Some of the current research interests of the program's faculty include:

  • Autoregulation of cerebral blood flow during the perinatal period in a sheep model
  • Role of vagus nerve traffic in neuroinflammation and lung development in the newborn
  • Mechanisms of pulmonary hypertension in a newborn lamb model
  • Bronchopulmonary dysplasia in a rodent model
  • Necrotizing enterocolitis in a rodent model
  • Intrauterine hypoxic ischemic injury in a rodent model
  • Effect of pulmonary infection on central control of ventilation
  • Fetal origins of adult disease in a chronic hypoxia sheep model
  • Vasoactivity of nitric oxide and its metabolites
  • Neuroprotective effects of nitric oxide and its metabolites
  • Underlying mechanisms of Retinopathy of Prematurity

 

Clinical Projects:

  • Biomarkers associated with the development of BPD
  • Cerebral blood flow and oxygenation during surgical procedures
  • Correlating ROP with breathing pattern changes
  • Effect of ROP screening on biomarkers of pain and stress 
  • Oral feeding and patent ductus arteriosus
  • aEEG as an index of brainstem development in preterm neonates
  • aEEG abnormalities in infants with congenital heart defects
  • Effect of feeding on the gastrointestinal microbiome of preterm infants
  • Impact of Maternal Factors on the Incidence of Necrotizing Enterocolitis
  • Near-Infrared Spectroscopy to Evaluate Feeding Tolerance in Infants with NEC
  • A wholeness approach to respiratory outcome prediction using non-linear and machine learning-based methodology
  • A machine learning-based wholeness approach to early extubation readiness prediction
  • Correlation between nutrition, growth, and neurodevelopmental outcomes
  • Developing a prediction tool to assess likelihood of loss to NICU discharge follow-up
  • Quantifying placental insufficiency-induced fetal reprogramming using fetal cell-free RNA
  • Assessing in utero microbiome distribution in association with placental insufficiency
  • A neural network approach to verifying UVC tip position in neonates