Dr. Shelton is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She completed her PhD in molecular and developmental biology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (2008). She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt in 2013 before joining the Division of Neonatology as a junior faculty member. Dr. Shelton's research interests center on understanding the molecular, genetic, and biomechanical regulation of an essential fetal blood vessel, the ductus arteriosus (DA). The Shelton laboratory focuses on identifying factors that set the DA apart from other vessels in the body in the hopes of developing novel DA-specific therapeutics. Furthermore, Dr. Shelton is interested in identifying adverse ductus-related side effects of pharmacological agents that are commonly administered to pregnant mothers or neonatal infants. For these studies, her lab uses a combination of primary cell culture models, high throughput drug screens, cannulated vessel myography assays, and whole animal models to identify factors that constrict or relax the DA.

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