University of Coimbra researcher receives EUR 300k funding to study neonatal cerebrovascular development

English version: Diana Taborda

Vanessa Coelho-Santos, researcher at the Centre for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research (CIBIT) of the Institute of Nuclear Sciences Applied to Health (ICNAS) of the University of Coimbra (UC), was awarded a Junior Leader grant by “la Caixa” Foundation. The €300,000 funding made it possible for the researcher to return to Portugal to study cerebrovascular development in newborns.

Using cutting-edge functional brain imaging techniques and high-resolution microscopy, the research aims to deepen the knowledge about the development of the neurovascular unit during the neonatal period, which may contribute to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cerebrovascular disorders in newborns.

The research project “Deciphering the neonatal shift in neurovascular coupling: a multimodal approach” focuses on the study of the communication between blood vessels and neurons, which provide energy and oxygen to the brain, crucial for a good cerebral functioning. Vanessa Coelho-Santos explains that this pre-clinical research will be carried out in newborn mice, through the "analysis of the cerebrovascular response to neuronal stimulation, using several neuroimaging methods and a complementary molecular analysis".

The UC researcher adds that functional brain imaging is “a valuable non-invasive tool widely used in health brain studies, which measures blood flow and oxygenation status to provide information on brain function, thus playing an important role in detecting issues and lesions in the newborn brain and in predicting long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes associated with these lesions”.

"Interestingly, there is a divergence in cerebrovascular response in newborns when compared to adults, which often hinders the diagnosis and pathology characterisation," explains Vanessa Coelho-Santos. So far, "there is a gap in knowledge to explain this discrepancy that needs to be addressed for a better understanding of functional brain imaging data". Understanding the causes of this discrepancy may eventually allow "intervention in pathology in which neurovascular coupling is disrupted, not only during the development process, but also in other pathology such as Alzheimer's disease or a cerebral vascular accident", she adds.

With this research, which will be carried out until the end of 2025, the team coordinated by Vanessa Coelho-Santos intends to "advance knowledge that may pave the way for biomarker studies, towards an efficient identification of lesions or other conditions that may hinder normal brain development, which may have an impact on an early diagnosis and treatment of neonatal brain pathology, such as cerebral palsy or neurodevelopmental disorders, namely autism", highlights the researcher.

Using state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques, combined with a molecular approach, this laboratory study will involve a multidisciplinary team. The competitive funding received by Vanessa Coelho-Santos will also allow the integration of new members in the research team.