Contact Details
- Position
- Research Fellow
- Department
- Department of Paediatrics and Child Health (Wellington)
- Research summary
- Child health; Prematurity
Research
Rebecca completed her PhD at the Priority Research Centre for Pregnancy and Reproduction, University of Newcastle, and the Mothers and Babies Research Centre, Hunter Medical Research Institute. Throughout her PhD, in parallel with mechanistic animal studies, she demonstrated how early neonatal compromise following preterm birth was associated with poor (micro)vascular function in the newborn infant, and that this is driven by imbalances in vasoactive molecules.
Research themes identified during Rebecca's PhD, combined with the increasing human data indicating cardiovascular dysfunction in adult humans born preterm, have directed her current research interest into not just the immediate outcomes for preterm babies, but also the life-course cardiovascular sequelae of preterm birth and other events which alter developmental trajectory.
With her clinically-based research group – The Perinatal and Developmental Physiology Group of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at UOW, she is investigating the long-term cardiovascular effects of perinatal compromise, specifically the sex-specific, age-related changes in cardiac, macro- and micro- vascular structure and function; and autonomic function at the level of the heart and microvasculature.
Publications
Shaw, J. C., Palliser, H. K., Dyson, R. M., Berry, M. J., & Hirst, J. J. (2018). Disruptions to the cerebellar GABAergic system in juvenile guinea pigs following preterm birth. International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience, 65, 1-10. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2017.10.002 Journal - Research Article
Dyson, R. M., Palliser, H. K., Wilding, N., Kelly, M. A., Chwatko, G., Glowacki, R., Berry, M. J., … Wright, I. M. R. (2019). Microvascular circulatory dysregulation driven in part by cystathionine-gamma-lyase: A new paradigm for cardiovascular compromise in the preterm newborn. Microcirculation, 26, e12507. doi: 10.1111/micc.12507 Journal - Research Article
Morrison, J. L., Botting, K. J., Darby, J. R. T., David, A. L., Dyson, R. M., Gatford, K. L., Gray, C., … Berry, M. J. (2018). Guinea pig models for translation of the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis into the clinic. Journal of Physiology, 596(23), 5535-5569. doi: 10.1113/JP274948 Journal - Research Article
Shaw, J. C., Dyson, R. M., Palliser, H. K., Gray, C., Berry, M. J., & Hirst, J. J. (2019). Neurosteroid replacement therapy using the allopregnanolone-analogue ganaxolone following preterm birth in male guinea pigs. Pediatric Research, 85, 86-96. doi: 10.1038/s41390-018-0185-7 Journal - Research Article
Berry, M. J., Saito-Benz, M., Gray, C., Dyson, R. M., Dellabarca, P., Ebmeier, S., … Elder, D. E., & Richardson, V. F. (2017). Outcomes of 23- and 24-weeks gestation infants in Wellington, New Zealand: A single centre experience. Scientific Reports, 7, 12769. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-12911-5 Journal - Research Article