FNPS Board

Professor Suzie Miller - President

Professor Suzie Miller was appointed Director of The Ritchie Centre in 2022 and she holds a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Fellowship. Suzie leads the Neurodevelopment and Neuroprotection Theme in the Ritchie Centre, with her research utilising experimental animal models of the primary causes of perinatal brain injury – including fetal growth restriction, intrauterine infection, preterm birth, and perinatal asphyxia - to better understand the progression of neuropathology, so that targeted interventions can be implemented. Suzie and her clinical and research colleagues are working towards the translation of neuroprotective therapies before or after birth, so that neonatal brain injury can be reduced, and cerebral palsy might be prevented. Suzie is also a keen advocate for the role of women in biomedical science, and a founding member of the NHMRC Women in Health Science Committee.

A/Professor Joanne Davidson - Scribe

Associate Professor Joanne Davidson is a researcher in the Fetal Physiology and Neuroscience lab in the Department of Physiology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She has a particular interest in better understanding how insults such as hypoxia-ischemia and infection lead to brain damage during the perinatal period. Joanne has a keen interest in integrating research into the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying brain injury with the translational benefits of studying large animal physiology, with a view to developing novel treatment strategies for perinatal brain injury. Joanne demonstrated for the first time that connexin 43 hemichannels play a key role in the evolution of injury after hypoxia-ischemia. Joanne is also interested in investigating ways to further optimize or supplement therapeutic hypothermia to improve neuroprotection after perinatal hypoxia ischemia as well as develop treatment strategies for mild hypoxic ischemic brain injury and infection-sensitised ischemic brain injury

Professor Dino Giussani

Professor Giussani graduated with a first-class BSc (Hons) Physiology degree (valedictorian) at Royal Holloway of the University of London and PhD from University College London under the mentorship of Professor Mark Hanson. He was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Universidad de Chile with Professor Anibal Llanos and at Cornell University with Professor Peter Nathanielsz, before taking up a tenured Lectureship at the University of Cambridge in 1996, where he has been since. He was promoted to Reader in 2004 and to Professor in 2011. He also holds a Professorial Fellowship at Gonville & Caius College in Cambridge, where he is Director of Studies in Medicine. In 2018, he was awarded honorary Fellowships by distinction from the Royal College of Obstetrics & Gynaecology (FRCOG) and the Latin American Academy of Sciences, in recognition of the contribution of his research to the wellbeing of women and their children. Professor Giussani directs a research team interested in developmental programming of cardiovascular disease.

Dr Paul Rozance

Dr. Paul Rozance is a Professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics and the Section of Neonatology. He is a Neonatologist Clinician-Scientist and the Scientific Director of the Perinatal Research Center. Dr. Rozance uses animal models (sheep and mice) to study fetal nutrient and oxygen physiology, fetal endocrinology, fetal growth and development, pancreatic beta-cell biology, and placental function. One of his longest running goals has been to develop a better understanding how the fetus translates nutrient and hormonal signals from the placental into anabolic signals for fetal growth with particular attention to the fetal anabolic growth factor, insulin. His focus is on placental insufficiency, IUGR and the response of the pancreatic islet and beta-cell to antenatal insults. More recently his laboratory has demonstrated novel roles for glucagon and placental lactogen in the regulation of placental function, fetal metabolism, and fetal growth. His translational studies revolve around the broad area of perinatal insulin-nutrient metabolism and led to his clinical research interests in glucose metabolism and neonatal hypoglycemia during the transition from intrauterine to extrauterine life.

Professor Janna Morrison

Janna obtained her Masters in Physiology from the University of Western Ontario in 1998 and her PhD in Reproductive and Developmental Sciences from the University of British Columbia in 2001.

Janna is Deputy Director of Health and Biomedical Innovation at the University of South Australia and Head of the Early Origins of Adult Health Research Group. She is a Fellow of the Cardiovascular Section of the American Physiological Society. She was awarded the Australian Physiological Society Medal Lecture in 2022 and the Joan Mott Lecture Prize (Physiological Society UK) in 2023. She is Reviewing Editor for the Journal of Physiology and Editor of Themed Issues for the Journal of the Developmental Origins of Adult Health.

Her research focusses on how the fetal cardiovascular system responds to changes in nutrient supply during pregnancy, using MRI to study blood flow and oxygenation in preclinical models of fetal growth restriction. Her work is in the field of fetal physiology, where she is pioneering the use of MRI to detect the cardiovascular effects of fetal growth restriction with the goal of improving heart health across the lifespan.

Dr Robert Galinsky

Rob Galinsky is a fetal physiologist with a specific interest in developmental neuroscience. He leads the Perinatal Inflammation and Neurophysiology Laboratory at the Ritchie Centre which is co-located at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research and

Monash University. Rob and his team focus on identifying cellular and physiological mechanisms that trigger abnormal development in the fetal and newborn brain. Using this information, their goal is to develop new diagnostics and therapeutics for early detection and prevention of brain injury and life-long disability in our smallest and sickest patients.

Professor Jane Pillow

Prof Jane Pillow is an academic neonatologist and transdisciplinary scientist whose goal is to improve outcomes of newborn infants, especially those born preterm. She graduated from the University of Queensland with BMedSci (Hons) and MBBS before undertaking a PhD at the University of Western Australia and post-doctoral studies at the Institute for Child Health in London. She is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow and Senior Principal Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia. Jane is also a member of the Scientific Leadership Committee at the Telethon Kids Institute where she is Lead for Early Environment Theme. Jane is most well known internationally for her expertise in neonatal respiratory physiology and mechanical ventilation, especially high-frequency oscillatory ventilation – the focus of her doctoral studies. More recently, Jane has transitioned her research program to investigate interventions that work systemically to protect the newborn infant from insults that target multiple different body systems, including early restoration of circadian rhythms. Her wide and varied research program includes discovery science and preclinical translational studies undertaken in the Preclinical Intensive Care Research Unit (PICRU) at UWA, as well as clinical research trials and cohorts. As an avid transdisciplinarian, Jane highly values open collaborative research endeavours that are centred on challenges and unmet needs, and as such works with a diverse range of colleagues, including industry partners to achieve meaningful impact and progress. Jane has had continuous Category 1 funding since her PhD stipend, with a career research income exceeding $35M. She has had 24 PhD students and over 30 Honours students and is a strong supporter of EMCRs.

Dr Simerdeep Dhillon

Dr Simerdeep Dhillon graduated with PhD in Biomedical Sciences in 2020 from The University of Auckland, New Zealand, under the supervision of Professors Laura Bennet and Alistair Gunn and A/P Joanne Davidson. She is currently working as a research fellow with the Fetal Physiology and Neuroscience lab in the Department of Physiology at the University of Auckland. Her research interests include understanding the mechanisms of preterm brain injury induced by events like hypoxia-ischaemia and inflammation and using this information to develop and refine neuroprotective strategies. Dr Dhillon’s current focus is to examine the neuroprotective potential of clinically available treatments that would be most easily translatable

Dr Bernardo Krause

Dr. Krause is a bachelor in biochemist and PhD in Physiology. He has contributed as a principal researcher and collaborator in human studies addressing the role of epigenetic mechanisms in the risk of cardiovascular and immune disease under detrimental pregnancy conditions. In this regard, he has provided seminal evidence regarding the direct contribution of epigenetic mechanisms to the placental vascular dysfunction in human fetal growth restriction (PMID: 23867713, 26551598, 33075314). These findings have been complemented with animal models (PMID: 27739590, 31311132, 31177629) developed to replicate the conditions observed in human pregnancies (PMID: 26719023, 29633280). His studies have also supported the role of epigenetic and metabolic mechanisms in the development of immune alterations in children born to mothers with impaired metabolic conditions (PMID: 28160500, 33275450, 32726560). Furthermore, the studies of Dr. Krause have reinforced the significance of placental function and the molecular markers derived from it as a source of information regarding the cardiovascular health of the neonate (reviewed in PMID: 34121195).

A/Professor Max Berry

Associate Professor Max Berry completed her medical training at Guys & St Thomas’ Hospital, London before emigrating to New Zealand in 2004 where she finished her specialist training in Perinatal Medicine. She then went on to complete an HRC Fellowship funded PhD with the Liggins Institute, examining the impact of preterm birth on later cardiometabolic function. In 2012 she was appointed as a clinical academic at the University of Otago, Wellington working jointly between the Department of Paediatrics & Child Health and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Capital & Coast DHB. Her main interests lie in the use of translational biomedical research to identify the mechanistic basis of, and therapeutic options for, the long-term complications associated with altered or adverse perinatal conditions such as preterm birth.

Professor Tim Regnault

Tim Regnault received his undergraduate degree in Rural Science (Hons) from the University England in Armidale, Australia. Following graduation, he undertook positions as a District agronomist and then a District livestock officer at Goodwindi and Hay, Australia respectively. He completed his PhD studies through a CSIRO/University of Western Sydney scholarship at CSIRO Prospect, studying the role of litter size and pregnancy nutrition upon placental lactogen. He then moved to Denver, Colorado in 1996 to undertake postdoctoral training, and subsequent faculty positions, under the mentorship of Drs. Battaglia, Meschia, Wilkening and Anthony. During his time in Denver, his investigations focused on areas such as placental angiogenesis, fetal hypertension, placental and fetal oxygenation and placental nutrient transport, in the IUGR sheep model. In 2005 he moved London, Ontario in Canada, to join the Perinatal Research group there led by Drs. Richardson, Gagnon and Han. While continuing aspects of sheep work with a focus on cardiovascular perturbations in IUGR, he commenced abnormal pregnancy (IUGR/LBW, deficient nutrient supply and excess energy supply) and postnatal dietary interactive outcome studies using guinea pig, rat and rabbit, cell culture systems, undertake metabolomic and lipidomic analyses and imaging techniques (CT/PET/MRI, hyperpolarized MRI). The overall objectives of the laboratory are centered around going in some way to achieve UN SDG 3 - Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages (https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal3), with specific foci on Target 3.4 (By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being) through studies aimed at detecting early abnormal placental failure in vivo and on understanding the in-utero origins and postnatal dietary interactions resulting in the development of insulin resistance (in multiple tissues), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), altered neurodevelopment and other early markers of later NCDs.

Professor Luc Zimmermann

Professor of Paediatrics and Neonatology at Maastricht UMC+ (Maastricht, the Netherlands)

Senior Medical Director EFCNI (Munich, Germany)

As a Belgian, he studied medicine and did his paediatric training in Leuven, Belgium. After his fellowship in neonatology in Toronto, Canada , he worked as a staff neonatologist and Chief of Neonatology at the Sophia Children’s Hospital, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam. In 2003 he moved to Maastricht and worked as a staff neonatologist (Since 2003), Chief of Neonatology (2005-2017) and Chairman of the Department of Paediatrics (2006-2019) at Maastricht UMC+. He is past president of the European Society of Paediatric Research (ESPR). Since 2008, he is board member of the Fetal and Neonatal Physiology Society (FNPS).

Since Oct 1, 2019, he is Senior Medical Director of the European Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants (EFCNI). Already before, he has been involved in many EFCNI projects including the European Standards of Care for Newborn Health (ESCNH) and the RSV position paper. From 2017 to 2019 he was a member of the Trustee Board of EFCNI. His ambition is to implement the ESCNH European wide to improve the situation of mothers and newborn infants and ensure more equal care in Europe. He is involved in several international research projects and congress organizations (such as JENS) representing EFCNI.

He also retains a (part-time) position as Professor of Paediatrics and Neonatology at Maastricht UMC+ (the Netherlands) and is Project Leader in Research School Oncology and Reproduction-GROW.

From an early stage in his professional career he developed a distinct research interest on the development of the preterm lung, on which he did his PhD and continued his further research. His research topics have widened in the last several years and as Senior Medical Director of EFCNI include policy and topics important for patients such as family centred developmental care.

A/Professor Alessandro Rolfo

Prof. Alessandro Rolfo is Associate Professor in Obstetrics & Gynecology at the Dept. of Surgical Sciences – University of Turin and Scientific Director of the Pregnancy Pathophysiology and Human Reproductive Medicine Research Lab at the S. Anna University Hospital in Turin (Italy). He graduated as Doctor in Medical Biotechnologies (2001) and PhD in Clinical Sciences and Human Reproduction (2005) at the University of Turin (Italy) under the supervision of Prof. Tullia Todros. From 2006 to 2009, Prof. Rolfo was Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto (ON, Canada), under the mentorship of Professor Isabella Caniggia. During his fellowship, he focused on the molecular mechanisms of oxygen sensing and cell cycle regulation in human placental pathologies, with particular interest in Preeclampsia and Fetal Growth Restriction. In 2009, Prof. Rolfo moved back to Italy, at the Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology – University of Turin, as winner of a grant from the University of Turin aimed at recalling the best Italian scientists working abroad. Thus, he started his own line of investigation on the role of placental mesenchymal stem cells in patho-physiological human placental development. He was next appointed Assistant Professor (2014) and Associate Professor in Obstetrics & Gynecology (2021) at the Dept. of Surgical Sciences of the University of Turin (Italy).

His current main reserach interests are Fetal-maternal medicine, physio-pathological human placental development in spontaneous and ART pregnancies, Placental Mesenchymal Stem Cells in placentation and in Fetal Central Nervous System development.

Professor Tomoaki Ikeda

Professor Ikeda graduated with an MD from Miyazaki Medical College at 1983, entered a 5-year residency at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Osaka University. He took on a Lecturer positon at Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Miyazaki Medical College at 1987, starting research on maternal and fetal medicine under Professor Tsuyomu Ikenoue. He studied fetal physiology using sheep fetus at University of California, Irvine with Professor Yuji Murata from 1994 to 1996. He became the Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2005 and Director of Regenerative Medicine in 2009 at National Cardiovascular Center in Osaka. In 2010, he was promoted to Professor and Chairman, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mie University where he has been since. He established Maternal Death Review Committee in Japan in 2001. His interest is fetal physiology, fetal heart rate monitoring and fetal brain damage

Professor Emilio Herrera

Dr. Herrera graduated from Universidad Austral de Chile as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) with the highest distinctions (1999). His undergraduate thesis focused on the fetal response to hypoxia in Llamas, a high-altitude mammal. During his first years as DVM, he was appointed as the Head of Large Animal Care for the Faculty of Medicine at the Universidad de Chile. He completed his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at the Universidad de Chile in 2007 with supervision from Professor Anibal J. Llanos. Dr. Herrera’s graduate thesis examined the role of nitric oxide in neonatal pulmonary hypertension at high altitudes, using sheep as the investigatory animal model. In 2007, he began a Post-Doctoral position at the University of Cambridge with Professor Dino A. Giussani, where Dr. Herrera was in charge of in vivo and ex vivo studies on animal models of hypoxia and oxidative stress during fetal development. In 2011, he returned to Universidad de Chile as an Assistant Professor, where he founded the Laboratory of Vascular Function and Reactivity. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2015 and to Full Professor in 2022. Dr. Herrera has developed several lines of research and experimental models to better study pathologies associated with high-altitude and chronic hypoxia on cardiac and vascular dysfunctions such as neonatal pulmonary hypertension, systematic hypertension, IUGR and placental insufficiency among others. His studies in fetal programming make him the DOHaD Nick Hales awardee in 2022. Currently, he is the Director of the Biomedical Sciences Institute (ICBM) of the Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Chile. He was the scribe of FNPS for 10 years (2013-2022)

Professor Amanda Sferruzzi-Perri

Dr Amanda Sferruzzi-Perri is a Professor of Fetal and Placental Physiology in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, at the University of Cambridge. Her research is focused on unravelling the environmental and genetic regulation of the placenta and, closely related to this, the in utero programming of adult diseases. She became particularly fascinated by this research area during her PhD at the University of Adelaide, during which she assessed the role of insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) in regulating feto-placental growth. Through an NHMRC Overseas Biomedical Research Fellowship, Amanda then moved to Cambridge, UK to explore interactions of the IGF system with the maternal environment (nutrition, oxygen availability and stress). Facilitated by the award of two consecutive research fellowships (Centre for Trophoblast Research and Royal Society), Amanda went on to examine the role of the IGF/insulin signalling system in maternal-placental-fetal interactions governing pregnancy and lifelong metabolic health of the mother and offspring. These studies continue to feed into her lab’s current research programmes at the University of Cambridge. Her lab’s work utilises clinical samples, animal models, novel genetic tools, in vivo functional assays and in vitro cellular, metabolic, histological and molecular techniques.

Dr Anna Maria Nuzzo

Dr. Anna Maria Nuzzo, graduated in Molecular Biotechnology with a PhD in Biomedical Sciences and Oncology at the University of Turin (Italy), is a Research Fellow at the Department of Surgical Sciences of the University of Turin (Italy) with 10+ years of experience in therapeutic applications of Placenta-derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells. In 2010, she performed a training as Molecular Biotechnology Visiting Student at Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute (SLRI) of Mount Sinai Hospital (Toronto, Canada), under the supervision of Prof.ssa Isabella Caniggia. Anna Maria Nuzzo performed a PhD Student Training at the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience of the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) under the supervision of Prof. Dino Giussani. She has a unique scientific and methodological expertise in pregnancy physiopathology investigation (Preeclampsia, Fetal Growth Restriction) and in-vitro and in-vivo modeling of placenta-related disorders.

Dr Jan Derks

Dr Jan Derks did his medical degree in 1991 at the University of Groningen, and his PhD in 1996 at the University of Utrecht (Prof. Dr. G.H. Visser) in collaboration with Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (Prof. Dr. P.W. Nathanielsz) on the subject of antenatal glucocorticoid administration. After his residencies in OB/GYN, he has been working since 2001 as a consultant in perinatology at the department of Perinatal Medicine at the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands. He was the chairman of the division of fetal-maternal medicine of the Dutch College of Obstetrics and Gynecology from 2012-2018. His main scientific interest is in antenatal neuroprotection and antenatal glucocorticoid administration. The translational research was in close collaboration with the University of Cambridge. He is currently involved in clinical studies on neuroprotection and (prevention) of premature labor.