Funding to protect the brains of the most premature babies

A $100,000 Jack Brockhoff Foundation grant will support Hudson Institute researcher Dr Tegan White’s ground-breaking research into brain development in babies born at just 22–23 weeks’ gestation.

As more babies born extremely prematurely survive, understanding how to protect their developing brains is becoming an urgent challenge.

This funding will allow Dr White to investigate how the brains of these “micropremature” babies develop and how common neonatal intensive care interventions may affect this critical process.

Professor Suzie Miller and Professor Flora Wong are also involved in the project titled, Optimising Brain Development in Micropremature Babies – The New Frontier. The project will use a preclinical model to examine brain development under conditions that reflect those experienced by micropremature infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICU), including exposure to sedatives and hypoxic stress and also investigate potential strategies to protect normal neuronal growth.

Babies born at 22–23 weeks are among the most vulnerable patients in neonatal intensive care, and many experience adverse neurological outcomes. By better understanding how their developing brains respond to the conditions and treatments they encounter, the research could provide valuable evidence to help clinicians make more informed decisions about their care.

First of its kind

The project is also the first of its kind to develop a clinically relevant model specifically focused on brain development in micropremature infants, providing an important platform for future research into neuroprotective treatments.

For Dr White, an early career researcher, the funding also represents an important step in building her scientific career.

“This funding gives me the opportunity to continue this important work, generate meaningful data and build towards larger research opportunities and future discoveries,” she said.

“But also, I hope this research will give clinicians treating vulnerable 22–23-week infants more assurance about what interventions performed in the NICU may or may not be doing to their brain development.”