Linda A. Baker, MD

Linda Baker, MD, a 22-year NIH-funded physician surgeon scientist, joins us as Co-Director of and principal investigator in The Kidney and Urinary Tract Center and as a Clincal Professor of Urology at The Ohio State University. A renowned expert in prune belly syndrome (PBS) or Eagle-Barrett syndrome, Dr. Baker has met, evaluated and cared for ~185 children with the rare pediatric congenital myopathy affecting the genitourinary tract and abdominal musculature. Her recent research has focused on identifying its genetic basis as a means to understand bladder physiology and underactivity states.

Clinically, Dr. Baker specializes in complex genitourinary surgical reconstruction, and she is a national leader in corrective vaginal surgery. With a personalized medicine approach, her research team performs cutting edge DNA testing using next generation sequencing technologies to discover their causes. Her laboratory combines genetically engineered mouse models of pediatric urologic birth defects with clinically valuable human samples. In 2001, Dr. Baker created a pediatric urology DNA/tissue repository that currently houses over 4,200 specimens from pediatric urology patients and their families. Overall, Dr. Baker’s work contributes to new discoveries for children with PBS, kidney stones, disorders of sexual development, cryptorchidism, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, testicular torsion and congenital female vaginal anomalies.

Most recently, from 1999-2022, Dr. Baker was a faculty member in the Division of Pediatric Urology at Children's Health Dallas and a Professor of Urology and Director of Pediatric Urology Research at the Department of Urology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. At UT Southwestern, Dr. Baker conducted research in the Center for Human Genetics/McDermott Center for Human Growth & Development and the Charles and Jane Pak Center for Mineral Metabolism and Clinical Research. She also held appointments as interim chief and as a faculty member in the Division of Basic Science: Genetics and Development and Medical Scientist Training Program. During her tenure, Dr. Baker was recognized by the Department of Urology with an award for her teaching.

During her education, Dr. Baker earned her bachelor’s degree from Western Kentucky University and her medical degree from the University of Louisville. She then completed a urology residency at the University of Virginia, where she went on to be an American Foundation for Urological Disease Research Scholar. Dr. Baker pursued her postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric urology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

To date, Dr. Baker has authored 23 book chapters and over 120 publications. She has a medical device patent, has held 32 visiting professorships nationally and internationally, and helped coauthor the 2014 AUA Practice Guidelines on cryptorchidism. She currently chairs the Society for Pediatric Urology Research Grants Committee and serves on the American Urological Association (AUA) Practice Guidelines Committee and the Medical Advisory Board of the nonprofit Prune Belly Syndrome Network (PBSN). Previously, she also chaired the AUA Research Grants Committee and Investigator Support Committee.