Dr. Segar has an established record of basic, clinical and translational research focused on developmental cardiovascular, renal and metabolic physiology. For over 20 years Dr. Segar utilized a fetal and newborn sheep model to study the functional role of the autonomic nervous system in early life as well as cardiac adaptation to pressure and volume load. Over the past half decade, Dr. Segar has focused his work on the role of early life sodium deficiency on growth, metabolism and neurobehavior. His clinical work has established that many preterm infants experience sodium deficiency which impairs optimal somatic growth. He has published a number of research articles and reviews regarding early life renal function and physiological approaches to fluid and electrolyte management in NICU patients. His current basic research work, which is funded by the Children’s Research Institute and the NIH utilizes mouse models of early life sodium depletion to examine the molecular mechanisms by which sodium impacts growth, energy expenditure, sympathetic nervous system activity, neurobehavior and cardiovascular function.