Rate My Professor Michael Cunningham

Michael L. Cunningham, MD, PhD, is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Craniofacial Medicine, and holder of the Jean Renny Endowed Chair in Craniofacial Medicine. He serves as Medical Director of Seattle Children’s Craniofacial Center and is an adjunct professor in the Departments of Biological Structure, Oral Health Sciences, and Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Washington Schools of Medicine and Dentistry. Cunningham received his MD from the Robert Larner, MD College of Medicine at the University of Vermont in 1988, completed his residency in pediatrics at the University of Washington Medical Center, and earned his PhD in Biological Structure from the University of Washington in 1996. Board certified in pediatrics, he balances responsibilities in administration, patient care, bedside teaching of medical students, dental students, pediatric residents, and craniofacial fellows, and research. His clinical interests focus on the diagnosis and long-term interdisciplinary care of children with craniofacial malformations, particularly craniosynostosis.

Cunningham’s molecular and developmental biology laboratory has been active since 1993, investigating the molecular causes of craniosynostosis and the developmental pathogenesis of midface hypoplasia associated with syndromic craniosynostosis using mouse and human models. He is co-investigator on clinical research projects, including the epidemiology of positional plagiocephaly and risk factors for obstructive sleep apnea. Key publications include "Syndromic craniosynostosis: from history to hydrogen bonds" (Orthod Craniofac Res, 2007), "Case-control study of neurodevelopment in infants with deformational plagiocephaly" (Pediatrics, 2010), "Bilateral lambdoid and sagittal synostosis (BLSS): a unique craniosynostosis syndrome or predictable phenotype?" (Am J Med Genet A, 2009), "Isolated sagittal and coronal craniosynostosis associated with TWIST box mutations" (Am J Med Genet A, 2007), and "Cleidocranial dysplasia with severe parietal bone dysplasia: C-terminal RUNX2 mutations" (Birth Defects Res A Clin Mol Teratol, 2006). He has authored over 135 medical papers. Cunningham received the UW Medicine Inventor of the Year award in 2017 for the NIFTY Cup, a device to aid breastfeeding in infants with difficulties, and the F. Clarke Fraser New Investigator Award. He co-founded PACT to support cleft lip and palate treatment programs in Africa.