Pavan Kureti

Research Coordinator

Robin Kochel

Dr. Robin Kochel is a research psychologist and Director of Research for the Autism Program at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital—celebrating her 20th anniversary at Baylor in 2025. She received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Texas Woman’s University, a master’s degree in Child & Family Studies from The University of Tennessee at Knoxville, a master’s degree in Clinical Investigation from Baylor College of Medicine, and her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her expertise is in the study of children with autism and related genetic conditions.

Since 2008, Dr. Kochel has served as site-PI for the three largest Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) cohort projects (Simons Simplex Collection, Simons Searchlight, SPARK), each yielding critical insights into the genetic mechanisms of autism. Her involvement in these SFARI network projects have helped her launch specific programs of research on parent perceptions about autism and their influence on health-related behaviors, causes and consequences of autistic regression, vaccine hesitancy resulting from fears about autism, and effective research-recruitment strategies. You can learn more by visiting her lab website at www.bcm.edu/autism and following her team on Facebook www.facebook.com/KochelLab

Hiba Saade

I am the Research Manager at Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) in Houston, TX, with clinical research experience focused on participant engagement and delivering high-quality, protocol-driven outcomes.

Mirjana Maletic-Savatic

I am a Physician Scientist and Board Certified Child Neurologist with extensive experience in biomarker development and implementation for both observational studies and interventional trials. I am a Professor and Associate Vice Chair for Research at Dept of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, and an Investigator at the Duncan Neurological Research Institute. My experience includes identifying novel plasma-based biomarkers for severe neurodevelopmental disorders as well as implementing neurophysiologic biomarkers for deep phenotyping. As a clinician, I care for infants with developmental delay who are diagnosed with neurodevelopmental disorders. As a scientist, I am interested in the role metabolism plays in shaping neurogenesis and brain health both pre- and postnatally.

Holly Harris

Dr. Harris is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and board-certified Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician. She provides care for children with a wide range of neurodevelopmental conditions, including individuals with profound autism. She collaborates with several national, multi-site research networks, including PEDSnet, DBPNet, the National Brain Gene Registry, and the Fragile X Clinical and Research Consortium. Dr. Harris has served as a co-investigator on multiple observational and interventional studies in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital colleagues, contributing to participant recruitment and comprehensive developmental evaluations. In addition, she is a co–primary investigator on an NIH-funded Autism Data Science Initiative, working alongside a multidisciplinary team to leverage data-driven approaches to improve outcomes for individuals with autism. She additionally directs the Texas Children’s Fragile X Clinic and the Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Fellowship Program.

Jimmy Holder

Jimmy Holder is a physician-scientist and child neurologist. Dr. Holder obtained his MD and PhD from the University of Texas Southwestern in 2005. He then pursued a postdoctoral fellowship in neurogenetics at the University of California, San Francisco from 2005 to 2007. Beginning in 2007, he continued his clinical training in pediatrics and child neurology at Baylor College of Medicine, culminating in a research fellowship with Huda Zoghbi. He currently serves as an Investigator in the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital, as well as an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at Baylor College of Medicine.

In 2013, he opened the Developmental Synaptopathy Clinic at Texas Children’s Hospital initially to care for children with Phelan-McDermid syndrome but later expanded to include SYNGAP1-related disorder, STXBP1 developmental and epileptic encephalopathy, and Shine syndrome, among others.

He has served as a Principal Investigator on R01 program project grants and site investigator for both multi-site NIH projects, as well as industry-sponsored therapeutic trials. His scientific focus is translating bench discoveries to clinical applications for neurodevelopmental disorders.

Sasidhar Pasupuleti

Sasidhar Pasupuleti is the Bioinformatics Lead and Data Manager at the Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, focused on developing clinical registries and scalable data platforms. He contributes to AI-driven diagnostic initiatives such as AI-MARRVEL and leads data integration and analytics for MECP2 duplication syndrome cohorts, supporting high-impact clinical and investigator-led research.