Research Summary
Dr. Chen’s primary research interests are the use of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) for treatment of neonates and neonatal brain injury, and she leads development of the Johns Hopkins neonatal POCUS program as its director. In this role, she collaborates with fellow neonatologists (Drs. Michelle Gontasz, Keith Leung and Kartikeya Makker), pediatric intensivists (Drs. Katherine Hoops and Amanda Levin), pediatric cardiologists (Drs. Dennis Delany and Melanie Nies) and pediatric emergency medicine colleagues (Dr. Kate Deanehan) to extend POCUS education to their respective divisions.
Dr. Chen has received internal funding (a Johns Hopkins Children’s Center innovation grant and a Women’s Board grant) for development of a multidisciplinary POCUS curriculum, and she presented her research work at the national American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) conference in 2023.
Dr. Chen has taught at regional POCUS workshops at Johns Hopkins and at Children’s National Hospital. Dr. Chen has additional research interests in neonatal brain injury, specifically cerebellar injury after hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy in an animal model working with Dr. Jennifer Lee Summers (anesthesiology) and Dr. Lee Martin (pathology/neuroscience).
Selected Publications
Moon J, Chen M, Gandhy SU, Strawderman M, Levitsky DA, Maclean KN, Strupp BJ. Perinatal Choline Supplementation Improves Cognitive Functioning and Emotion Regulation in the Ts65Dn mouse model of Down Syndrome. Behavioral Neuroscience. 2010;124(3):346-361.
Chen MW, Reyes M, Kulikowicz E, Martin L, Hackam DJ, Koehler RC, Lee JK. Abdominal near-infrared spectroscopy in a piglet model of gastrointestinal hypoxia produced by graded hypoxia or superior mesenteric artery ligation. Pediatric Research. 2018;83(6):1172-1181. PMID: 29538356
Santos PT, O’Brien CE, Chen MW, Hopkins CD, Adams S, Kulikowicz E, Singh R, Koehler RC, Martin LJ, Lee JK. Proteasome biology is compromised in white matter after asphyxic cardiac arrest in neonatal piglets. J Am Heart Assoc. 2018; 7(20):e009415. PMID: 30371275
Chen MW, Akinboyo IC, Sue PK, Donohue PK, Ghanem KG, Detrick B, Witter FR, Page KR, Arav-Boger R, Golden WC. Evaluating congenital syphilis in a reverse sequence testing environment. J Perinatol. 2019; 39(7):956-963. PMID: 31076626
Lee J, Santos PT, Chen MW, O’Brien CE, Kulikowicz E, Adams S, Hardart H, Koehler RC, Martin LJ. Combining hypothermia and oleuropein subacutely protects subcortical white matter in a swine model of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2021;80(2):182-198. PMID: 33212486
Chen MW, Santos P, Kulikowicz E, Koehler RC, Lee JK, Martin LJ. Targeting the mitochondrial permeability transition pore for neuroprotection in a piglet model of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. J Neurosci Res. 2021;99(6):1550-1564. PMID: 33675112
Liu X, Tekes A, Perin J, Chen M, Soares BP, Massaro AN, Govindan RB, Parkinson C, Chavez-Valdez R, Northington FJ, Brady K, Lee J. Wavelet autoregulation monitoring identifies blood pressures associated with brain injury in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Front. Neurol. 2021;12:662839. PMID: 33995258
El Demerdash N, Chen MW, O’Brien CE, Adams S, Kulikowicz E, Martin LJ, Lee JK. Oleuropein activates neonatal neocortical proteasomes, but proteasome gene targeting by AAV9 is variable in a clinically relevant piglet model of brain hypoxia-ischemia and hypothermia. Cells. 2021; 10(8):2120. PMID: 34440889
Chen MW, Lee JK, Vezina G, Tekes A, Perin J, Li R, O’Kane A, McGowan M, Chang T, Parkinson C, Krein C, Al-Shargabi T, Northington FJ, Brady KM, Massaro AN, Govindan RB. The utility of cerebral autoregulation indices in detecting severe brain injury varies by cooling treatment phase in neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Dev Neuroscience. 2022; 44(4-5):363-372. doi: 10.1159/000522314. PMID: 35100588
Li R, Lee JK, Govindan RB, Graham EM, Everett AD, Perin J, Vezina G, Tekes A, Chen MW, Northington F, Parkinson C, O'Kane A, McGowan M, Krein C, Al-Shargabi T, Chang T, Massaro AN. Plasma biomarkers of evolving encephalopathy and brain injury in neonates with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). J Pediatr. 2023; 252:146-153.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2022.07.046. PMID: 35944723
Primiani CT, Lee JK, O’Brien CE, Chen MW, Perin J, Kulikowicz E, Santos P, Adams S, Lester B, Rivera-Diaz N, Olberding V, Niedzwiecki MV, Ritzl EK, Habela CW, Liu X, Yang ZJ, Koehler RC, Martin LJ. Hypothermic protection in neocortex is topographic and laminar, seizure unmitigating, and partially rescues neurons depleted of RNA splicing protein RBFOX3 in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic male piglets. Cells. 2023; accepted for publication.
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