James P Boardman

MPs have personal beliefs, but also solemn duties: that’s why they must reject the assisted dying bill this week | Gordon Brown Our obligations to each other are ill served if laws focus unduly on those who want assisted dying. The priority should be the best palliative care, says former prime minister Gordon Brown

MPs have personal beliefs, but also solemn duties: that’s why they must reject the assisted dying bill this week | Gordon Brown www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

There’s power and hope in the stories that must be told …

If universities do go down, we will need:
*Urban renewal fund to plug the gap
*Proper Special Administrative Regime in law
*Plan to reapportion students between unis
*Research council policy on moving grant money
*PhD training centre and partnership moves (1/3)

Open letter on Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2029 Open letter on Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2029

🚨ACTION🚨

We plan to send this open letter asking ministers and UKRI to rethink their plans for REF2029 imminently.

Any UK academic can sign.

The REF is important because it allocates £2 billion a year in research funding.

Current proposals pose serious risks 🧵

lucaf.org/viewdocument...

Important learning from US experience of looking after 22 weekers 2014-23: many more receiving active treatment, and survival increased from 25.7% to 41%.

Implications of the Sullivan review for medicine described in this BMJ editorial here.

Direct relevance to maternity comprehensively described in: www.frontiersin.org/journals/glo...

The Maga Catholics trying to take back control of the church [FREE TO READ] A growing number of Americans hope that Pope Francis’s death will mark a decisive conservative shift for the papacy

Ridiculous narcissists and solipsists, thinking that the church is all about a modern liberal-to-conservative axis. Maybe it's been around a bit longer than that eh. Maybe that isn't the be-all and end-all. www.ft.com/content/8f3e...

Gestational Age and Cognitive Development in Childhood This cross-sectional study assesses whether preterm and early-term births are associated with lower cognitive scores in children aged 9 to 10 years compared with full-term peers.

# publication alert
Children born <34 weeks had lower cognitive performance at age 9–10 vs. full-term (≥39 wks), even after adjusting for genetics, SES, and perinatal risks. Late preterm & early term performed similarly to full-term.
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

The genesis of this scandal was in the aftermath of last big NHS reconfiguration & Public Health England made a decision to axe quality peer review checks on test centres. Concerns by experts were ignored in 2013...a warning from history as the next big change is on the horizon.

75% of US scientists who answered Nature poll consider leaving More than 1,600 readers answered our poll; many said they were looking for jobs in Europe and Canada.

🧪The Trump administration's anti-science crusade has US scientists, particularly graduate students and postdocs, eyeing the exits. 🧠drain.
#neuroskyence
#neurology
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The COLLABORATE trial getting underway in the UK will settle this question once and for all. It's a big one for parents of babies <29 weeks and their clinicians when a supplement to maternal milk is needed.

Interested NNUs can sign up:

www.imperial.ac.uk/neonatal-dat...

Whole-Body Hypothermia for Neonatal Encephalopathy This randomized clinical trial investigates if hypothermia initiated at less than 6 hours after birth reduces the probability of death or disability at 18 to 22 months’ corrected age in infants 33 to ...

Time to put the brake on TH for infants <36 weeks with moderate to severe encephalopathy
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Early childhood developmental concerns following SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy: a Scottish population-level retrospective cohort study Understanding the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy can help inform clinical guidance and tackle vaccine hesit…

In 24,919 child-mother pairs (est. conception May'20- Sep'21), there were no adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy on neurodevelopmental outcomes at 13-15 months.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

‘Never seen anything like this’: Trump’s team halts NIH meetings and travel In an unprecedented move, research-grant reviews have been suspended indefinitely at the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research.

Then they came for the research funding bodies and there was no science and no evidence ... www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay!

A lot of rich parents are very upset at the government for charging VAT on private school fees. Maybe they should instead ask why private schools have put up fees so far above inflation over the past 15 years. www.ft.com/content/852b...

Perinatal Science International is a novel forum to discuss & develop high-impact research with a multidisciplinary group in a tranquil setting. Numbers limited to 80; registration open! Join us in Venice April 10-12, 2025 @99nicu.bsky.social @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social @neonatal.bsky.social

Randomisation 1 will determine if pasteurised human donor milk or preterm formula affect NEC and other outcomes if a supplement for own mother’s milk is required.

Randomisation 2 will determine if routine macronutrient fortification of human milk is beneficial.

2/2

New RCT coming to the UK in 2025!

COLLABORATE will determine clinical efficacy, effect size, and safety of widely used enteral feeds in reducing surgical NEC, mortality, and cognitive impairment in extremely preterm babies.

2 randomisations:

1/2

Agree: manipulating the preterm gut microbiome may not be an inert treatment vis-à-vis brain development.

Our study group was not exposed to probiotics.

Conditional and Unconditional Social Transfers, Early-Life Nutrition, and Child Growth This randomized clinical trial assesses the effectiveness of conditional and unconditional social transfers on exclusive breastfeeding rates and child growth.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

ComBat offers new opps for scale-up ➡️ new horizons for biomarker discovery and validation, understanding (a)typical brain development, and Ix neuroprotective therapies.

#TEBC and devHCP data.

Led by Alex Bonthrone. Collab @edinunineuro.bsky.social and @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social

Harmonizing multisite neonatal diffusion-weighted brain MRI data for developmental neuroscience Large diffusion-weighted brain MRI (dMRI) studies in neonates are crucial for developmental neuroscience. Our aim was to investigate the utility of Co…

🔈New paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti....

ComBat was used to harmonise multisite neonatal dMRI in white matter.

1/2

The trilogy

Excited to share our @natureportfolio.bsky.social Mental Health cover story!

Led by @alussier.bsky.social, we found that childhood adversity rewires DNA methylation. The twist? Early stress was linked to both depression risk AND resilience mechanisms 🧬

Paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s44...

➡️These bacteria may interact with brain microstructure via tryptophan and propionate metabolism

➡️New avenues for neuroprotection in preterm infants via gut microbiota modification?

Led by Dr Kadi Vaher in collab with @dbogaert.bsky.social

#TheirworldEBC

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The neonatal gut microbiota: A role in the encephalopathy of prematurity Vaher et al. perform a comprehensive characterization of very preterm infant gut microbiome and its associations with MRI markers of encephalopathy of prematurity. The results suggest links between bacterial species and their functions with brain development. Because gut microbiome is modifiable, this research could offer new avenues for perinatal neuroprotection.

New paper from us about the gut-brain-axis in preterm infants.

➡️Bacterial community composition associates with MRI features of encephalopathy of prematurity esp Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp.

www.cell.com/cell-reports...

1/2

Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh, yesterday and today. A different 🌎 in 24 hours.

Gordon Brown says daughter’s death showed value of ‘good’ dying over assisted dying Former PM, whose daughter died when she was 11 days old, says debate is moving too fast and calls for commission on palliative care

Gordon Brown calling for a commission to strengthen palliative care and make it equitable, rather than rush to assisted dying.

Gordon Brown says daughter’s death showed value of ‘good’ dying over assisted dying www.theguardian.com/society/2024...