Alishia Ballintine
Alishia Ballintine Alishia BallintinePatient/parent representative (Australia) Session: Learnings from co-creation: involving external stakeholders in research – Thursday 15 May (8.30-10am) Alishia Ballintine is a passionate patient and consumer advocate committed to advancing patient partnerships in medical development. Her advocacy is deeply personal, driven by her youngest daughter’s experience as a late preterm baby who suffered a perinatal stroke, resulting in right hemiplegic cerebral palsy and epilepsy. This experience fuels Alishia’s dedication to seeing novel regenerative therapies emerge in the field of neurodevelopmental injury. Professionally, Alishia leads consumer advisor and partnership initiatives within clinical trial research, ensuring that patient perspectives are central to the process. She is also a regulatory lawyer at a world-class clinical trial centre, where she combines her legal expertise with her commitment to see impactful research translation and drug development. Throughout her career, Alishia has gained extensive knowledge of the complex ethics and regulatory processes that shape…
Sidhartha Tan
Sidhartha Tan Dr Sidhartha TanProfessor of PediatricsWayne State University (USA) Session: Novel and innovative approaches to screening – Tuesday 13 May (2-3.30pm) Dr Sidhartha Tan is presently Leslie Helppie Endowed Professor in Urban Health, Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine. His research focuses on Big Data analytics in neonatal intensive care, advanced neonatal nursing, olfactory memory testing, neuroimaging, neuroprotective drugs, and neonatology education. His basic science research explores mechanisms of brain injury in newborns, with his lab continuously funded since 1992, currently holding three NIH R01 grants. Using rabbit models of cerebral palsy, his work investigates hypoxia-ischemia at various gestational ages, mimicking acute placental insufficiency. His studies examine free radicals, reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, grey and white matter injury, oligodendroglial damage, brain cell death, and epigenetics. He has also pioneered MRI biomarkers to predict motor deficits in foetuses and developed the first transgenic knockout and knock-in…
Gaurav Verma
Gaurav Verma Dr Gaurav VermaResearcherUniversity of Gothenburg (Sweden) Session: In vitro studies of stem cell activities – Thursday 15 May (10.30am-12pm) Gaurav Verma is a passionate researcher specialising in mitochondrial biology and bioenergetics, with a focus on mitochondrial function in neurological disorders. Gaurav’s current work explores mitochondrial transplantation in brain injury models, investigating how transplanted mitochondria can restore cellular respiration and support neuronal recovery. By analysing oxygen consumption rates (OCR) in isolated mitochondria using Seahorse Flux Analyser, his aim is to unravel new insights into mitochondrial metabolism and neuroprotection, paving the way for potential therapeutic strategies. Beyond his research, Gaurav has contributed to the scientific community through a recently published book chapter with IntechOpen, titled Fundamentals of Stem Cells and Application in Complex Disorders. His interdisciplinary interests extend to forensic science and clinical trials, reflecting a deep curiosity for scientific discovery. Driven by a commitment to advancing mitochondrial research, Gaurav…
Nicolas Zucker
Nicolas Zucker Nicolas ZuckerPhD student Physics for Medicine Paris (France) Session: Imaging modalities – Thursday 15 May (12.30-2pm) Nicolas Zucker is a PhD student in physics working on ultrasound neuroimaging. During his PhD he is exploring how functional ultrasound localisation microscopy can detect and quantify hemodynamic response at the microscopic scale. From preclinical to clinical imaging, this research is paving the way for a better understanding and monitoring of cerebral small vessel diseases.
Sara De Palma
Sara De Palma Sara De PalmaPhD candidateDepartment for Developmental Origins of Disease, University Medical Center Utrecht Brain Center and Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital, Utrecht University, Utrecht (The Netherlands) Session: From pre-clinical work to an approved therapy – Wednesday 14 May (10.30am-12pm) Sara De Palma studied at the Polytechnic University of Turin, completing both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in biomedical engineering. During the final year of the master’s program, she moved to Utrecht for an internship at the Laboratory of Neuroimmunology and Developmental Origins of Disease under the supervision of Caroline de Theije. This experience led to pursuing a Marie Curie PhD in regenerative medicine at University Medical Center Utrecht in the group of Cora Nijboer, focusing on optimising mesenchymal stem cell therapy for neonates with hypoxic-ischemic brain injury. In 2023 Sara received a PhD Research Grant from the Cerebral Palsy Alliance which enabled a research stay at the University of…
Gert van Steenbrugge
Gert van Steenbrugge Gert van SteenbruggePatient/parent representative (volunteer)Care4Neo (The Netherlands) Session: Learnings from co-creation: involving external stakeholders in research – Thursday 15 May (8.30-10am) Gert van Steenbrugge is father of two preterm children, born respectively at 34 and 26 weeks of pregnancy. He is former director of the Dutch parent organisation VOC (currently known as Care4Neo) and is presently member of the scientific committee of Care4Neo. Gert has been involved in the European Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants (EFCNI) since the first parents’ meeting in 2008. He was member of the Parent Advisory Board and was involved in the development of EFCNI’s Standards of Care. By education Gert is biochemist and worked for many years in biomedical research. Having this background his special interests are medical and care-associated research in neonatology. Together with parents and professionals he was founder of the ‘Neokeurmerk’, a quality mark for the neonatology…
Pierre Gressens
Pierre Gressens Pierre GressensDirector, INSERM–Université Paris Cité laboratory U1141 (France) and PREMSTEM coordinator Session: Opening address – Tuesday 13 May (1.45-2pm) Pierre Gressens received his MD (UCL, Brussels, Belgium) in 1989 and his PhD at UCL in 1995. He specialised in Child Neurology and carried out his post-doctoral research training at NIH (Bethesda, USA). He has been working at Robert Debré Hospital, Paris both as researcher and child neurologist, since 1995. Currently, Pierre is the Director of the INSERM–Université Paris Cité laboratory (U1141). Over the last 30 years, the Gressens laboratory has been involved with the basic and applied aspects of research in the area of neurodevelopmental disorders, with a focus on neuroinflammation. Pierre has published more than 330 original papers.
Lívia Nagy Bonnard
Lívia Nagy Bonnard Lívia Nagy Bonnard Patient Expert, EUPATI FellowRight(s) Beside You Association – Melletted a helyem Egyesület (Hungary) Session: Opening address – Tuesday 13 May (1.45-2pm) Lívia Nagy Bonnard is the Founder and Vice-President of the Melletted a Helyem Egyesület association for preterm babies in Hungary. She is the mother of four, including a preemie boy born at 27 weeks’ gestation who is now a young adult living with multiple disabilities. Lívia is a patient expert – EUPATI Fellow who has participated on several national and international research projects. She is a member of the Parent, Patient and Public Advisory Board (PPPAB) for EFCNI’s European Standards of Care for Newborn Health and a NIDCAP NFI Family Council member. Lívia coordinates FINE training in Hungary and part of Faculty. She received an EFCNI award for organising the adaptation of FINE for online training in 2022. Lívia is a trained nurse…
James Boardman
James Boardman Professor James BoardmanProfessor of Neonatal MedicineUniversity of Edinburgh (UK) Session: Imaging modalities – Thursday 15 May (12.30-2pm) James Boardman is Professor of Neonatal Medicine and Director of the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory at the University of Edinburgh. He researches new ways of reducing brain injury and restoring learning potential after adverse early life events. His significant contributions include characterising atypical brain development after preterm birth using quantitative MRI, elucidating how the perinatal stress environment and systemic inflammation interact with brain development, and mapping the effect of socioeconomic gradients on brain growth. His current work seeks to understand which perinatal exposures confer risk and resilience for neurodevelopmental and educational outcomes in children born preterm and to identify the biological axes that embed those exposures in child development. James is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a past president of the Neonatal Society, holds a UKRI MRC programme…
Richard Schäfer
Richard Schäfer Professor Richard SchäferMedical Director Transfusion Medicine, Deputy Director Institute for Transfusion Medicine and Gene Therapy, Head Freiburg iPS CoreMedical Center, University of Freiburg (Germany) Session: In vitro studies of stem cell activities – Thursday 15 May (10.30am-12pm) Richard Schäfer is the Medical Director Transfusion Medicine at the Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Gene Therapy at Freiburg University, where he is also leading the iPSC core facility. He was clinically trained in internal medicine and transfusion medicine. His research addresses both fundamental and translational questions. He has been working extensively in the mesenchymal stromal cell and induced pluripotent stem cell fields at Harvard, Stanford, Tübingen, Frankfurt and Freiburg Universities.