All signs point to Australian lab to cure childhood cancer

A Hudson Institute of Medical Research laboratory is now the global hub for medical researchers looking to cure childhood cancer.

The laboratory contains the Childhood Cancer Model Atlas (CCMA), the world’s largest collection of high-risk paediatric cancer cell lines, providing a unique, open-source facility to cancer researchers worldwide.

Cancer cell lines are cells that keep dividing and growing over time under certain conditions in a laboratory, and are used in research to study the biology of cancer and to test cancer treatments.

Co-leader of the Victorian Paediatric Cancer Consortium (VPCC) Precision Medicine Program, Professor Ron Firestein, says there is a desperate need to find new treatments and cures for the cancers that affect children.

“Despite significant overall improvements in survival rates over the past 50 years, cancer remains the leading disease-related cause of death among Australian children.”

Professor Ron Firestein
Profile photo of Professor Ron Firestein
Professor Ron Firestein

Some childhood cancers have either no treatment available, or what is available hasn’t improved for more than forty years. These rare, low-survival, difficult-to-treat childhood cancers are among the specialities of Hudson Institute researchers. The story of the CCMA features in Volume 41, Issue 4 of the Cancer Cell scientific journal.

“Paediatric cancers are quite unique from adult cancers, so we don’t necessarily expect the same drug that works in adult cancers to work in children,” said Dr Paul Daniel, who along with Dr Claire Sun, was lead author on this research paper.

“The CCMA is a collection of over 300 childhood cancer cell lines which offers us an opportunity to identify new therapies and biomarkers of response for paediatric cancers of greatest unmet medical need,” said Dr Daniel.

Fellow researcher Dr Sun had the job of compiling, collating and condensing huge amounts of data, as the team performed hundreds of tests on each tumour type.

“Children’s cancers make up only about one per cent of all diagnosed cancers, so the pharmaceutical industry tends not to invest in finding new treatments,” said Dr Sun.

“Having models (samples) of various childhood cancers is the only way that we can study the disease and understand how it develops, what makes it grow and ultimately what treatments can be used to fight it off and hopefully cure it.”

Dr Paul Daniel and Dr Claire Sun

Built through world-wide collaborations

The CCMA is the outcome of seven years of support and more than $7 million in funding from the Children’s Cancer Foundation.

It was developed through active collaborations with 35 cancer research institutes, including Stanford University (USA), the University of California (San Francisco, USA), The Hospital for Sick Children (Canada), Johns Hopkins University (USA), McGill University (Canada), the Institute of Cancer Research (UK), and Hopp Children’s Cancer Center Heidelberg (Germany).

The CCMA also benefited from the support of the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund and the Robert Connor Dawes Foundation.

The research team at Hudson explaining the benefits of the Childhood Cancer Model Atlas

An evidence-based app helps teens master their sleep

The Black Dog Institute has codesigned an app to improve sleep quality and promote healthy teen sleep habits.

By addressing good quality sleep, teens are set up with the foundations for emotional, social and physical wellbeing and optimal academic performance.

According to the Black Dog Institute, approximately 40% of all young people will experience a significant sleep problem by early high school, increasing their risk of mental ill-health.

Through a series of focus groups with young people, consultations with sleep experts, and engagement with graphic and app design specialists, the Black Dog Institute recently launched its free Sleep Ninja app – the first of its kind targeted specifically to adolescents.

Scientia associate professor and clinical psychologist Dr Aliza Werner-Seidler from the Black Dog Institute said accessing support through an app may appeal to teenagers, who might be concerned about the stigma around mental health and otherwise not seek help.

“A digital solution like an app is appealing for this age group. Teens can get help when it suits them and how it suits them, using their phones, and is convenient, discrete, and empowering because they are in control.”

Dr Aliza Werner-Seidler
Dr Aliza Werner-Seidler

Dr Werner-Seidler said half of all mental illnesses started before age 14, and the alarmingly high rate of teenagers experiencing sleep issues only exacerbated the problem.

“Despite psychological therapy being the first-line treatment, many young people are medicated instead, which does not address the core reasons underlying sleep difficulties, and is associated with side effects.”

Dr Aliza Werner-Seidler


Based on the principles of cognitive behaviour therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), the Sleep Ninja app offers techniques to teenagers such as psychoeducation, stimulus control, cognitive therapy, and assistance with planning. In addition, it incorporates gamification principles into the design, and as users make their way through the levels, they can gain a black belt in sleep over six weeks of training.

Reported in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, a randomised control trial study with 264 participants aged 12 to 16 found that 90% of users experienced some improvement in insomnia symptoms, and 60% reported improvements in sleep quality after using Sleep Ninja. Rates of depression also dropped from 77% of the sample at the start of the study to 44% after using the app.

The Sleep Ninja app is now available for download on Apple and Android devices.

Autism research flips gut microbiome link on its head

A study led by Mater Research is challenging a growing popular belief that the gut microbiome drives autism, instead suggesting that behaviour and dietary preferences of children with autism is what affects the microbiome – rather than the other way around.

The study’s findings, published in the scientific journal Cell, may have implications on the experimental use of microbiome-based interventions, such as faecal microbiota transplants and probiotics, that some believe may treat or minimise autistic behaviours.

The researchers from Mater Research and the University of Queensland found changes in the gut microbiome of people on the autism spectrum appear to be due to “fussy eating”, which is more common among autistic children due to sensory sensitivities or restricted and repetitive interests.

First-author of the study, Chloe Yap, from Mater Research and The University of Queensland, said the team examined genetic material from stool samples of 247 children, including 99 children diagnosed with autism, sourced from the Australian Autism Biobank and the Queensland Twin Adolescent Brain Project.

“While it’s a popular idea that the microbiome affects behaviour, our findings flip that causality on its head,” said Ms Yap.

“We found that children with an autism diagnosis tended to be pickier eaters, which led them to have a less-diverse microbiome. This in turn was linked to more-watery stools. So, our data suggests that behaviour and dietary preferences affect the microbiome, rather than the other way around.”

Chloe Yap and Dr Jake Gratten from Mater Research led the research.

Findings highlight importance of better supporting families of children with autism around mealtimes

Senior study investigator and the Head of Mater Research’s Cognitive Health Genomics Group, Dr Jake Gratten, said that out of more than 600 bacterial species identified in the gut-microbiomes of study participants, only one was associated with a diagnosis of ASD.

“There’s been a lot of hype around the gut microbiome in autism in recent years, driven by reports that autistic children have high rates of gut problems. But that hype has outstripped the evidence,” Dr Gratten said.

“We are already seeing early clinical trials involving faecal microbiota transplants from non-autistic donors to autistic people, despite not actually having evidence that the microbiome drives autism. Our results suggest that these studies are premature.”

Autism CRC Research Strategy Director, Professor Andrew Whitehouse from the Telethon Kids Institute and University of Western Australia said the findings provide impressive clarity to an area that has been shrouded in mystery and controversy.

“Families are desperately seeking new ways to support their child’s development and wellbeing. Sometimes that strong desire can lead them to diet or biological therapies that have no basis in scientific evidence,” Professor Whitehouse said.

“The findings of this study provide clear evidence that we need to help support families at mealtimes, rather than trying fad diets. This is a hugely important finding.”

Brisbane autistic woman Trudy Bartlett said the research findings provided an important step forward for the autism community.

“I have found that many autistics have gut issues, which I thought may be linked to the fact that many of us – including myself – have restrictive diets so we may not get all the nutrients we should. Wanting to know more about it is like walking through a minefield trying to filter fact from fiction,” she said.

“Having evidence-based research like this study will help members of the autism community to navigate this space and not spend copious amounts of money and time on fads that claim to improve the quality of life for an autistic person.”

The collaborative study was funded by the Autism CRC and involved more than 40 researchers from Mater Research, The University of Queensland, Telethon Kids Institute, University of New South Wales, Children’s Health Queensland, La Trobe University, Queensland University of Technology and Microba Life Sciences.

Ms Yap was recently awarded the 2022 CSL Florey Next Generation Award for her work in Autism at the 2022 AAMRI Annual Convention Dinner at Australian Parliament House.

Protecting children receiving chemotherapy from hearing loss

Researchers at Ear Science Institute Australia have developed a novel nano-gel therapy to protect children receiving chemotherapy from hearing loss – a common side effect of the cancer treatment.

The project which involves testing the nano-gel in a new study is led out of Ear Science Institute Australia and supported by funding from the Channel 7 Telethon Trust.

A much-needed preventative approach

Lead researcher, Associate Professor Hani Al-Salami, said about half of children who go through chemotherapy will have some degree of permanent hearing loss due to toxicity of the drugs.

“There is currently no proven prevention or cure for this hearing loss, so this new research will test the effectiveness of a nano-gel that is injected into the ear before chemotherapy to prevent the possible side effect of cancer treatment among children,” Associate Professor Al-Salami explained.

“The nano-gel has been developed in partnership with Curtin University by a group of clinicians, pharmaceutical scientists, ENT (ear, nose and throat) surgeons, cochlea physiologists and synthetic chemists using cutting-edge technologies.

“Human bile extract is put through specialised systems to produce a gel, which is capable of being injected into the human ear. It can potentially protect children from the side effects of chemotherapy, which targets and destroys cancer tissues and can also kill other healthy tissues resulting in problems including hearing loss.”

Associate Professor Hani Al-Salami in the lab
Associate Professor Hani Al-Salami in the lab

Looking forward

Ear Science Institute Australia CEO, Sandra Bellekom, said it was a very exciting time for ear and hearing medical research in Western Australia.

“The Telethon grant will allow Ear Science to further develop an established and proven nano-gel, improving efficacy and making it safer for use in our children,” Ms Bellekom said.

The Channel 7 Telethon Trust’s support of Ear Science Institute Australia also includes funding for the procurement of a newly developed scanning electron microscope for use in the research, which is capable of micro and nano scale visualisation of critical features of the nano-gel.

Predicting relapse in children with cancer

Research at Children’s Cancer Institute has already led to a highly accurate test to predict relapse in children with leukaemia. Now, an equivalent test for children with solid tumours is on the horizon.

Testing for ‘minimal residual disease’

When an Australian child is diagnosed with the blood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), their doctor is almost certain to make use of a DNA-based technique called minimal residual disease (MRD) testing. The test works by detecting and measuring the level of leukaemia cells that remain in the child’s body after treatment begins, and is a powerful predictor of relapse. But for children diagnosed with solid tumours, no such test is available − yet.

‘The key to identifying children at high risk of relapse is to be able to detect even the tiniest quantities of minimal residual disease, as early on in their treatment as possible,’ explained Professor Murray Norris AM, who led the team that developed molecular technology so sensitive it is capable of detecting one leukaemic cell in a million normal cells.

‘This gives the child’s doctor an opportunity to alter treatment well before relapse occurs.’

Professor Norris

When tested in clinical trials, the Institute’s MRD technology led to an effective doubling in survival rates in children with high-risk ALL, and it now underpins tailored treatment strategies for children diagnosed with ALL throughout Australia.

Developing an MRD test for solid tumours

Recent research, published in the British Journal of Cancer, suggests we are getting close to having the equivalent of an MRD test available for children with solid tumours.

Led by Dr Toby Trahair, Clinical Research Fellow at Children’s Cancer Institute and paediatric oncologist at the Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital, the research shows that whole genome sequencing (WGS) technology can be used to identify tumour-specific markers, which can be used to detect cancer cells that have survived treatment and will lead to relapse if allowed to do so.

‘To find out if we could use WGS technology as the basis of MRD testing for solid tumours, we looked at data from the Zero Childhood Cancer Program (ZERO), Australia’s first personalised medicine program for children with cancer,’ explained Dr Trahair.

‘ZERO involves extensive molecular analysis of children’s tumours, including WGS, and has given us access to the kind of data we’ve never had before.’

Dr Trahair

‘Our results strongly suggest that using WGS to identify tumour-specific gene sequences is going to lead to a very accurate and reliable way of detecting and measuring MRD in children with solid cancers. And while our research focused on high-risk neuroblastoma and Ewing sarcoma, we believe the findings are likely to be applicable to multiple types of cancer.’

Fathers’ food choices during pregnancy influence future health of babies

What fathers eat during their partner’s pregnancy has a lasting effect on the future health of their unborn children, new research has revealed.

The Queensland Family Cohort (QFC) study, led by Mater Research and The University of Queensland, has shown an urgent need for targeted public health messaging to improve the diets of soon-to-be mothers and fathers.

The researchers examined dietary data from almost 200 couples who were receiving antenatal care at Australia’s largest maternity hospital, the Mater Mothers’ Hospital in Brisbane between 2018 and 2021.

Mother’s diet strongly influenced by Father

QFC Principal Investigator, Professor Vicki Clifton said the study found pregnant women’s dietary intake was strongly influenced by their partner, particularly in the consumption of fruit, vegetables and meat or meat alternatives.

“We know behaviours during the first 1,000 days of life, starting from conception, influence developmental trajectories of adult chronic diseases.”

Professor Clifton

“Healthy eating during pregnancy provides the unborn child with an important foundation for future good health, but many pregnant women aren’t meeting the recommended Australian Dietary Guidelines.

Previously very little research in Father’s diet

“The research suggests better education and support for partners could help improve the eating habits of expectant mums, which in turn will make the foetus healthier and lower their future risk of disease.”

Lead author on the study, Associate Professor Shelley Wilkinson from The University of Queensland School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, said there had been very little research in the past on the role fathers played in a woman’s nutritional journey during pregnancy.

“While it’s known that education, income, and Body Mass Index influence how women eat in pregnancy, this study addresses the gap in knowledge in how a partner’s eating habits influence mums-to-be,” said Dr Wilkinson who was previously the senior maternity research dietitian at Mother Mothers’ Hospital and a recipient of the Mater Research Strategic Grant for Outstanding Women.

“The study also showed women with a higher pre-pregnancy Body Mass Index were far more likely to gain above recommended weight gain ranges, suggesting the urgent need for evidence-informed public health policy and programs to improve diet quality during pregnancy and help prevent intergenerational effects.”

The QFC study findings have been published in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrition & Dietetics.

A very low proportion of participants met the five, core food group intake recommendations.

Only 41.4 per cent of women met daily fruit and 28.4 per cent vegetable intake recommendations, while around 31 per cent and 15 per cent of their partners met these, respectively.

Fewer than one per cent of women and 20 per cent of partners met the recommended intake of serves for breads, cereals and grains and extremely low numbers met pregnancy nutrient reference values (NRVs) for folate, iodine, calcium, zinc, and fibre from food alone.

Brisbane mother of four, Vicki Holohan, said her husband Thomas Holohan did influence what she ate during her pregnancy.

“Thomas usually enjoys cooking and often does make a family meal but whilst I was pregnant, I was feeling extra tired and so during that period he was making most of our family’s meal choices,” she said.

“I was always trying to be careful about what I ate, but I definitely relied on Thomas to drive our meal choices during my pregnancy.”

Father’s role starts early

Thomas Holohan said he may have done things a little different if he had known his food choices would flow through to their babies.

Thoman Holohan and his daughter.

“As Dads we get used to thinking our work will begin when the baby is born, but this study shows a father’s role starts much earlier!” Mr Holohan said.

“If I’d known about the influence I would have, I probably would have taken a lot more care with my diet choices – maybe cooking more at home and eating less takeout.”

Data was collected at 22, 24, 28 and 36-weeks’ gestation, and six weeks after the birth of the child.

The collaborative study also involved several researchers from other Australian and overseas-based universities including the University of Newcastle, University of Wollongong, and University of Southampton, United Kingdom.

The Queensland Family Cohort study is the newest birth research cohort in the state in the last 40 years that aims to follow 10,000 Queensland families over three decades to understand the influences on health.

The researchers hope the study will lead to the discovery of biomarkers and interventions that can improve the future health of Queenslanders.

Pregnant women and families interested in joining the Queensland Family Cohort Study can find out more information or join here: www.qldfamilycohort.org

Stem cell-derived organs help better understand and treat disease

MCRI researchers are using cutting-edge stem cell techniques to help treat young patients with kidney disease, and offering hope that one day stem cell-derived kidneys could be used as transplants.

Looking for better options for young patients

Not that many years ago, Charlotte Matthews would have died soon after she was born. Charlotte has congenital nephrotic syndrome, a condition which caused her kidneys to leak a vital protein, making them ineffective

Drugs and surgery kept her alive while she waited for a transplant, but these treatments come with devastating side effects. It’s a painful life for children like Charlotte until they receive life-saving transplants, but it is the best available.

Murdoch Children’s Research Institute’s (MCRI) stem cell medicine and kidney researchers are looking for a better way.

Charlotte’s syndrome was caused by a specific genetic mutation, so MCRI Stem Cell researchers have modelled her disorder in the lab and looked for ways to grow the specific part of the kidney her own body was unable to, called the glomerulus, the kidney’s waste filtering unit.

By studying children like Charlotte, MCRI can develop drugs that will transform the lives of other children like her – and the millions of adults who have less severe disease worldwide.

MCRI researchers want to move kidney disease management towards personalised, stem cell-driven medicine for people across the globe. And they’re inching closer toward that goal each day. 

Charlotte Matthews, 4, is having dialysis to treat her kidney disease. She had one kidney removed when she was a baby and now relies on dialysis to survive, as she waits for a transplant, but is doing great. MCRI researchers have taken cells from her to create a 3D model of the disease to test new treatments. Charlotte Matthews with mother Jessica Taylor. Picture: Jason Edwards

Patient specific mini kidneys

MCRI’s stem cell experts broke new ground in 2018, spearheading research in which stem cells derived from a young patient were grown into two sets of living mini kidneys; one with her kidney disease and another which corrected the gene mutation.

Alex suffers from Mainzer-Saldino Syndrome, a rare genetic condition causing vision loss and kidney failure. Following her diagnosis, MCRI researchers took a skin biopsy from Alex to create stem cells and turn them into kidney tissue. The findings proved the lab-grown tissue can be used to study inherited kidney disease.

The idea is that, one day, the gene corrected kidney-tissue could be transplanted back into the patient from whom it was derived.

The discovery showed the unparalleled value of modelling a patient’s own tissue from stem cells, compared against traditional mouse models of disease.

Using gene editing to correct mutations

Led by MCRI Cell Biology Theme Director, Professor Melissa Little, the group demonstrated that gene editing could correct the mutation and stop the disease developing in the mini kidney.

“Following this result, we wanted to understand how we can use models made from a patient’s stem cells to better understand their disease and find the most appropriate drugs for treatment.”

Professor Little

Disease models created from a patient’s own cells are already helping researchers better understand conditions and develop more precise treatments. But creating enough identical organ models to meet the needs of research teams is a slow and laborious task.

Getting the results faster with the Disease Modelling and Drug Discovery Facility

The MCRI Disease Modelling and Drug Discovery Facility, led by Dr Alejandro Hidalgo, aims to speed up the production line, allowing for increased scale and precision to test new medications and deliver tailor-made treatments.

The Hon Greg Hunt MP visits MCRI to tour the Stem Cell Based Disease Modelling Facility

“With researcher clinicians working across MCRI and The Royal Children’s Hospital we have the invaluable opportunity to work with patients in the clinic and then apply that real world learning within our stem cell labs.”

Dr Hidalgo

Due to funding support received from the Stafford Fox Medical Research Foundation the team have built and equipped those facilities to an industry-leading world standard.

The facility has centralised and enhanced MCRI’s ability to use stem cells models across the eight focus disease areas of kidney, heart, blood, immune system, brain, muscle, reproductive development, and bone and cartilage disorders.

“We have experts working across many of the body’s organs and tissues, making us the largest group of researchers in Australia generating stem cells from a patient’s blood or skin cells.”

Professor Little

3D bioprinting tiny kidneys

In 2020, MCRI researchers reached another milestone when they used a 3D bioprinter to create hundreds of identical tiny human kidneys in the laboratory. This cutting-edge research raised hopes that human tissue printing will one day allow those with end-stage kidney failure to receive a bioprinted kidney instead of waiting for a donor kidney transplant.

MCRI Stem Cell researchers printed the kidneys using a stem cell paste that is fed into a 3D printer. The paste is like a “bioink” to create artificial living tissue in a dish. The mini-kidneys range from as small as a grain of rice to the size of a fingernail, and fully resemble a regular-sized kidney, with hundreds of tiny tubes and blood vessels that form the organ’s filtering structures called nephrons.

The findings of the research were published in Nature Materials. A key part of the study was to test the cells’ response to aminoglycosides, a class of antibiotics that commonly damage the kidneys, as a proof of concept for testing drug toxicities in these assays.

Professor Little said, “Generating stem cells from a patient with a genetic kidney disease, and then growing mini kidneys from them, paves the way for tailoring treatment plans specific to each patient, which could be extended to a range of kidney diseases.”

There is a massive increase in the number of people suffering from kidney disease, but only one in four patients will receive a transplant. That means three in four live on dialysis, an extremely difficult way to live.

“The mortality rate is very high and the quality of life is extremely low,” Professor Little said. “Also, dialysis is still risky as it’s effectively giving you only about 10 per cent of normal renal function. Our hope is that we will find something that is substantially better than dialysis and potentially able to be delivered to the three out of four who can’t find a matched transplant.”

How COVID-19 changed the landscape

SARS-CoV-2 brought a new set of challenges in February 2020. With growing evidence that COVID damages organs beyond lungs, MCRI’s stem cell researchers turned their focus to coronavirus.

The MCRI-led study on the effects of COVID on different organs received a Victorian Government funding boost in 2021 to further its research focus to include emerging strains, long-term symptoms and potential links between the virus and unborn children.

The additional research will build on the MCRI-led project that uses human stem cells to better understand the effects of the virus on different organ systems including the lungs, heart, kidneys, brain, immune system and blood vessels, to support the development of targeted treatments.

The scientists from MCRI, The Doherty InstituteWalter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and Monash University will now include placental tissue to gain greater insight into the effects of coronavirus on the placenta and potential transfer of the virus to the fetus.

The funding will also see the team investigate cellular mechanisms leading to lingering ‘long COVID’ issues such as fatigue and ongoing breathing problems and analyse international variants to understand the impacts of more infectious strains.

An Australian first

This is the first time research of this kind has been done in Australia, with MCRI one of only a few facilities worldwide able to study the effect of the virus on every major human organ.

Using cutting edge stem cell processing equipment, which recreates human tissues infected with COVID-19, the project has already identified issues with the heart muscle as a result of the virus disrupting oxygen supply.

The Stafford Fox Medical Research Foundation Stem Cell Based Disease Modelling Facility at MCRI also provides capacity to perform rapid drug screening to allow rapid evaluation of emerging COVID-19 treatments.

Professor Little said, “this collaborative program will increase our understanding of disease pathology, identify underlying risk factors, change clinical care to protect the patient from severe complications, facilitate the development of targeted treatment options and better prepare us for the next pandemic.”

Giant step taken towards preventing pre-term birth

South Australian babies can look forward to an even better start to life, with a simple and effective intervention against preterm birth to soon be available to pregnant women across the state.

From early next year, free omega-3 screening for women expecting one baby will be included as part of regular antenatal testing performed by SA Pathology.

Making the announcement ahead of World Prematurity Day, SAHMRI Women and Kids theme leader, Professor Maria Makrides, says this initiative comes after years of research by her team, based at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. Their work has identified omega-3 as a safe, readily accessible, inexpensive and effective way to prevent preterm birth.

“This year’s World Prematurity Day is dedicated to ‘Providing the right care, at the right time, in the right place’ – we’re proud to say that’s what this initiative will deliver.”

Professor Makrides

“On this day two years ago, we were able to announce to the world the results of our Cochrane Review indicating the potential for omega-3 to help pregnancies get to full term. About 12 months later, the results of our ORIP trial showed that women expecting a single baby who had low levels of omega 3 stand to benefit the most from supplementation.

“Now, thanks to our partnership with SA Pathology, we will see this knowledge directly benefiting South Australian babies and their families.”

Testing for omega-3 levels won’t require mothers-to-be to have any additional blood taken, but rather will be part of SA Pathology’s existing screening for neural tube defects, Down’s syndrome and other pregnancy pathologies.

If the concentration of omega-3 in a woman’s blood is below 3.7% they’ll be given details of how a simple course of supplementation can significantly reduce their chances of an early birth.

“Our Cochrane review of almost 20,000 pregnancies worldwide indicated that taking omega-3 supplements reduced the risk of preterm birth by 11%.”

Professor Makrides

“When it came to early preterm birth, that is babies who arrive before 34 weeks pregnancy, supplementation reduced the rate by a considerable 42%.”

Babies who are born too soon, particularly those born before 34 weeks, can suffer numerous complications requiring long stays in hospital and might experience long-term health and developmental problems. 

Header Image: Mother Jo Slade had her son Ari prematurely, this research will hopefully benefit future pregnancies.