Mirjana Maletic-Savatic, PhD, MD

Mirjana Maletic-Savati is a physician-scientist, a Board-certified child neurologist specialized in phenotyping of neurodevelopmental disorders, including infants and toddlers at high risk for autism and cognitive impairments. Born in Belgrade, Serbia, she earned her medical degree and started her PhD at the University of Belgrade. Due to the outbreak of war in then Yugoslavia, she immigrated to the United States and completed her PhD degree and residency in child neurology at Stony Brook University. Shortly after, she received a prestigious Phillip R. Dodge Young Investigator Award from the Child Neurology Society and was subsequently recruited by Dr. Huda Zoghbi to Baylor College of Medicine and the Duncan Neurological Research Institute. Her research integrates clinical and translational neuroscience to define mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism. Her laboratory focuses on neurogenesis, metabolism, and neuroinflammation, using patient-derived models and multiomic approaches to identify therapeutic targets. As Director of the Human Disease Cellular Model Core, she supports collaborative studies across neurodevelopmental conditions. She has been recognized with several honors from the McKnight Foundation, the Dana Foundation, NASA/TRISH Human Tissue Avatars, and the Best Doctors in America, among others. She is an avid supporter of women in science, technology, engineering and math, and actively mentor young women across the globe as part of the New York Academy of Sciences.