3rd jENS Congress, Maastricht, September 2019

This year was NEPTuNE scholar, Andreea Pavel’s, first time participating in the Congress of Joint European Neonatal Societies (jENS), which brings together The European Society for Paediatric Research (ESPR), the Union of European Neonatal and Perinatal Societies (UENPS) and the European Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants (EFCNI). More than 100 international experts in the field of Neonatology presented their views on the most up to date clinical and research neonatal topics, which led to interactive discussions with the audience.

For Andreea, jENS was also a great opportunity to promote her research and to network with leaders in the field of neonatal neurology and neuroprotection. One of her current projects, “Early predictive markers for grade and seizures in neonatal encephalopathy” was accepted for presentation. This project, part of her PhD thesis, looks to improve NE prediction by combining early clinical and physiological markers.

International speakers included Professor Nicola Robertson, UCL, who presented on ‘Translating neuroscience into clinical practice in low and mid income countries’. NEPTuNE’s lead Principal Investigator, Professor Eleanor Molloy, TCD, also spoke about ‘Infection and neonatal brain injury’. NEPTuNE’s UCC, Infant Centre partner was also represented by Professor Eugene Dempsey whose presentations included ‘Monitoring oxygenation and heart rate stabilization at birth’, ‘Cardiovascular drugs and their use based on physiology, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics’, and ‘The hypotension in preterm (HIP) infant trial’.

Professor Dempsey also hosted a session discussing ‘Measuring circulatory failure in preterm infants’ at the ‘Challenges of conducting large trials on circulatory adaptation after birth’ workshop. Professor Deirdre Murray, one of Andreea’s PhD supervisors was also present at the meeting and hosted ‘Developmental Origins of Health and Disease’. Professor Molloy also contributed to the Basic Neuroscience Research Methods pre congress course with her talk entitled ‘How to get your paper published‘, while Professor Robertson’s contribution to the same course referred to ‘Bringing neuroscience into the clinic’.

Talks given by Ruth Grunau (Canada) about ‘Long-term consequences of early pain’, and by Ricardo Carbajal (France) on ‘Sedation/analgesia and the newborn’ also impressed Andreea as they resonated with her own research.