Neonatalogie

Our research group in Regensburg on newborn infant medicine covers the first 
1000 days of life. This is the time from conception until a child’s second birthday 
and is the basis for the entire lifespan. In fact, nutrition and nurture during the first 
1000 days determine largely how the genetic makeup can be facilitated to health, 
resilience and success in whole life. In our research group on fetal and neonatal stress 
response we focus on the developing brain and the circulatory system and strive to 
improve neurodevelopment especially when damage to the brain complicated the start 
to life. The complex interaction between perception and cognition in early life presents 
an important starting point for various interventions involving care givers and in 
particular parents to improve long term outcome. 

Kürner K and Wellmann S et al. Cold stress protein RBM3 responds to hypothermia and is associated with good stroke outcome. Neonatology 2022 (PMID: 36108619).

Benkert P and Wellmann S et al. Cold stress protein RBM3 responds to hypothermia and is associated with good stroke outcome. Lancet Neurol 2022 (PMID: 35182510).

Goeral K and Wellmann S et al. Cold stress protein RBM3 responds to hypothermia and is associated with good stroke outcome. J Neurol, 2021 (PMID: 33566157).
 

Multimodal monitoring of circulatory system activity in the neonatal period. We apply new monitoring devices and biomarkers to observe changes in preterm infants e.g. evolution of patent ductus arteriosus and to test novel mathematical algorithms for early prediction e.g. of infections. Dr. H. Michel is leading this research project.

Ryser A, Michel H and Wellmann S et al., Deep Conditional Gaussian Mixture Model for Constrained Clustering. Neural Information Processing Systems, (NeurIPS).

Ragnarsdottir H, Michel H and Wellmann S et al. Interpretable Prediction of Pulmonary Hypertension in Newborns using Echocardiograms. arXiv:2203.13038, 2022.
 

Stem cell research program on neuroprotection: 

Investigating the beneficial action of therapeutic hypothermia (TH) for hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) in neonates to identify molecular mechanisms which can be used clinically in HIE and other diseases of severe brain damage in children and adults, e.g. in stroke. The RNA-binding motif protein 3 (RBM3) is an important mediator of neuroprotection afforded by TH and is inactivated in patients suffering from neurodegeneration. Thus, RBM3 is a promising candidate for disease monitoring and drug development.  

Lehnerer V and Wellmann S et al. Mesenchymal stem cell therapy in perinatal arterial ischemic stroke: systematic review of preclinical studies. Pediatr Res. 2022. PMID: 35906311

Ávila-Gómez P and Wellmann S et al., Cold stress protein RBM3 responds to hypothermia and is associated with good stroke outcome. Brain Commun, 2021 (PMID: 33585816).

Zhu X and Wellmann S et al., Cold stress protein RBM3 responds to hypothermia and is associated with good stroke outcome. Nat Commun, 2019 (PMID: 31484925).
 

Lacarus-Trial

The Lacarus trial is a randomized placebo-controlled multicenter and investigator initiated trial aiming to improve neonatal and maternal outcome by inducing mild labor before elective cesarean section.

Study registration: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT03693885. (www.lacarus-trial.ch)

Fill Malfertheiner S, Michel H and Wellmann S et al., Vasopressin but Not Oxytocin Responds to Birth Stress in Infants. Front Neurosci, 2021 (PMID: 34512251).

Wellmann S and Malfertheiner SF et al., Improving Neonatal and Maternal Outcome by Inducing Mild Labor before Elective Cesarean Section: The Lacarus Randomized Controlled Trial. Neonatology, 2021 (PMID: 33472211).
 

EpoRepair

The EpoRepair trial is a randomized placebo-controlled multicenter and investigator initiated trial aiming to improve neurodevelopmental outcome of extremely preterm infants suffering from severe brain damage by administering high-dose erythropoietin in the first four weeks of life.

Study registration: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02076373. (www.eporepair.ch)

Wellmann S et al. Safety and Short-term Outcomes of High-Dose Erythropoietin in Preterm Infants With Intraventricular Hemorrhage; The EpoRepair Randomized Clinical Trial., JAMA in press.

Rüegger C and Wellmann S et al., Safety and Short-term Outcomes of High-Dose Erythropoietin in Preterm Infants With Intraventricular Hemorrhage; The EpoRepair Randomized Clinical Trial. Neonatology, 2015 (PMID: 26278911).
 

Medical publications are available here https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=wellmann+s

Please feel free to contact our secretary in case you have any questions: neonatologie@barmherzige-regensburg.de