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Dr. Barbara Stonestreet Receives Additional Funding to Study Perinatal Brain Injury

Release Date: 11/08/2016

Barbara Stonestreet, MD, a neonatal-perinatal specialist at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, and professor of pediatrics at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, has received a five-year, nearly $2.8 million grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for her research into determining the most effective strategies for the treatment of perinatal brain injury in full-term and premature infants. Last month it was announced that Dr. Stonestreet received two two-year grants totaling $881,100 from the National Institutes of Health for this research.  

Perinatal brain injury often results in severe developmental disabilities, including neurodevelopmental delay and cerebral palsy. The resulting neurodevelopmental disabilities can place a lifelong burden on parents and society.

Dr. Stonestreet explained, “We are looking at a novel approach to prevent and treat perinatal brain injury by targeting brain blood vessels with antibodies to preserve their function, to protect the brain, and to improve outcomes. This study has significant translational potential to provide new insights into novel therapies to prevent brain injury in the human fetus and/or premature and full-term infant.

 

About Women & Infants Hospital 

Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation’s leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns. A major teaching affiliate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University for obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics, as well as a number of specialized programs in women’s medicine, Women & Infants is the 9th largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the country and the largest in New England with approximately 8,500 deliveries per year. A Designated Baby-Friendly® USA hospital, U.S.News & World Report 2014-15 Best Children’s Hospital in Neonatology and a 2014 Leapfrog Top Hospital, in 2009 Women & Infants opened what was at the time the country’s largest, single-family room neonatal intensive care unit.

Women & Infants and Brown offer fellowship programs in gynecologic oncology, maternal-fetal medicine, urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery, neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric and perinatal pathology, gynecologic pathology and cytopathology, and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. It is home to the nation’s first mother-baby perinatal psychiatric partial hospital, as well as the nation’s only fellowship program in obstetric medicine.

Women & Infants has been designated as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiography; a Center of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecology; a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence by the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and a Neonatal Resource Services Center of Excellence. It is one of the largest and most prestigious research facilities in high risk and normal obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics in the nation, and is a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Gynecologic Oncology Group and the Pelvic Floor Disorders Network.