Congratulations to Dr Kelly Zhou from the Department of Physiology on being awarded the Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust (MPPT) project grant. Her research project is titled, ‘Can we find novel therapeutic targets for add-on treatment to therapeutic hypothermia for perinatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury?’
Therapeutic hypothermia is the standard treatment for babies who have suffered oxygen deprivation at birth, however, some babies do not benefit from this treatment. The mechanisms of injury after hypoxia-ischemia are complex, but to characterise these mechanisms in a high-throughput manner. Kelly will be using RNA sequencing to detect changes in gene expression associated with hypoxic-ischemic brain injury in near-term fetal sheep.
Further, she will investigate whether these gene expression changes are altered by therapeutic hypothermia. Ultimately, this could identify potential mechanisms of injury that are not already modulated by hypothermia, which could be novel therapeutic targets for hypoxic-ischemic brain injury. This research is in collaboration with Associate Professor Joanne Davidson and Dr Audrys Pauza.