This application strongly supports the Mississippi state's only academic Level IV newborn facility, the Children's of Mississippi Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC)'s candidacy as a clinical center by the NICHD Neonatal Research Network (NRN). We work to improve the life of Mississippi children by providing exceptional patient care, training the next generation of healthcare providers, and engaging in innovative research to achieve the vision of UMMC to improve Mississippian's health outcomes and eliminate health care disparities. Researchers in the newborn division are contributing by performing innovative, definitive, rigorous, and reproducible translation, single and multi-site clinical, and community interventions research focused on improving newborn health to reduce the gap between “bench to bedside to countryside” research. The newborn center at the UMMC is exceptionally well positioned to be selected for the following reasons. 1) We serve a very high-risk and underserved population, the majority with low socioeconomic status and public insurance from urban and rural areas with high representation of racial/ethnic minorities facing health disparities. 2) Mississippi has some of the highest rates of maternal hypertension, preeclampsia, obesity, metabolic disorders, preterm birth, low birth weight, and congenitally linked behavioral disorders, such as autism in the USA. 3) The Center for Maternal and Fetal Care at UMMC, the only quaternary center for advanced fetal care in the state, manages around 3,000 deliveries each year, of which 75% are considered high risk. 4) About 1000 NICU admissions per year, of which almost 160 are born less than 29 weeks of gestation, and about 70% are inborn. 5) The Division of Newborn Medicine has a well-organized clinical research infrastructure with a successful track record of participation in multi-center NIH, industry-sponsored, and investigator-initiated clinical trials