Interview with Michael G Ross：CEOG Journal Editorial Board Member and Stanford World's Top 2% Scientists
21 May 2025
We are honored to present an exclusive interview with one of our esteemed editorial board members of CEOG Journal. In this conversation, Prof. Michael Ross shares insights into their academic journey, research focus, and more. We hope this exchange offers valuable inspiration to researchers, clinicians, and students alike.
Editorial Board Introduction
Michael Ross
Prof. Michael Ross, MD, MPH is Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA as well as Distinguished Professor of Public Health at the UCLA School of Public Health. He graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS), Harvard Medical School (MD) and Harvard School of Public Health (MPH). He has over 350 peer reviewed publications, 750 published abstracts and numerous books and book chapters. Prof. Ross has been continuously funded by the NIH for over 40 years, as well as receiving support from the March of Dimes, American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association and United Cerebral Palsy. He is the President of Los Angeles Perinatal Associates, a maternal fetal medicine practice in Los Angeles. Prof. Ross was the founder of Cervilenz, Inc. in 2008, and served as its Medical Director.
Q: Could you briefly introduce your academic background and current research focus?
Prof. Ross: I completed my undergraduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After that, I pursued a joint medical degree and a master’s in public health at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. My internship in internal medicine was at the UCLA-Sepulveda Veterans Administration Program. I then returned to Boston for my residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, affiliated with Harvard. Finally, I completed a fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine (perinatology) at Harbor-UCLA and Cedars-Sinai Medical Centers in Los Angeles.
My research areas are multiple, but the two major areas include: (1) Understanding the mechanisms and effects of developmental programming and lactational programming — how development during your fetal life or your early newborn life predicts your health or your risk of disease as a child and as an adult, and (2) The assessment of fetal heart monitor tracings during labor and delivery as it alters measures of fetal and newborn acidosis, and how you can use this information to prevent the occurrence of infant brain injury and cerebral palsy.
Q: What was the initial opportunity that prompted you to focus on these research directions?
Prof. Ross: The decision to do OB-GYN clinically was a result of faculty mentors at Harvard who through their own commitment to clinical obstetrics and gynecology got me excited to study fetal development and pregnancy and delivery.
The research areas I have pursued were a natural progression of joining a research laboratory during my fellowship that studied fetal development. I began with studies as to what regulates amniotic fluid volume (the fluid around the baby), to then progressing to studies exploring the routes of amniotic fluid exchange with the fetus. I performed a number of studies exploring amniotic fluid resorption by fetal swallowing, which then led to studies of fetal thirst development and ultimately fetal appetite development. With the discovery that our appetite begins during fetal life, my laboratory began to study why people may become obese, a critically important question in view of the obesity epidemic throughout the world. We began exploring mechanisms of the development of appetite, regulation of food intake and, more recently, the intake and composition of breast milk and infant formula during newborn life.
Q: Which of your research projects have been the most groundbreaking or personally meaningful?
Prof. Ross: There are two projects that have been the most important to me. One, as discussed, is fetal programming and development, and the other is fetal heart rate assessment. In our studies of appetite, we have demonstrated that during fetal life, you can be programmed to be born hungry — technically hyperphagia, wanting to eat more. A fetus born to either an undernourished or an overweight or obese mother surprisingly develop more appetite neurons and fewer satiety neurons in the brain. So this baby is born hungry, eats more from an early age and is predisposed to gain weight rapidly as a newborn, which itself is a major risk factor for childhood and adult obesity. To exacerbate this issue, the breast milk of overweight or obese mothers contains markedly greater fat and calories than that of normal weight mothers, potentially further contributing to rapid infant weight gain. Our laboratory is currently performing exciting clinical studies to prevent adverse effects of programmed fetal hyperphagia and to normalize the caloric content of breast milk in select women so as to prevent childhood and adult obesity.
The second very meaningful topic has been to understand how cerebral palsy can develop as a result of hypoxia and acidosis during labor. As a result of studies of animal and human fetuses, we have developed algorithms to quantify the degree of fetal hypoxia and acidosis that occurs in labor and in response to changes of the fetal heart rate. These advances have contributed to understanding how to intervene during labor and delivery to prevent infant neurologic damage and cerebral palsy.
Q: In your opinion, what major breakthroughs or transformations do you expect in OB-GYN within the next five years?
Prof. Ross: I think major clinical breakthroughs are going to be an expanded use of AI, which I predict will improve clinical management, reduce maternal morbidity and morbidity, and ideally reduce the high cesarean section rates, while optimizing newborn outcome. We want to safely reduce the rate of cesarean section. AI can provide a quantitative knowledge base that can aid the clinician — not replace the clinician — but provide some guidance and reminders.
AI will integrate an array of clinical parameters — vital signs, heart rates, laboratory values — to direct the attention of physicians to both common and uncommon diagnoses, and to guide physicians in terms of management. Currently in all of medicine, and particularly in obstetrics, we have multiple complex algorithms and care paths to follow. With each patient, one needs to assess a composite of laboratory results, clinical data, and patient status. AI can follow the algorithm independently, and follow multiple algorithms simultaneously. AI will integrate these laboratory and clinical variable and provide updated assessments in real time. These approaches, which are already being initiated, can be a clinical algorithm, like reminding of an optimal time for a repeat blood test or radiologic study. Alternatively, these can represent diagnostic algorithms that provide evidence-based pathways for diagnostic challenges.
Q: As an editorial board member, what aspects do you prioritize during the peer review process?
Prof. Ross: Several items are critical during peer review. First, the quality of the science — manuscripts must be quality work in all aspects of design and analysis. Second, creativity — does this manuscript represent a creative approach to a hypothesis, a study design, a method or perhaps an analysis? Third, contribution — what is the contribution to our clinical or scientific knowledge? How does this add to existing literature? So: quality, creativity, and contribution.
Q: What do you consider the core mission of a journal editorial board, and how can engagement and fulfillment be enhanced?
Prof. Ross: Our members of the editorial board want to personally enhance the quality and quantity of submissions to the journal and ultimately improve the quality of the published papers. We encourage editorial board members in the development of themed issues, participation at meetings of the editorial board, recommendations for the growth and direction of the journal, and serve as journal representatives at local, national, or international conferences.
Q: AI is also increasingly applied in writing. Have you used AI tools for writing, editing, or data analysis in your own work?
Prof. Ross: I have not used AI to write manuscripts, as I believe submitting papers should represent one’s own creativity. However, I will often use AI to assist with creating an outline of topics. This can be particularly useful for chapter or presentations. It is critical that anyone using AI carefully read and examine original references rather than present AI-generated conclusions.
Q: Do you have any experience from your years of research and clinical work you’d like to share with our readers?
Prof. Ross: My career path and the degree of accomplishment have been directly a result of support from both mentors and teams. Mentors have guided my career, especially early on — providing encouragement, support and critique. These mentors have been local, or national and even international, with the latter groups contributing importantly behind the scenes. A team of committed researches is critical, because it is nearly impossible to perform scientific studies alone. I have worked closely with teams of clinicians, PhDs, technicians, nurses, and administrators throughout my career. Our current PhD collaborator (Mina Desai) has been instrumental in our lab’s success, and our lead technician (Guang Han) is remarkable. Importantly, my wife and family deserve tremendous appreciation for supporting this work. In sum, it is a whole program — everyone plays a critical role.
Q: Given your own journey, what advice would you give to young doctors or researchers just starting their careers?
Prof. Ross: Even young people should serve as mentors. There's almost always someone younger than you that you can mentor. Mentorship is rewarding to them, and equally rewarding for you, both for the emotional satisfaction it provides and for the intellectual challenges in stimulating your own thinking, teaching and guiding. Another piece of advice would be to take advantage of opportunities. We don’t always know where life will take us. Rather than being fixed on one path, be open to what life, work, and science present and query, “Where can we take this forward?”
Q: Do you have a message for professionals in the field?
Prof. Ross: My message would be to commend and congratulate the tremendous work done by people in our field — the frontline clinicians treating patients daily, the academicians teaching the next generation, the clinical researchers, and the basic and translational science researchers. Together, this network provides advances for patient care and future scientific progress.
We sincerely thank Professor Michael Ross for taking the time to share their experiences and perspectives. We look forward to continuing to grow together and advancing scientific progress through shared knowledge and collaboration.
Related Article:
Fetal Bradyarrhythmias: A Comprehensive Update on Current Knowledge:
https://doi.org/10.31083/CEOG27093
A Cross-Sectional Study on Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding Fetal Distress Among Pregnant Women:
https://doi.org/10.31083/CEOG31368
Maternal Obesity: Can Raising Awareness on Related Risks Improve the Pregnancy Outcomes? A Longitudinal Study among Moroccan Pregnant Women: