Zarazuela Zolkipli-Cunningham, MBChB, MRCP, is Director of Clinical Research in the Mitochondrial Medicine Frontier Program in the Division of Human Genetics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Assistant Professor, at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Zolkipli-Cunningham completed training in Child Neurology at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK, and the Dubowitz Neuromuscular Center, London, UK. She then completed a Neurometabolic Research Fellowship at the SickKids Hospital in Toronto Canada mentored by Dr. Ingrid Tein; and a Mitochondrial Disease Fellowship at the Metabolic and Mitochondrial Disease Center, University California, San Diego mentored by Dr. Richard Haas and Dr. Robert Naviaux. Dr. Zolkipli-Cunningham was the first NIH - North American Mitochondrial Disease Consortium (NAMDC) Fellow to complete Mitochondrial Disease and Clinical trials training.

Dr. Zolkipli-Cunningham has established a Mitochondrial Myopathy Clinical Research program to design and validate new quantitative methods of Mitochondrial Myopathy for clinical trials, precision trials, and natural history studies. She is PI of NIH-R01, Industry, and Foundation grants and co-I of a Department of Defense Focused Development Award. As Clinical Research Director of the Mitochondrial Medicine Frontier Program, she is actively engaged in bridging academia-industry collaborations to pursue precision and clinical trials. She is also CHOP-site PI of the Pediatric Neuromuscular Research Network, co-leads a ClinGen NICHD U24 Leigh syndrome Mitochondrial Disease consortium gene-disease curation effort, member of the North American Mitochondrial Disease Consortium (NAMDC) committee, Rare Disease Clinical Research Network (RDCRN) Career Enhancement Committee, Scientific and Medical Advisory Board of the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation (UMDF), co-leads the UMDF Bench to Bedside Education Seminars and is Scientific Organizer of the annual UMDF Clinical Research Pavilion. The focus of her work is to improve clinical care, validate new diagnostic approaches, and advance new therapies in Mitochondrial Disease.