Closing the Gap between Knowledge and Cure

Darcy Fehlings is a Developmental Paediatrician and Professor in the Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. She is a Senior Clinician Scientist in the Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital. Her clinical and research work focuses on the innovation and evaluation of interventions for children with cerebral palsy and physical neurodisabilities including hypertonia interventions, early detection, constraint therapy, dystonia and pain management. As scientific lead for CP-NET (a large translational neuroscience network focused on individuals with cerebral palsy), a large clinical database of over 1000 children with CP has been created with data platforms including risk factors, neurodevelopmental functioning, brain imaging, genomics and psychosocial/quality of life. She has led the AACPDM Care Pathway for ‘Dystonia in CP’. She has held positions as the inaugural head of the Uof T Division of Developmental Paediatrics (2006-2022), Chair of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Specialty Committee of Developmental Pediatrics (2018-2024) and President of the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (2015).

Eileen Fowler PT, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles. She holds the Peter William Shapiro Chair for the Center for Cerebral Palsy. In addition, she is Co-Director of the Kameron Gait & Motion Analysis Laboratory and the Director of Education for the Center for Cerebral Palsy at UCLA/Orthopaedic Institute for Children.
She has over 40 years of experience in the evaluation and treatment of patients with neuromuscular disorders, focusing on cerebral palsy (CP) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Her research program focuses on the neural and biomechanical factors associated with functional impairment.  The influence of reduced selective motor control and plasticity in children with spastic CP using clinical, biomechanical and neural imaging approaches is a primary interest. She and her team developed Selective Control of the Lower Extremity (SCALE), for individuals with spastic CP who are 4 years of age and older and, more recently, Mini-SCALE for infants and toddlers with or at risk for CP.  Dr. Fowler was the 2016 President for the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine and the current Chair of the Scientific Advisory Council for the Cerebral Palsy Foundation.

Professor Nadia Badawi is the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Foundation Chair of Research at the University of Sydney and she is Medical Director and Co-Head of the Grace Centre for Newborn Intensive Care. Her clinical work and research emphasise early identification, neuroprotection, and systems approaches to prevention, combining cohort studies, clinical trials, and registry work to translate findings into practice. Under her leadership and advocacy, Australia has seen substantial progress in outcomes for newborns and children with cerebral palsy, with national efforts she helped shape contributing to a notable 40%  decline in cerebral palsy incidence over the last two decades.  She is also on the Steering committee of the Global Low Middle Income Cerebral Palsy Register which now has registers in over 25 countries.

Dr. Maitre is a board-certified neonatologist and research investigator with a focus on neurodevelopment in high-risk newborns and developmental interventions after neural injury. Before joining us at Emory and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, she was the Director of the NICU Follow-up Program and the Medical Director of NICU Developmental Therapies at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. In the Department of Pediatrics at Emory, she serves as the Director of Research in Early Development and Cerebral Palsy. She will help support the expansion of the Neonatal Follow-up Clinic (DPC), grown to national repute by the late Dr. Ira Adams-Chapman, and, in collaboration with the Division of Neurology and Department of Rehabilitation, is developing a program focused on early detection and intervention for infants at risk for cerebral palsy. This Children’s and Emory program is now the lead site of the National Implementation Network funded by the Cerebral Palsy Foundation. In support of her growing Implementation Science program, Dr Maitre is a member of the international IMPACT for Cerebral Palsy workgroup and has developed caregiver-based motor learning programs for UNICEF and the World Health Organization.
Dr. Maitre’s lab’s research focuses on neurodevelopment in high-risk newborns and rehabilitation of long-term disabilities. She emphasizes the development of quantitative measures of neural function in infants to allow the rational design and testing of parent-based and technology-assisted strategies. A career development award from the NICHD allowed her to elucidate mechanisms through which the NICU environment contributes to cortical sensory processing differences in hospitalized neonates and their neurobehavioral outcomes in childhood. For the past 15 years Dr. Maitre has conducted multidisciplinary research with neuroscientists, engineers and therapists in neurophysiology of NICU infants and rehabilitation. She now leads NIH-and foundation-funded of parent-driven sensory-motor interventions such as constraint and bimanual movement therapy, and pacifier-activated voice players. In outpatient and inpatient settings. She has a robust technology portfolio developed in collaboration with SmallTalk and Enlighten Mobility teams. She continues to work with engineering and mathematical modeling teams in the US and Switzerland to develop new methodologies for brain-based assessment and therapy in infants and young children.
Dr. Maitre mentors undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral trainees in rehabilitative therapies, developmental medicine, neurology, neonatology and engineering, who are interested in developing a career in the neuroscience of infant developmental interventions.

Dr. Maltepe is a Professor of Pediatrics, Biomedical Sciences, and Developmental and Stem Cell Biology at UCSF. His research laboratory studies mechanisms whereby hypoxia signaling pathways regulate normal development, contribute to the origins of pregnancy complications, and drive disease processes such as pulmonary hypertension and retinopathy of prematurity in newborn infants. Additionally, he is a co-founder of the Initiative for Pediatric Drug and Device Development (www.ipd3.org), a multi-institutional collaborative comprised of leaders in pediatrics and pharmaceutical sciences that functions as a ”one-stop-shop” to advance drug and device development for pediatric indications. In this capacity, the collaborative has been working with non-profit and industry sponsors on multiple fronts, including neurotherapeutics for birth asphyxia, novel oxygen delivery biotherapeutics for treatment of hemorrhagic shock, as well as cardioprotective agents for infants undergoing repair of congenital heart defects.

Eleanor Molloy is the Professor and Chair of Paediatrics and Child Health in Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland. She is a paediatrician and neonatologist based in Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin & Tallaght and the Coombe Hospital. She qualified in Medicine in UCC (1993) and received her PhD from UCD. Her research group is concerned with interdisciplinary child health research and the promotion of Paediatric Translational projects to improve child health and she is co-director of the Trinity research in childhood centre (TRICC) with more than 100 principal investigators. She is co-lead for the Health Research Board funded In4Kids the national paediatric clinical trials network aiming to facilitate access to clinical trials for children in Ireland. The Molloy translational research laboratory in TCD evaluates new methods to modify the immune responses newborn infants with brain injury through their childhood to find new therapies to improve their outcome by modifying persistent dysfunctional inflammation.   Internationally she has served as the Secretary & President of the Irish American Paediatric Society and as the Irish representative on the European Board of Paediatrics: European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS), Confederation of European Specialists in Paediatrics (CESP), Board member of the European Society for Paediatric Research and the Newborn Brain Society. She was awarded Honorary Fellowship at the American Paediatric Society, a Professorial Fellowship by Trinity College and is the Associate Editor in Chief for the journal “Paediatric Research” on behalf of the International Paediatric Research Foundation since 2015.She has supervised more than 20 PhD and MD thesis students and has over 300 peer reviewed publications. She is interested in collaborative research encompassing consensus definitions of terminology related to neonatal sepsis, neonatal brain injury and measuring core outcomes so that research data can be shared to improve outcomes for children.  She is developing programmes in multiorgan care as well as functional motor care from the newborn period to adulthood following neonatal brain injury, sepsis, traumatic brain injury, Down syndrome  and cerebral palsy in partnership with families and with funding from Science Foundation Ireland and the Health Research Board.

Evan Snyder is a board-certified pediatrician, neonatologist, child neurologist; stem cell biologist & developmental neuroscientist. Regarded as one of the “fathers” of the stem cell field, he introduced the concept that neural plasticity, as mediated by neural stem cells (NSCs), might be harnessed therapeutically, having demonstrated the existence of isolatable & engraftable NSCs (arguably the first solid organ stem cell discovered). Snyder earned his MD & PhD jointly at Penn (an NIH MSTP grantee) & studied psychology, philosophy, & linguistics in an MSc program at Oxford. He completed residencies in pediatrics & neurology & a fellowship in Neonatology at Harvard (where he served as Chief Resident in Medicine & then Neurology). Concurrently he completed a research postdoc in Genetics at Harvard. He joined Harvard’s clinical & tenure-track research faculties, launching his independent lab. He was recruited to Sanford Burnham Prebys Institute (and UCSD) as a Professor to found a Center for Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine & help build California’s stem cell infrastructure. He’s been elected to the Association of American Physicians & to the American Institute of Medical & Biological Engineering (holding ~40 patents), as well as recently being elected a Fellow of the Child Neurology Society. He helped start & chaired the FDA’s Cell, Tissue, & Gene Therapy Advisory Committee for 2-terms, & presently chairs the SAB of NIH’s Human Genetic Disease Biobank. He previously served as president of the American Society for Neural Therapy & Repair &  was a recipient of its Sanberg Award for Lifetime Achievement. His biography was chosen for inclusion in Ashwal’s textbook “Child Neurology: Its Origins, Founders, Growth & Evolution” (Elsevier, 2021)