Rathinaswamy Bhavanandhan (RB) Govindan, Ph.D., MS Director, Advanced Physiological Signals Processing Laboratory
Rathinaswamy Bhavanandhan (RB) Govindan, Ph.D., MS, is director of the Advanced Physiological Signals Processing Laboratory (APSPL) at Children’s National Hospital, overseeing the acquisition of high-quality signals, developing and maintaining automated analyses pipelines for processing these signals, and training end-users on the application of these analyses pipelines. The primary goal of APSPL research is identifying
antecedents of brain injury in critically ill infants through continuous monitoring and characterization of multimodal physiological signals. Dr. Govindan has experience in developing monitoring tools to acquire and process data from patients’ bedside monitors. Using proprietary software, his team has continuously collected electrocardiograms and processed heartrate variability in close to real-time for several days from 100+ infants. He also has experience in collecting and processing data using wearable sensors (e.g., Everion, Biofourmis, Boston, U.S.). Using Everion, Dr. Govindan’s team reliably has collected heart rates from nearly 200 pregnant women and mothers of newborns to understand the onset of pregnancy-related stress or postpartum depression. Dr. Govindan’s current research focus is on real-time characterization of the physiological signals to derive biomarkers that can help to make informed clinical decisions. His team has honed several signal processing routines to address the highly prevalent artifacts in the physiological signals collected in a hostile environment of critical care monitoring. He has served as a Co-investigator on several National Institutes of Health grants.
He received his Ph.D. in biomedical signal processing from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai, India. Recently, he received an MS degree in Biotechnology with a specialization in Bioinformatics from the University of Maryland Global Campus.
Address: 111 Michigan Ave. NW; Washington, D.C., 20010
Email: fetalbrain@childrensnational.org
Department: MRI Lab
Recent publications & presentations
2026 | April
Basu S, Govindan RB, Kapse K, du Plessis AJ, Ottolini K, Murnick J, Ngwa J, Limperopoulos C. “Active Sleep During Extrauterine Third Trimester Is Associated With Neurophysiologic Maturation in Preterm Infants.” Poster presentation. 97th Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting. Boston, MA. April 2026.
Basu S, Govindan RB, Kapse K, du Plessis AJ, Ottolini K, Murnick J, Ngwa J, Limperopoulos C. “Active Sleep During Extrauterine Third Trimester Is Positively Associated With Brain White Matter Volume in Preterm Infants.” Poster presentation. 97th Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting. Boston, MA. April 2026.
Donnellan E, Ngwa JS, Liggett MO, Andescavage N, Limperopoulos C, du Plessis AJ, Govindan RB. “Neurobehavioral Stress Linked to the Central Nervous System Is Associated With Heart Rate Variability Differences in Preterm Infants.” Poster presentation. 97th Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting. Boston, MA. April 2026.
Ottolini K, Chirumamilla VC, Basu S, Andescavage N, Ngwa J, du Plessis AJ, Limperopoulos C, Govindan R. “Nutritional Factors Associated With Autonomic Nervous System Maturation in Preterm Infants.” Oral Abstract. 97th Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting. Boston, MA. April 2026.
Nguyen T, Boland E, Krishnan A, Govindan RB, Shekhar R. “Feasibility of a Portable Fetal ECG System With Automated CTI Measurements.” Heart Rhythm 2026. Chicago, IL. April 2026.
Ottolini KM, Chirumamilla VC, Basu SK, Andescavage N, Ngwa JS, du Plessis AJ, Limperopoulos C, Govindan RB. “Nutritional Factors Associated With Autonomic Nervous System Maturation in Preterm Infants.” Poster. Research, Education & Innovation Week 2026. Washington, D.C. April 2026.
2026 | February
Ngwa JS, Govindan RB, Andescavage N, Basu S, Ottolini K, Kapse K, Murnick J, Limperopoulos C, du Plessis, AJ. “Heart Rate Variability Using Time and Frequency Domain Metrics Is Associated With Brain Volumes in Preterm Infants.” Poster. 17th International Newborn Brain Conference (INBBC 2026). Naples, Italy. February 2026.
2025 | December
Ilori F, Andescavage NN, Wisner KL, Ngwa JS, Govindan RB, Limperopoulos C. “The Role of Perinatal Perceived Stress in the Setting of Adverse Childhood Experience and Perinatal Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms.” BMC Psychology. 2025 Dec 29;13(1):1384. doi: 10.1186/s40359-025-03628-6. PMID: 41462378; PMCID: PMC12751169
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41462378
2025 | August
Chirumamilla VC, Mulkey SB, Anwar T, Baker R, Maxwell GL, Asis-Cruz J, Kapse K, Limperopoulos C, Plessis AD, Govindan RB. “Directional Flow of Brain Connections and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Healthy Full-Term Newborns.” Neuroscience Letters. 2025 Aug 30:138371. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2025.138371. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40889547
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40889547
Pezzato S, Govindan RB, Beqiri E, Smielewski P, Waberski A, Nuszkowski M, Licht DJ, du Plessis AJ, Munoz RA, Yerebakan C, Moscatelli A, d'Udekem Y. “Intraoperative Assessment of Cerebral Autoregulation With Cerebral Oximetry Index in Neonates Undergoing Cardiac Surgery: A Pilot Study.” Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia. 2025 Aug;39(8):2049-2056. doi: 10.1053/j.jvca.2025.04.019. Epub 2025 Apr 18. PMID: 40360297
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40360297
2025 | April
Donnellan EL, Govindan RB, Ngwa JS, Andescavage N, Limperopoulos C, du Plessis AJ. “Is Heart Rate Variability Associated With Neurobehavior in Preterm Infants?” Poster presentation. Children’s National Hospital 15th Annual Research, Education and Innovation Week. Washington, D.C. March-April 2025.
Ngwa JS, Govindan R, Galla J, Kapse K, Basu S, Andescavage N, du Plessis AJ, Limperopoulos C. “Leveraging Autonomic Cardiorespiratory Measures to Predict Total Brain Volumes in Preterm Infants” Poster presentation. Children’s National Hospital 15th Annual Research, Education and Innovation Week. Washington, D.C. March-April 2025.
2024 | November
Chirumamilla VC, Mulkey SB, Anwar T, Baker R, Maxwell GL, De Asis-Cruz J, Kapse K, Limperopoulos C, du Plessis A, Govindan RB. “Asymmetry of Directed Brain Connectivity at Birth in Low-Risk Full-Term Newborns.” Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology. 2024 Nov 12. doi: 10.1097/WNP.0000000000001131. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39531276
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39531276
2024 | September
Govindan RB, Andescavage NN, Basu S, Murnick J, Ngwa J, Galla JT, Kapse K, Limperopoulos C, du Plessis A. “Circadian Rhythm Development in Preterm Infants. The Role of Postnatal Versus Postmenstrual Age.” Early Human Development. 2024 Sep;196:106084. doi: 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2024.106084. Epub 2024 Jul 27. PMID: 39126762; PMCID: PMC11344654
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39126762
Jacobwitz M, Kapse K, Ngwa J, De Asis-Cruz J, Wu Y, Govindan R, Donofrio MT, Wessel DL, du Plessis AJ, Limperopoulos C, Andescavage A. “In-Vivo Placental Volumes and Placental Growth Trajectories are Abnormal in Fetuses with Congenital Heart Disease.” International Federation of Placental Associations 2024 Conference. Montreal, Quebec. September 2024. (NIH travel award)
2024 | April
Chirumamilla VC, Hitchings L, Mulkey SB, Anwar T, Baker R, Maxwell L, De Asis Cruz J, Kapse K, Limperopoulos C, du Plessis AJ, Govindan RB. Communications among Rich-club brain regions in term low-risk newborn EEG sources. Children’s National Hospital 14th Annual Research, Education and Innovation Week. Washington, D.C. April 2024.
Ngwa JS, Govindan R, Galla J, Kapse K, Basu S, Andescavage N, du Plessis AJ, Limperopoulos C. The impact of conventional and high-frequency oscillatory ventilation on heart rate metrics in preterm infants. Children’s National Hospital 14th Annual Research, Education and Innovation Week. Washington, D.C. April 2024.
Jacobwitz M, Kapse K, Ngwa J, De Asis-Cruz J, Govindan R, Donofrio MT, Wessel D, du Plessis A, Limperopoulos C, Andescavage N. In-vivo placental volumes and placental growth trajectories are abnormal in fetuses with Congenital Heart Disease. Children’s National Hospital 14th Annual Research, Education and Innovation Week. Washington, D.C. April 2024.
2024 | February
Chirumamilla VC, Hitchings L, Mulkey SB, Anwar T, Baker R, Larry Maxwell G, De Asis-Cruz J, Kapse K, Limperopoulos C, du Plessis A, Govindan RB. Association of brain functional connectivity with neurodevelopmental outcomes in healthy full-term newborns. Clin Neurophysiol. 2024 Feb 15;160:68-74. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2024.02.009. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38412745
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38412745/