Meet the DC Mother-Baby Wellness team 
Given how common anxiety and depression are during pregnancy, it’s critical to screen universally for perinatal mental health concerns and to provide targeted treatments to improve the health and well-being of D.C. mothers and babies. To help achieve that goal, DC Mother-Baby Wellness is preparing to provide these services to DC moms. Meet our growing team:
A recent presentation, “Fetal precision MR imaging to capture most subtle but pervasive indicators of abnormal brain development,” by Catherine Limperopoulos, Ph.D., Chief & Director of the Developing Brain Institute, was well received. Check out attendees’ reaction on Twitter to Dr. Limperopoulos’ and Dr. Matthew Whitehead’s International Pediatric Neuroradiology Teaching Network lectures.
Ottolini KM, Andescavage N, Kapse K, Jacobs M, Murnick J, VanderVeer R, Basu S, Said M, Limperopoulos C. Early lipid intake improves cerebellar growth in very low-birth-weight preterm infants. JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr. 2021 Mar;45(3):587-595. doi: 10.1002/jpen.1868. Epub 2020 Jun 4. PMID: 32384168.
Project RESCUE babies are turning 1 this summer
Because the health and well-being of pregnant women and their infants are our No. 1 priority, our Project RESCUE team is working with community partners to weave a comprehensive safety net that strengthens maternal mental health, boosts parental resiliency and enriches infants’ early environment.
Save the date: Catherine Limperopoulos, Ph.D., is scheduled to participate in “FIT’NG all ages: Advantages and challenges of longitudinal fetal, infant and toddler neuroimaging” a panel held Sept. 17, 2021 in conjunction with Flux: The Society for Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience’s 2021 Virtual Congress. #Flux2021

ICYMI: Our researchers presented during the ISPD 25th International Conference on Prenatal Diagnosis and Therapy. Alexander Daigle presented “Altered fetal brain biochemistry in growth-restricted pregnancies.” And Yuan-Chiao Lu, Ph.D., presented “Maternal depression during the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on human fetal brain development” and “Altered in vivo human placental morphology and texture during COVID-19 pandemic era.”
The Developing Brain Institute at Children's National, directed by Catherine Limperopoulos, Ph.D., focuses on the developing brain, in utero, after birth and through preschool. We are developing advanced MRI techniques to examine the structure, connectivity and metabolism of the brain in ways that cannot be done with conventional MRI studies. Our long-term goal is to be able to identify babies with impaired brain growth as soon as possible, so that proper interventions and clinical planning can take place earlier.
DEVELOPING BRAIN INSTITUTE at Children's National | https://developingbrainresearchlaboratory.org/