One in nine babies in the United States is born prematurely. Thanks to innovations in medical care, more than 90 percent of these babies survive. However, nearly half of preterm infants may be at risk for learning problems later in life. Clinicians at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), are studying how to optimize brain development in preterm and critically ill newborns. Terrie Inder, MBChB, Chair, Department of Pediatric Newborn Medicine, Christopher McPherson, PharmD, clinical pharmacist in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Cynthia Ortinau MD, and Sarbattama Sen, MD, neonatologists and clinical investigators in the Department of Pediatric Newborn Medicine present research on neurodevelopment in high risk infants. Dr. Inder’s research has focused on infants at high risk for brain injury including the prematurely-born infant, the sick term-born infant, and the infant with congenital heart disease. Her research focuses on accurate, early diagnosis of brain injury as well as developing treatments and preventive strategies to reduce subsequent disabilities. Dr. McPherson’s primary research interest is the impact of drugs on the developing newborn brain. Dr. Ortinau’s research focuses on brain magnetic resonance imaging before and after birth to understand the nature and timing of alterations in brain development and neurodevelopmental outcomes in infants born with congenital heart disease. Dr. Sen’s research focuses on devising and trialing dietary interventions to improve pregnancy outcomes for obese women and their infants. Specific areas of interest include maternal obesity, inflammation, infant growth, obesity, breast milk composition and neurodevelopment. On October 7, 2015, Discover Brigham highlighted the cutting-edge biomedical investigations of more than 3,000 researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). Learn more about biomedical research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital: http://www.brighamandwomens.org/research

• published: 05 Nov 2015
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