Athina Samara

Immature cardiorespiratory control in infants may result in apneas, sudden unexpected postnatal collapse (SUPC), secondary hypoxic brain damage and SIDS. We have shown that prostaglandins are central pathogenic factors in respiratory disorders and the hypoxic response. This has led us to focus on the role of inflammation and brainstem modulation in both clinical and mechanistic studies. These are used to define mechanisms for factors disturbing the physiological and neural pathways that control breathing. main goals are:1) Develop better clinical guidelines and best practices for respiratory failures in newborns e.g. Sudden Unexpected Postnatal Collapse (SUPC).2) To clinically characterize how dysregulation of respiratory control induces life-threatening apneas and if subtle alterations in cardiorespiratory parameters may act as early warning scores for infection, inflammation and a need for increased intervention. Patients recruited at the Pediatric wards and with the help of KTH expertise we use Deep Machine Learning based analysis to develop rapid semiautomatic Novel Early Warning Systems3) To define the pathophysiological mechanism of apneas and involvement of inflammation in the development and activity of brainstem respiration-related neural circuits. In vivo and novel in vitro experimental mouse models and single cell transcriptomics techniques are used.The overall aim is to develop diagnostics and therapeutic approaches against life threatening apneas and collapse.