Congratulations to Dr. Xiaomei Cong, PhD, RN, who has been awarded a four year, $2.4 million grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research based on her R01 proposal titled Multi-Omics Analysis of Pain/Stress Impact on Neurodevelopment in Preterm Infants. Dr. Cong is an Associate Professor of Nursing and Director of the Center for Advancement in Managing Pain (CAMP). The study will be implemented with UConn Co-Investigators Erin E. Young, Jacqueline McGrath, Angela Starkweather, Joerg Graf, Jill Wegryzn and Ming-Hui Chen. The project includes sub-awards with the University of Connecticut Health Center, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, and Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island. The goals of the project are to examine: 1) linkages between cumulative pain/stress experiences in the NICU and infant gut microbiome and neurodevelopment; 2) interactions among gut microbiome, host genetic variation and early life pain/stressors that contribute to neurodevelopmental outcomes, controlling for other infant factors; and 3) the impact of different levels of pain/stress experiences on the gut microbiome and neurodevelopment and other growth parameters using twin-pairs.

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