Associate Professor Atul Malhotra is a senior neonatologist at Monash Newborn, Monash Children's Hospital, and research academic in the Department of Paediatrics, Monash University. He is the current recipient of an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellowship. He has published 205 peer-reviewed journal articles, 4 book chapters, and his research has attracted over $20 million of funding to date.

His clinical research interests focus on improving respiratory and neurological outcomes of high-risk neonates. He has a keen interest in neonatal evidence based medicine, having been involved in a number of randomised clinical trials and cohort studies. He is passionate about neurodevelopment following high-risk birth and is the Head of the Early Neurodevelopment Clinic (for early detection of cerebral palsy/ developmental delay) at Monash Children's Hospital.

His basic science interests include understanding and treating brain injury related to high risk perinatal conditions. He has a special interest in fetal growth restriction (FGR) and has conducted a number of preclinical and clinical studies on FGR. His basic science PhD was on "Novel strategies for early detection and treatment of FGR related brain injury" completed at the Ritchie Centre, Hudson Institute of Medical Research. 

He has been instrumental in the translation of preclinical therapies from the laboratory to the clinic, including regenerative cell therapies. He has led world-first/first-in-human trials of placental stem cells and cord blood derived cells in preterm infants, and is the Principal Investigator of three umbilical cord blood derived cell therapy trials, currently recruiting. He is the co-director of the Newborn Cell Therapies Group at the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health.

One of his other research interests includes medical device innovation/ artificial intelligence. Together with colleagues in the Faculty of Engineering at Monash University, their Biomedical Signal Processing Lab focuses on developing and improving monitoring devices in newborn infants.

He is also passionate about education, and served as the inaugural Co-Chair of Monash Children's Hospital's Simulation Centre. He has been running simulation based education programs in Australia and around the world, and is the co-founder of the global health interprofessional education program, ONE-Sim Education.