Project description

Despite major advances in neonatal care, there are currently no targeted treatments for brain injury in preterm babies. Brain injury that occurs before or around the time of birth can have lifelong consequences, including cerebral palsy and neurodevelopmental impairment.

This project will investigate whether engineered extracellular vesicles, naturally produced by placental stem cells, can be used to target and treat injury in the developing brain. These extracellular vesicles will be designed to home in on areas of brain injury, improve uptake by brain cells, and deliver therapeutic cargo with the aim of reducing inflammation, protecting vulnerable brain cells and improving long-term outcomes.

Students involved in this project will gain experience in translational perinatal neuroscience, pre-clinical models of preterm brain injury, extracellular vesicle biology, histology, imaging and molecular analysis. The project brings together expertise in fetal neuroscience, neonatal brain injury, stem cell biology and clinical neonatology.