standing interest and commitment to providing medical services to under-served groups. He is past president of the National Medical Association and served as the Medical Director of Buffalo's Parents and Children Together (PACT) program that provides medical care to children and families impacted by maternal substance abuse. Dr. Robinson has been working with children and families affected by the maternal use of alcohol for over 20 years and is the Medical Director of the Special Needs Clinic in the Division of Genetics at Children's Hospital, a program that focuses on the diagnosis and follow-up of children with fetal alcohol syndrome and alcohol- related disabilities. In addition, Dr. Robinson is the Dysmorphologist on several national and international studies on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. He is the Primary Investigator for the FAS Phsyician Education Project that provides educational seminars for physicians and other healthcare providers and funded by the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcohol Addictions.
Keith Vaux, MD
Keith Vaux, M.D. is Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatrics and Hospital Medicine at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Rady Childrens' Hospital San Diego. He is the Medical Director of the Continuing Medical Education department at Rady Childrens' Hospital and an attending physician at the Helen Benardy Center for Medically Fragile Children.
While on active duty in the Navy, Dr. Vaux was the Principal Investigator (PI) for the "Case Control Surveillance for Birth Defects in Relation to Environmental Exposure" with Dr. Jones and Dr. Chambers and was the PI on "Maternal Diabetes Alters Sonic Hedgehog Expression in Sonic Hedgehog Knockout Mice.” Since leaving the Navy in 2007, Dr. Vaux has focused his clinical practice on the inpatient and chronic care of children with
complex medical and genetic needs.