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The Small Steps Appeal

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Our goal is to make all the small steps add up to a giant leap in averting tragedy in pregnancy and childbirth.

Every small step in medical research takes us a tiny bit closer to saving newborn lives at risk.

The Small Steps Appeal has a £2 million target to fund amazing, new groundbreaking work to help the most vulnerable of babies and children born and raised in the UK.

At PiggyBankKids we support the next scientific breakthroughs and powerful interventions for mentoring and guiding young people, and we also back up the staff at small charities who are helping people every day.

Our flagship project is the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory.  The brilliant research team based in this world class centre are addressing some of the most devastating pregnancy problems and serious health issues arising from premature delivery. Its work will continue to unlock some of the great mysteries that face doctors and midwives in their daily work bringing longed for healthy babies into the world. The scientific team are focused on their work to help ensure happier outcomes for many families so they take home their healthy newborn baby.

The aim of the Laboratory, funded by PiggyBankKids, is to make real progress towards resolving life threatening complications; what causes early labour, how we can develop treatments to prevent it, and how can we better protect treasured tiny newborns from eye and brain injury.

There is no greater heartbreak than to lose a child, and nothing can prepare a family for the loss of a much longed for new baby. Even with the best of healthcare available across the country it remains the case that 1 in 100 pregnancies end in devastating loss – from stillbirth or neonatal death in the crucial days and weeks after birth. Premature babies are increasingly common for a number of reasons, but neonatal specialists can improve the actions they take to make sure early babies grow and thrive if greater knowledge and expertise emerges from new research.  That is what our laboratory is there to do.

We are uniquely focused on both pregnancy and neonatal research and we believe that these close links between our scientists leads to benefits for both specialist areas.

PiggyBankKids also supports small innovative community based schemes led by nurses and midwives such as the Granny School, programmes for new dads and help for very vulnerable new mums.
 
If you are interested in supporting the appeal or would like further information please contact Konrad Caulkett, Appeals Director.

 

The Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory

The JBRL is based at the prestigious Queen's Medical Research Institute which is part of the University of Edinburgh and based in a magnificent new building close to the clinical expertise of the renowned Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

The Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory has recruited a team of 37 highly talented and motivated researchers, trainee obstetricians and paediatricians, scientists, midwives and technicians.  Supported and supervised by an array of senior colleagues, they are working on pioneering research projects which are making significant progress towards resolving some of the life threatening complications that can arise during pregnancy and birth

Launched by PiggyBankKids in 2004, the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory has established an enviable reputation, with ever increasing applications from young clinicians and scientists who recognise the exceptional opportunities working in such a vibrant laboratory offers.

Much of our pregnancy research involves trying to understand what causes preterm labour, the single biggest cause of death and disability amongst new babies, so that treatments can be developed to prevent this.

Our researchers are also looking at organ damage in premature babies, concentrating on the effects of inflammation and infection on preterm labour.  Top neonatal experts, Dr Ian Laing and Dr Julie Clare Becher are leading a team studying the effects of inflammatory proteins on the developing brain and retina.

 “We are so grateful for the support of our ground-breaking work to save newborn babies.  Our vital research must continue in order to make breakthroughs to prevent new tragedies, here and all over the world.”

Professor Andrew Calder, Director, Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory, and Assistant Principal, University of Edinburgh

To find out more about our research projects at the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory click here.

 

 

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