NEPTuNE team attend International Newborn Brain Conference 2024

Scholars and PIs from our NEPTuNE team attended the 15th International Newborn Brain Conference that was held in Fota Island, Cork. The conference opened on February 28th and included talks from many international experts in the field of neonatal brain health.

Attendees at the conference heard from NEPTuNE co-lead Geraldine Boylan (Director of INFANT Research Centre, UCC) who spoke about AI for real-time Neonatal EEG analysis – myth or reality? NEPTuNE collaborator, Nikki Robertson (Consultant Neonatologist and Professor of Perinatal Neuroscience, University College London & University of Edinburgh), also presented her research on Methods, Opportunities, and Limitations in Translating Neuroprotection – Opportunity for Collaboration. Mandy Daly, NEPTuNE collaborator and  Director of the Irish Neonatal Health Alliance, facilitated a group discussion on Parent Involvement and Advocacy.

The NEPTuNE programme was well-represented in the poster walk with posters from scholars Aoife Branagan – Anakarina (IL1 Receptor Antagonist) and Immune Dysfunction in Infants with Neonatal Encephalopathy, Fiona Quirke –Parent-important outcomes in the treatment of neonatal encephalopathy, Chelo Del Rosario – Parent-child interaction and child development in the context of Neonatal Encephalopathy, and Megan Dibble – Lack of association between neurodevelopmental outcomes and MRI and inflammatory cytokines in neonatal encephalopathy. Programme Manager, Beth Corcoran, also prepared a poster outlining the NEPTuNE PhD Training Network Framework.

Amongst the many international experts that spoke at the conference were Betsy Pilon (Hope for HIE), Nathalie Maitre (Professor & Director of Early Development and Cerebral Palsy Research, Emory University), Alastair Gunn (Professor of Physiology and Paediatrics, University of Auckland) as well as Lina Chalak (Neonatologist and Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at UT Southwestern).