Research

Newborn Medicine Research

The Division of Newborn Medicine maintains several active research programs, from National Institutes of Health-funded basic research to collaborative, multi-center clinical trials. Current areas of investigation include respiratory muscle function and fatigue, brain blood flow and its relation to brain injury in premature infants, chronic lung disease, and gastro-esophageal reflux disease.

Using a genome-based approach, the lab has pioneered studies of a family of proteins called serpins, which protect cells from injury. An investigation is underway to examine how serpins work in normal development as well as the role they play in certain cancers and infections.

Other areas of interest include very-low-birthweight (VLBW) infants and their susceptibility to staphylococcal infections; drug therapies to prevent chronic lung disease in pre-term neonates; prenatal brain injury; and congenital anomalies of kidney and urinary tract development, to name just a few.