Charitharth Lal MD, FAAP

Dr. C. Vivek Lal, M.D. is a physician, scientist, innovator, and entrepreneur who serves as the Director of Clinical Innovation at Heersink Institute of Biomedical Innovation at UAB. Dr. Lal is an Associate Professor of Neonatology, in the Department of Pediatrics and the Founder and President of UAB startup companies, Alveolus Bio, Inc. & ResBiotic Nutrition, Inc.

Dr. Lal completed his Neonatal and Perinatal Medicine fellowship at the University of Texas at Southwestern after a residency in Pediatrics from the University of S Alabama. He later completed an executive program in drug and device development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He had formal leadership training - formal organizational leadership training at the UAB Blaze Academy and completed the American Academy of Pediatrics Young Physician Leadership Alliance program. Dr. Lal won the 2022 Alabama Inno Fire Award given out by the Birmingham Business Journal. In 2022 he was named as a recipient of the 2022 CEO Awards and recently named as a Person to Watch in 2023 by the Birmingham Business Journal

He is an inventor on several patents. Based on his intellectual properties and entrepreneurship experience, Dr. Lal has founded UAB startups ResBiotic and Alveolus Bio to develop consumer products and FDA-approved therapeutics for Chronic Lung Diseases. Dr. Lal raised private equity funding to launch these ventures. He was recently appointed to the Boards of Bio Alabama, the leading Biotech advocacy organization in Alabama, and to Microbiome Therapeutics Innovation Group, the Washington DC-based national advocacy group for FDA-approved microbiome therapeutics. Dr. Lal also serves as the Chairman of the Board for Urgent Care for Children, the second-largest pediatric urgent care chain in the US.

Dr. Lal also serves as the Director of the Pulmonary Microbiome Lab at UAB and the Chair of the Scholarly Oversight Committee. Dr. Lal studies the basic mechanisms for the development of chronic lung diseases. He made the important discovery that newborn airways have a microbiome, even at birth, and dysbiosis in this airway microbiome is associated with the development of severe chronic lung illnesses. Dr. Lal has received multiple awards, including the AAP Young Investigator, the Perinatal Research Society Young Investigator, the Neonatal Cardiopulmonary Forum Young Investigator, the Southern Society of Pediatric Research (SSPR) Young Investigator Award, the SSPR Abbott Research Award in Nutrition, and the SSPR Young Faculty Award. In 2019, Dr. Lal received the Department of Pediatrics Research Achievement Award and the Department of Pediatrics Excellence in Teaching Award in 2016 and 2021. He has served as an active member at SSPR since council member at SSPR since 2019. An NHLBI and AHA fund Dr. Lal’s Pulmonary Microbiome Lab at UAB to evaluate the role of the neonatal airway microbiome in the development of BPD and adult lung diseases. His lab’s funding includes AHA SDG, NHLBI K08, R01, R21, and other funding.

On the clinical front, Dr. Lal developed and directed the Golden Week Small Baby Program at UAB Regional NICU. The Golden Week Program brought national recognition via the 2017 Gage Award, a competitive selection by America’s Essential Hospitals for significant quality improvement initiatives.