Marlin Touma

Marlin Touma

Associate Professor-in-Residence, Pediatrics, University of California Los Angeles

Biography

Marlin Touma is an Asoociate Professor-In-Residence in the David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and the Director of UCLA Congenital Heart Defects Research Program.  She joined the pediatric faculty in 2011 after completing her fellowship program in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard University. Dr. Touma received her medical education from Damascus University and obtained her PhD in Molecular, Cell & Integrative Physiology as an UCLA-STAR fellow in 2015. Dr. Touma is the founder and principal invistigator of the Neonatal/Congenital Heart Laboratory and BioCore for Congenital Heart Defects Research at UCLA. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards including an Outstanding Research Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Career Development Awards from the NIH/Child Health Research Center and American Heart Association, and the Manton Center for Orphan Disease Gene Discovery Award. As an early career investigator, Dr. Touma was awarded the David Geffen School of Medicine Research Innovation Award, and the High Priority “Bridge Fund” and an R01 from NIH/NHLBI. Dr. Touma is an awarded finalist of the 2021 Mid-Career Investigator (MCI) Research Scholarship Award from the International Society for Heart Research (ISHR)-North America Section (NAS). Dr. Touma’s clinical practice is located in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA. She provide prenatal consultation services and perinatal care for affected families and newborn infants with prematurity complications and congenital heart defects.

Publications