Dr Tracey Bjorkman will speak on Implications for healthy brain development.

SEMINAR OVERVIEW

Of the 300,000 babies born in Australia each year, most experience a happy and healthy delivery. However for a small few complications can arise during birth, often with very little warning and with devastating consequences. Birth asphyxia – when the brain is starved of oxygen and blood around the time of birth – is the third leading cause of infant death in Australia and the leading cause of neonatal seizures in newborn babies worldwide.

ABOUT DR BJORKMAN

Dr Tracey Bjorkman is a Senior Research Fellow and Group Leader at the Perinatal Research Centre and UQ Centre for Clinical Research. She was awarded her PhD from UQ in 2003. Her lab focuses on identifying and optimising neuroprotective strategies to treat newborn brain injury resulting from birth asphyxia, fetal growth restriction and premature birth.

Dr Suzanne Parker will speak on Rethinking the way we treat severe infection in neonates, infants and children.

SEMINAR OVERVIEW

Severe infection remains one of the leading causes of childhood deaths each year. In Australia, such severe infections are most commonly seen in infants and children who are critically ill, suffering from major trauma or extensive burns, undergoing complex surgery, or those receiving chemotherapy, organ or bone marrow transplants, or dialysis. Potentially, the majority of these infections could be successfully treated with antibiotics.

ABOUT DR PARKER

Dr Parker's fundamental research interest is the improved healthcare of critically ill infants and children through evidence-based drug dosing. Dr Parker is a bioanalyst with 20 years of experience designing methods to measure drugs in biological fluids, positioning her to develop sampling methods that can improve the feasibility of clinical dosing studies. Dr Parker’s research career has furthered these laboratory skills into a translational framework: by applying innovation in microsampling her research will define evidence-based antibiotic dosing regimens.

About UQCCR Seminar Series

UQCCR Seminar Series

The UQ Centre of Clinical Research (UQCCR) Seminars are held fortnightly on Wednesdays from 12 pm - 1 pm (except during school holidays) currently on Zoom. The series features topics in multiple research fields, presented by invited international, interstate and local researchers.