Edwards was Weston Professor of Neonatal Medicine at Imperial College London, and Consultant Neonatologist at the Hammersmith and Queen Charlotte's Hospitals 1993-2012.[1] He was a Group Head in the Medical Research Council Clinical Sciences Centre at Hammersmith 1999-2011.[1] From 2006 to 2012 was Associate Director of the National Institute for Health Research Medicines for Children Research Network.[7] Since 2012 he has been Professor of Paediatrics and Neonatal Medicine, and the Director of the Centre for the Developing Brain, at King's College London and Consultant Neonatologist at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.[1] He is a Trustee of Action Medical Research and the Galen and Hilary Weston Foundation.[8][9]
Research
Birth asphyxia and therapeutic hypothermia
Edwards was one of the group of scientists that discovered that a modest reduction in brain temperature prevents the development of brain damage if applied after oxygen starvation during birth; it remains the only effective treatment for infants suffering birth asphyxia. He participated: in the laboratory experiments which demonstrated the effect;[10] in work elucidating the mechanisms involved;[11] in human pilot studies[12] and in the definitive trials;[13][14] in meta-analysis of the trial data;[15] post-implementation monitoring;[16] and in long-term follow up of the effect of treatment.[17] The National Institute for Clinical Excellence mandated therapeutic hypothermia in the United Kingdom in 2011[18] and Edwards helped write the British Association of Perinatal Medicine Guidelines for the implementation of the therapy in the United Kingdom.[19]
Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Premature Birth
Edwards and his colleagues worked to extend the use of MRI to understand the problems suffered by infants born extremely preterm. They installed the world-first dedicated neonatal MRI scanner in the Hammersmith Hospital in 1994 with full intensive care capabilities, able to image the smallest and sickest infants needing intensive care.[20] This approach has improved understanding of the issues of preterm birth and provides a tool for testing new therapies to improve outcomes for affected infants.[21][22][23]
Connectomics
Connectomics is the novel scientific field which aims to map all the connections in the brain at micro, meso or macro scale. Macroscale connectomics which investigates links of the scale of millimetres predominantly uses MRI. Edwards led the Developing Human Connectome Project,[24] a major programme funded by the European Research Council which mapped the development of connectivity in the fetal and newborn human brain using structural and functional MRI.[25] Early results from this project can be seen in the BBC Horizon programme "10 things you need to know about the future".[26] The brain images from the project were made freely available to researchers, together with collateral demographic, clinical, neurodevelopmental, genetic and epigenetic information through the National Institute for Mental Health data repository portal.[27] The data form part of the first map of human brain development across the lifespan,[28] and are being used by scientists across the world to understand human brain development and connectivity[29]
↑ Thoresen, M.; Penrice, J.; Lorek, A.; Cady, E. B.; Wylezinska, M.; Kirkbride, V.; Cooper, C. E.; Brown, G. C.; Edwards, A. D.; Wyatt, J. S. (May 1995). "Mild hypothermia after severe transient hypoxia-ischemia ameliorates delayed cerebral energy failure in the newborn piglet". Pediatric Research. 37 (5): 667–670. doi:10.1203/00006450-199505000-00019. ISSN0031-3998. PMID7603788.
↑ Edwards, A. D.; Yue, X.; Squier, M. V.; Thoresen, M.; Cady, E. B.; Penrice, J.; Cooper, C. E.; Wyatt, J. S.; Reynolds, E. O.; Mehmet, H. (1995-12-26). "Specific inhibition of apoptosis after cerebral hypoxia-ischaemia by moderate post-insult hypothermia". Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 217 (3): 1193–1199. Bibcode:1995BBRC..217.1193E. doi:10.1006/bbrc.1995.2895. ISSN0006-291X. PMID8554576.
↑ Azzopardi, D.; Robertson, N. J.; Cowan, F. M.; Rutherford, M. A.; Rampling, M.; Edwards, A. D. (October 2000). "Pilot study of treatment with whole body hypothermia for neonatal encephalopathy". Pediatrics. 106 (4): 684–694. doi:10.1542/peds.106.4.684. ISSN1098-4275. PMID11015509.
↑ Azzopardi, Denis V.; Strohm, Brenda; Edwards, A. David; Dyet, Leigh; Halliday, Henry L.; Juszczak, Edmund; Kapellou, Olga; Levene, Malcolm; Marlow, Neil; Porter, Emma; Thoresen, Marianne; Whitelaw, Andrew; Brocklehurst, Peter; TOBY Study Group (2009-10-01). "Moderate hypothermia to treat perinatal asphyxial encephalopathy". The New England Journal of Medicine. 361 (14): 1349–1358. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa0900854. ISSN1533-4406. PMID19797281.
↑ Gluckman, Peter D.; Wyatt, John S.; Azzopardi, Denis; Ballard, Roberta; Edwards, A. David; Ferriero, Donna M.; Polin, Richard A.; Robertson, Charlene M.; Thoresen, Marianne; Whitelaw, Andrew; Gunn, Alistair J. (Feb 19–25, 2005). "Selective head cooling with mild systemic hypothermia after neonatal encephalopathy: multicentre randomised trial". Lancet. 365 (9460): 663–670. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)17946-X. ISSN1474-547X. PMID15721471. S2CID17683547.
↑ Duggan, P. J.; Maalouf, E. F.; Watts, T. L.; Sullivan, M. H.; Counsell, S. J.; Allsop, J.; Al-Nakib, L.; Rutherford, M. A.; Battin, M.; Roberts, I.; Edwards, A. D. (2001-11-17). "Intrauterine T-cell activation and increased proinflammatory cytokine concentrations in preterm infants with cerebral lesions". Lancet. 358 (9294): 1699–1700. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(01)06723-x. ISSN0140-6736. PMID11728550. S2CID22882730.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.