# Research_Project

> **NIH NIH U54** · CHILDREN'S RESEARCH INSTITUTE · 2020 · $55,974

## Abstract

Premature birth is a major public health problem, associated with a personal, familial, and societal burden of
enormous proportions. The potentially lifelong cognitive, learning and affective-behavioral consequences have
become the major determinant of life quality in prematurity survivors, with up to 50% of very premature infants
experiencing dysfunction in these domains by school age. Impaired cerebellar development has been recently
implicated in this dysfunction. We have described a clinically important, previously under-recognized form of
prematurity-related cerebellar parenchymal injury in up to 20% in extremely preterm infants. Recently, our
observations have extended beyond the role of parenchymal cerebellar injury to a broader and more prevalent
spectrum of cerebellar developmental impairments. We have shown that cerebellar development is (i)
markedly accelerated during the third trimester, but (ii) significantly impeded after premature birth, even in the
absence of direct cerebellar injury. We refer to this impaired growth as cerebellar developmental impairment
(CDI). Complementing this intriguing set of structural observations are our findings of a distinctive long-term
neuropsychological profile of cognitive, language, affective and social deficiency, which we have termed the
developmental cerebellar cognitive affective disorder. The onset and underlying mechanisms and
consequences of prematurity-related CDI remain poorly understood, which in turn have complicated the search
for potential therapeutic interventions. We propose to utilize serial, advanced MRI techniques to elucidate the
timing, evolution, mechanisms and risk factors of CDI in preterm infants born ≤30 weeks gestational age. Our
overarching goal is to identify early MR imaging biomarkers of prematurity-related CDI and the associated
clinical factors that lead to specific development disabilities. We plan to leverage our large fetal normative
database to compare in-utero fetal and ex-utero preterm cerebellar growth trajectories. These findings will
inform specific targets, interventions and timing of future neuroprotective strategies, advance clinical practices,
and improve neurodevelopmental outcomes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9998690
- **Project number:** 5U54HD090257-05
- **Recipient organization:** CHILDREN'S RESEARCH INSTITUTE
- **Principal Investigator:** Catherine Limperopoulos
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $55,974
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9998690

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9998690, Research_Project (5U54HD090257-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9998690. Licensed CC0.

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