Rate My Professor Jörn-Hendrik Weitkamp

Jörn-Hendrik Weitkamp, MD, is a Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Neonatology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee. He serves as Director for Patient-Oriented Research, overseeing numerous clinical trials and translational studies in neonatology. Weitkamp earned his MD summa cum laude from the University of Ulm in Germany in 1995, following initial studies at Ruhr-University Bochum. He completed his pediatric residency at the University Hospital of Bonn in Germany and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, followed by fellowships in Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at Vanderbilt. Board-certified in Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Perinatal-Neonatal Medicine, he has built a distinguished career focused on advancing neonatal care through research and clinical practice.

Weitkamp's research centers on neonatal immunology, neonatal infectious diseases, and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), with particular emphasis on prenatal influences on the developing immune system, fetal and neonatal microbiome, and immunological mechanisms underlying prematurity complications. His scholarly work explores the development, phenotype, function, and metabolism of T cell populations in preterm infants and their roles in NEC and brain injury, as well as immune cell changes in conditions like MECP2 deletion syndrome. Key publications include 'Innate and adaptive immunity in necrotizing enterocolitis' (Semin Fetal Neonatal Med, 2018), 'Why are preterm newborns at increased risk of infection?' (Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed, 2018), 'Distinct mucosal microbial communities in infants with surgical necrotizing enterocolitis correlate with age and antibiotic exposure' (PLoS ONE, 2018), and 'Histological chorioamnionitis shapes the neonatal transcriptomic immune response' (Early Hum Dev, 2016). He is a voting member of the Institutional Review Board (IRB), chairs the Research Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, and has served on international and NIH study sections. His contributions have significantly influenced neonatal medicine at Vanderbilt University.