Klinische Fellows 2021 – Rob Taal – Severe inflammatory response syndrome in preterm neonates – navigating the cytokine storm

Project summary

Neonatal infections are an important cause of death in premature babies and survivors may suffer from long-term consequences in later life. Therefore, it is important that health care professionals can recognize infections early and have methods to determine whether initiated therapy is working. I have the unique opportunity in this project, to identify new markers for recognizing infections and for evaluation of the disease course. I will investigate vital signs, such as heart rate, and extensive protein profiles that can change due to an infection. Data and biomaterial needed for this project are largely available and will be automatically extended in ongoing data collection.

With identified novel markers, new methods to recognize infections and to evaluate the effect of initiated therapy can be developed in the future. This will lead to a reduced risk of mortality and an increased effectiveness of management of patients with infections.