Sailaja Golla
Biography
Sailaja Golla, M.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, Irvine, and Director of the Research Program at the Thompson Autism and Neurodevelopmental Center at Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC). She has also been awarded as the fellow of Child Neurology Society for her contributions. She received her MBBS from Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences in India and completed residency training in pediatric neurology and fellowship training in neurodevelopmental disabilities at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Golla specializes in autism spectrum disorder and Fragile X syndrome, with a focus on clinical trials and therapeutic interventions for neurodevelopmental conditions.
Dr.Golla serves as principal investigator on eight active clinical trials investigating pharmacological treatments for Fragile X syndrome and autism spectrum disorder, funded by organizations including the National Fragile X Foundation, Zynerba Pharmaceuticals, Kuzani, Mirum , Tetra Discovery Partners, and MapLight. She directs the Fragile X Clinic at CHOC and is a physician member of the Fragile X Consortium/FORWARD through the National Fragile X Society. Her research has been published in journals including Nature Digital Medicine, Molecular Psychiatry, and Frontiers in Pediatrics, with contributions to understanding genetic and metabolic causes of autism and neurodevelopmental disorders.
Prior to joining CHOC in 2021, Dr.Golla spent nine years on the faculty at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where she served as Associate Program Director for the Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Residency Program and directed specialized clinics for Pitt Hopkins syndrome and post-ECMO patients at Children's Health Dallas. She is Double board certified in Neurology with special qualification in Child Neurology and additional board certification in Neurodevelopmental disabilities. She holds medical licenses in California and Texas. Dr. Golla is a Fellow of the Child Neurology Society and maintains memberships in the American Academy of Neurology and International Child Neurology Association.
Return to topEducation
- MBBS,MD, Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences, Bellary, India, 2000
- Pediatric Neurology , UTSW, 2008
- Neurodevelopmental Disabilties, UTSW, 2010
- Physician Leadership Certificate Training Program, CHOC University , 2023-2026
- Alpha Clinic Clinical Trials Investigator Training Program in Cell and Gene therapies, UCI, 2026
- Executive MBA, UCI Paul Merage, 2026-2028
Distinctions
- Fellow, Child Neurology Society, 2025
- Leon Weisberg Award, Department of Neurology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, 2009
- Teva Neuroscience Award, Department of Neurology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, 2007-2008
- Hegi Research Scholarship Award, Hegi Research Foundation, 2009
- Texas Super Doctor Award, 2015
Areas of Expertise
- Pediatric Neurology and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Fragile X Syndrome Therapeutics
- Autism Spectrum Disorder Phenotypes
- Genetic Epilepsy Mechanisms
- Cannabidiol Transdermal Delivery Systems
- Artificial Intelligence Diagnostic Tools
- Multidisciplinary Clinical Care Models
- Autism
- Research
- Fellowship director
- Rett sydnrome
Recent Publications
- Goodspeed, Kimberly, Haffner, Darrah, Golla, Sailaja, Morris, Mary Ann, Evans, Patricia, “Neurological evaluation and management of autism spectrum disorder” (opens in new tab), Autism and Medical Comorbidities, 2025.
- Megerian, J. T., Golla, S., Fischer, T., Nguyen, U., Beversdorf, D. Q., “Improvement of Autism Spectrum Disorder Socialization Impairment after Treatment with Alpha-Methyl-Para-Tyrosine. Results and Subanalyses from the Randomized Placebo Control Parallel Cohort of a Crossover Trial” (opens in new tab), 2025.
- Golla S, Amin H, Kim K, Pionk M, Megerian J, “Impact of Multidisciplinary Neurodevelopmental clinics on parent satisfaction”, ANA_v96_iS33_Rev5.pdf, 2024.
- Megerian, J. T., Golla, S., Pionk, M. J., Amin, H., Kim, A., “Autism and Medical Comorbidities”, Handbook of Early Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorders: Research, Policy, and Practice, pp. 521-554, 2024.
- Jonathan T. Megerian, Sangeeta Dey, Raun D. Melmed, Daniel L. Coury, Marc Lerner, Christopher J. Nicholls, Kristin Sohl, Rambod Rouhbakhsh, Anandhi Narasimhan, Jonathan Romain, Sailaja Golla, Safiullah Shareef, Andrey Ostrovsky, Jennifer Shannon, Colleen Kraft, Stuart Liu-Mayo, Halim Abbas, Diana E. Gal-Szabo, Dennis P. Wall, Sharief Taraman, “Evaluation of an artificial intelligence-based medical device for diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder” (opens in new tab), npj Digital Medicine, 2024.
- Golla S, “Metabolic and Genetic Causes of Autism”, Rosenberg's Molecular and Genetic Basis of Neurological and Psychiatric Disease, vol. 7, 2024.
- Palmer EE, Pusch M, Picollo A, Forwood C, Nguyen MH, Suckow V, Gibbons J, Hoff A, Sigfrid L, Megarbane A, Nizon M, Cogné B, Beneteau C, Alkuraya FS, Chedrawi A, Hashem MO, Stamberger H, Golla, S, “Functional and clinical studies reveal pathophysiological complexity of CLCN4-related neurodevelopmental condition” (opens in new tab), Molecular Psychiatry, 2022.
- Elizabeth Berry-Kravis, Robyn A. Filipink, Richard E. Frye, Sailaja Golla, Stephanie M. Morris, Howard Andrews, Tse-Hwei Choo, Walter E. Kaufmann, FORWARD Consortium, “Seizures in Fragile X Syndrome: Associations and Longitudinal Analysis of a Large Clinic-Based Cohort” (opens in new tab), Frontiers in Pediatrics, 2021.
- Lorraine James, Najiba Keshwani, Darrah Haffner, Yorgo Zahlanie, Sailaja Golla, Ladan Agharokh, “Scratching Past Lymphadenopathy: A Case of Bartonella henselae Encephalitis” (opens in new tab), Pediatric Annals, vol. 49, no. 8, pp. e359-e362, 2020.
- Dhar AV, Scott S, Anton-Martin P, Tweed J, Morris MA, Modem V, Raman L, Golla S, “Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Patients: A Pilot Study” (opens in new tab), ASAIO Journal, vol. 66, no. 4, pp. 447-453, 2020.
- Sonu Bhaskar, Sian Bradley, Simon Israeli-Korn, Bindu Menon, Vijay Kumar Chattu, Pravin Thomas, Jasvinder Chawla, Rajeev Kumar, Paolo Prandi, Daniel Ray, Sailaja Golla, Nirmal Surya, Harvey Yang, Sandra Martinez, Mihriban Heval Ozgen, John Codrington, Eva María Jiménez González, Mandana Toosi, Nithya HM, Koravangattu Valsraj Menon, et al., “Chronic Neurology in COVID-19 Era: Clinical Considerations and Recommendations from the REPROGRAM Consortium”, 2020.
- Golla S, “Management of Pediatric Seizures and Status Epilepticus”, 2019. Presented at Indian Academy of Pediatrics Intensive Care Chapter, Steel City Pedicriticon 2019.
- Thodeson D, Dowd D, Golla S, Evans P, Huang R, Sirsi D, “Evolution of EEG findings in children with autism spectrum disorder: A tertiary care centre's clinical experience”, Journal of Psychology and Psychiatry, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 1-4, 2018.
- Goodspeed K, Newsom C, Morris MA, Powell C, Evans P, Golla S, “Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome: A Review of Current Literature, Clinical Approach, and 23-Patient Case Series” (opens in new tab), Journal of Child Neurology, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 233-244, 2018.
- Palmer EE, Stuhlmann T, Weinert S, Haan E, Van Esch H, Holvoet M, Boyle J, Leffler M, Raynaud M, Moraine C, van Bokhoven H, Kleefstra T, Kahrizi K, Najmabadi H, Ropers HH, Delgado MR, Sirsi D, Golla S, Kalscheuer VM, “De novo and inherited mutations in the X-linked gene CLCN4 are associated with syndromic intellectual disability and behavior and seizure disorders in males and females” (opens in new tab), Molecular Psychiatry, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 222-230, 2018.
- Gambin T, Yuan B, Bi W, Liu P, Rosenfeld JA, Coban-Akdemir Z, Pursley AN, Nagamani SCS, Marom R, Golla S, Dengle L, Petrie HG, Matalon R, Emrick L, Proud MB, Treadwell-Deering D, Chao HT, Koillinen H, Brown C, Urraca N, et al., “Identification of novel candidate disease genes from de novo exonic copy number variants” (opens in new tab), Genome Medicine, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 83, 2017.
- Golla S, Ren J, Malloy CR, Pascual JM, “Intramyocellular lipid excess in the mitochondrial disorder MELAS: MRS determination at 7T” (opens in new tab), Neurology Genetics, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. e160, 2017.
- Anton-Martin P, Journeycake J, Modem V, Golla S, Raman L, Tweed J, Darnell-Bowens C, “Coagulation Profile Is Not a Predictor of Acute Cerebrovascular Events in Pediatric Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Patients” (opens in new tab), ASAIO Journal, vol. 63, no. 6, pp. 793-801, 2017.
- Chugani DC, Chugani HT, Wiznitzer M, Parikh S, Evans PA, Hansen RL, Nass R, Janisse JJ, Dixon-Thomas P, Behen M, Rothermel R, Parker JS, Kumar A, Muzik O, Edwards DJ, Hirtz D, Autism Center of Excellence Network, “Efficacy of Low-Dose Buspirone for Restricted and Repetitive Behavior in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Randomized Trial” (opens in new tab), Journal of Pediatrics, vol. 170, pp. 45-53.e1-4, 2016.
Contact Information
Website: https://choc.org/medical-staff/neurology/sailaja-golla-md/
Email: sgolla@hs.uci.edu
Phone: (214) 450-8084
Address: 1201 W. La Veta Avenue
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Last updated on 6/2/2026.