F. Sessions Cole, M.D.

Approved Mentor (Primary, Mentoring Committee)

Washington University in St. Louis

Sessions Cole, MD, is the Park J. White, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Children’s Health, Executive Vice Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics, and Interim Chief of the Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Pulmonary Medicine.

Cole’s primary research efforts focus on discovering the genetic causes for neonatal respiratory distress syndrome and for birth defects. His work has led to both neonatal and prenatal diagnosis of inherited forms of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome and to treatment with lung transplantation. Cole and his colleagues have helped to make the Washington University School of Medicine/St. Louis Children’s Hospital Pediatric Lung Transplant Program the largest and most experienced program in the world.

Cole has also led and reviewed research for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM), including the IOM’s landmark 2006 report Preterm Birth: Causes, Consequences and Prevention and the NICHD Consensus Conference on Use of Inhaled Nitric Oxide in Premature Infants. He currently serves as Principal Investigator for the Washington University Clinical Site of the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (U01 HG010215). He has personally mentored more than 40 neonatal-perinatal fellows, pediatric residents, and medical students many of whom have become leaders in academic pediatrics and neonatology.

His expertise on subjects including premature birth, pre-conception planning, and assisted reproductive technologies have been chronicled in Pregnancy and Parenting magazines, ABC news, and the Wall Street Journal.