Research Summary
Lauren Jantzie’s research program serves a medically disadvantaged patient population that includes infants and children with early brain injury living in metro, rural and economically depressed communities. Specifically, she has made exceptional contributions to the understanding of the pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment of perinatal central nervous system insults that result in cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus, pain, neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. The goal of Dr. Jantzie’s laboratory is to identify novel drug targets, agents, biologics and cell-based therapeutics to facilitate neurological recovery and repair of the injured developing brain. In support of this goal, her lab conducts unique translational mechanistic investigations and performs novel proof-of-concept studies in multiple, sophisticated models of perinatal brain injury. Her research platform has a diverse, expansive and highly clinically relevant experimental repertoire spanning high-resolution neuroimaging, touchscreen cognitive testing, and biomarker detection and identification. Through these interfaces, she is able to connect her research program to clinical practice.
Dr. Jantzie is currently the PI of R01 on placental-brain inflammatory signaling, a Department of Defense (DoD) CDMRP grant on nonsurgical treatments of hydrocephalus (partner PI with Shenandoah Robinson in pediatric neurosurgery) and a multiyear research grant from the Cerebral Palsy Research Alliance Foundation (with Drs. Robinson and Northington). She also holds an R21 with Dr. Northington and is co-investigator on a clinical trial investigating darbepoietin use in preterm infants. Her clinical research collaborations also span biobehavioral, imaging and fluid biomarker identification with Raul Chavez-Valdez, Joanna Burton, Gwendolyn Gerner, Alec Hoon and Eric Chin. Dr. Jantzie is a member of two study sections at the NIH, including F0A1 for Brain Disorders and Related Neurosciences, and is an ad hoc grant reviewer for the DoD. Dr. Jantzie serves as a member of the planning and scientific expert committee for the Hydrocephalus Association, is on the Society for Pediatric Research Student Research and House Officer Awards Selection Committee, is an associate editor for Frontiers for Young Minds and is on the editorial board for Experimental Neurology (Neurological Disorders: Genetics and Pediatric Neurology). Dr. Jantzie published 42 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including 12 in which her trainees were lead authors.
