Joseph Scafidi, DO, MS

Pediatric and neonatal neurologist Joseph Scafidi is a clinician-scientist with expertise in pre-term neonatal brain injury, hypoxic ischemia and neurodevelopmental disorders. He directs the Michael V. Johnston Center for Developmental Neuroscience at Kennedy Krieger Institute.

Dr. Scafidi earned a degree in osteopathic medicine from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed residency training in pediatrics at Rutgers University Medical School as well as in child neurology at Children’s National Hospital, where he also undertook fellowship training in neonatal neurology. Additionally, Dr. Scafidi was a postdoctoral research fellow in developmental neurobiology at Children’s National Research Institute.

His research interests focus on understanding metabolic adaptations after perinatal brain injury in the acute and long-term recovery phases, specifically how different cell populations in different brain regions use energy after injury and how these adaptations or maladaptations affect the recovery process.

As a practicing pediatric and neonatal neurologist, Dr. Scafidi is ideally positioned to facilitate bench-to-bedside therapies through his laboratory and to improve knowledge of disease by developing and testing bedside-to-bench, research-driven hypotheses.