The Evelyn Perinatal Imaging Centre

Its internationally-competitive programme of research brings together clinicians, engineers and physicists to develop new technologies to study the causes, detection and diagnosis of brain injury in newborns.

Located in the Rosie maternity hospital, close to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), postnatal wards and birthing suite, the centre houses a physics laboratory, clinical 1.5T MRI scanner and infant scanning room with dedicated MRI-compatible incubator, making it safer and easier to transfer sick and preterm infants.

The centre enables researchers and clinicians to study and care for critically-ill babies in their first hours of life, in an infant-friendly and safe environment. Enhanced clinical care means babies’ outcomes have the best chance of improving and also facilitates new lines of neuroprotective treatments.

Through its ties with the University’s Department of Paediatrics and with NIHR Cambridge BRC support, the Evelyn Perinatal Imaging Centre is playing a key role in developing neonatal neurocritical care (‘Neuro-NICU’), to improve the quality of care for newborn infants with congenital and acquired brain injury. The centre is also closely involved with The Next Generation Children project, which is undertaking whole genome sequencing on infants with altered neurology and seizures.

The centre has enabled a number of successful commercial, industrial and academic collaborations in Cambridge, London and Europe, including the development of a 3D optical imaging system and state-of-the-art EEG monitoring systems. Together these systems provide a unique multimodal imaging facility to study brain development in the newborn, identify those at risk of long-term brain injury and better understand how babies respond to different treatments.

To find out how this facility can help your research or to enquire about opportunities for collaboration, please contact Centre Director Professor Topun Austin. For more information on the centre and current research projects, visit https://neolabresearch.com.