Congratulations to Mary Lauren Neel, the Early Career Investigator highlighted this month. Dr Neel is a neonatologist in the Baby Brain Optimization Project Lab at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She chose neonatology for the unique opportunity to share life-altering experiences with families and because of the fascinating research questions in the field. After completing medical school in Alabama, she moved to Washington, DC, to complete her pediatrics residency, followed by a neonatal–perinatal fellowship at Vanderbilt University. She has a special interest in mechanistic and multimodal studies of parent–infant interactions with the ultimate goal of early parenting intervention design to improve outcomes. In this issue, she and colleagues report the use of Bayley scores and trajectories to predict the school readiness of formerly preterm children. See https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-023-02770-4and https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-023-02656-5.
This interesting systematic review investigated brain injury and maturation abnormalities seen on MRI and their associations with neurodevelopment in neonates undergoing surgery for non-cardiac congenital anomalies. The authors concluded that such surgery was associated with a high risk of brain injury and maturation delay, leading to neurocognitive- and motor-development delays. Therefore, neuroimaging after surgery for non-cardiac congenital anomalies should be considered routine clinical care. See https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-023-02629-8.
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