Dr. Sailaja Golla, Pediatric Neurology and Neurodevelopmental Medicine

Dr. Golla is a board-certified neurologist and neurodevelopmentalist with national and international expertise in the field of autism. She currently practices at the Thompson Autism and Neurodevelopmental Center at CHOC. She is the director of the Fragile X Clinic at Thompson Autism and Neurodevelopmental Center, Associate Professor at UC Irvine School of Medicine and Research and Fellowship Director for the Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Program.

Dr. Golla underwent post-graduate clinical training to complete a residency in neurodevelopmental disabilities to become one of very few neurodevelopmental disabilities specialists in the country. She is an active advocate and cheerleader for making life better for children with Fragile X syndrome, autism and neurodevelopmental disabilities. She is the principal investigator for several Fragile X and autism research studies and has published and has been a speaker at national and international conferences.

Dr. Golla graduated in 2000 from Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences, a recognized, premier medical school in India. She completed requirements for ECFMG certification in 2002. She then underwent residency training in pediatrics at University at Buffalo (completed in 2005) followed by residency/fellowship training in child neurology and neurodevelopmental disabilities at UT Southwestern Medical Center (2008 and 2010). She has completed the executive leadership certificate program at CHOC University.

As a child neurology resident, she won the Teva Neuroscience award for her academic performance in 2007 as well as 2008. She also won the Leon Weisberg award for her research work looking at the incidence of dystrophinopathies in girls with Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy. The resulting manuscript was selected as the best paper during Annual Neurology Resident research presentations at UT Southwestern in 2008. She was also selected and served as a Chief Resident of Child Neurology in 2008.

She furthered her research training when she joined the Department of Neurology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in 2009, as an Instructor, to work in Dr. Juan Pascual’s laboratory in the field of rare mitochondrial disorders. She was supported by the Hegi Research Scholarship award during this period. She then underwent further post-graduate clinical training to complete a residency in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities in June 2010, at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where she was the first graduate from the neurodevelopmental disabilities program, one of only eight such training programs in the country.

She has won several recognitions and honors including D Magazine Best Doctors, America’s Best Physicians and Mom Approved Doctor.