Institute for Research in Child
Development
IRCD
Research Fellow in Infant Health and Development
Two year post
Information for applicants
The Institute for Research in Child Development has been created in order to
further develop our high quality research in Child Development and to further
develop multidisciplinary links across our university. As part of this initiative we
are seeking a new colleague with expertise in Infant Health and Development. This
is an exciting opportunity for a specialist to join an interdisciplinary team to help
publish existing data and develop projects exploring the impact and alleviation of
social deprivation, stress, drugs, nutrition, prematurity, on infant health and
developmental outcomes. We particularly welcome applicants with expertise in
prenatal and infant development and who have studied the long term neurobehavioural outcomes of infants at risk.
Applicants should have a first degree and a PhD in Psychology or related area.
High quality research, analytical and communication skills are essential, together
with the ability to gain further research funding.
The University of East London is a dynamic, diverse and rapidly expanding
university at the heart of Europe’s largest regeneration area and adjacent to the
site of the Olympic and Paralympic games in 2012. In the 2008 RAE exercise UEL
is in the top 10 new universities in the UK for research.
www.uel.ac.uk/IRCD
informal enquires email: d.g.moore@uel.ac.uk
Background
The Fellow will be based in the Institute for Research in Child Development (IRCD)
and will work to build and consolidate our thematic program in Child health,
wellbeing and risk and develop further inter-disciplinary links between the IRCD
and the Institute for Research in Health and Human Development (IHHD). The
Fellow will work closely with Prof Moore, Dr Kushnerenko, Dr Edmonds and Dr
Tomalski in IRCD, linking with Professors Harden and Renton from IHHD. The RF
will be joining a vibrant and well connected interdisciplinary research group with
opportunities for continued development. IRCD have regular seminars and our
work is of high quality and highly cited. We have a record of gaining significant
external health-related funding for our research (from NiH and Wellcome trust).
This appointment will aid in the development of further interdisciplinary links
between these ‘flagship’ UEL institutes. See:
www.uel.ac.uk/IRCD
www.uel.ac.uk/ihhd
IRCD members have published highly-cited, high impact studies of the neurobehavioural outcomes of infants and children who were: born prematurely; born
with low birth weight, exposed to drugs in utero; born with Down syndrome; or
exposed to aluminium in their feed [1-14]. IRCD members have considerable
expertise in longitudinal studies of neurobehavioral outcomes in children and
developing new methods for studying infants [15-24]. These studies have shown
differential cognitive, behavioural and neurological outcomes in infants and have
significant theoretical and policy implications. This work has informed recent
projects developing early screening batteries for infants from populations of
mothers living in areas of significant deprivation in London [see 25-26].
IRCD members have active collaborations with colleagues in institutions with
international reputations in child development and child health, including the
Institute for Child Health, Case Western Reserve University, Developmental
Psychopathology Research Unit, Tavistock Centre, The Centre for Brain and
Cognitive Development, Birkbeck University. IRCD has a purpose built Babylab and
128 channel EEG lab
The appointee will expand and strengthen this area of work within UEL and aid in
the development of collaborations with the Homerton and Newham University
Hospital trusts most notably in partnership with Harden (IHHD) who in her joint
UEL-Newham post is developing research around improving health and reducing
health inequalities in women and children in East London [see 33-34]. In sum, the
purpose of the fellowship will be to a) build interdisciplinary links in child health
and development b) maximise the use of the existing datasets collected by IRCD
and collaborators to produce high quality outputs c) develop new projects and
secure external funding to build on the findings of these studies.
Description of program of work
As outlined above, the focus will be in maximising the outputs from existing data
and in the development of funding applications for inter-disciplinary work in the
area of environmental risk and infant health and development outcomes; building
links between IRCD, IHHD and external collaborators. Specific projects from which
the RF may develop spin-off work and contribute to outputs are the following:
The impact of drugs on infant neurobehavioral outcomes (The DAISY Study)
The Daisy study was funded by NIH and the data collection was completed in
2008. We have important longitudinal data on the development of a unique cohort
of infants exposed to a mixture of recreational drugs in utero, including the first
ever outcome data on the in utero effects of Ecstasy (MDMA) The RF will aid in the
continued analysis and write up of this work, and, in close coordination with our
collaborators at Case Western in the US, develop further spin-off proposals. There
are a number of high profile papers published and in preparation from this study
[9,12-14]. The RF will facilitate in the continued write up and submission of this
work as well as contributing to the development of new project proposals.
The impact of prematurity, nutrition and birthweight on infant neurobehavioral
outcomes
Kushnerenko has considerable expertise in assessing neurobehavioral (EEG)
outcomes in low birth weight and premature babies with many high impact papers
in this area [2,8,15-19,21,27]. This work has led to promising collaborations with
colleagues in Finland, Hungary and the Netherlands. Edmonds also has expertise
in the impact of pre-maturity, nutrition and hydration on longer term outcomes in
children [see 3-7,28-29],and has strong collaborative links with the Institute for
Child Health. The RF will work to further develop these related areas of work.
Impact of multiple deprivation and low SES on infant neurobehavioral outcomes
(The ELAS study)
This study is utilising EEG and eye-tracking methods to detect early difficulties in
language, attention and social development in infants from low SES backgrounds.
We have developed a highly important collaboration with Johnson and KarmiloffSmith from the world renowned Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development. The
RF will contribute to a research area in which there is a huge potential to expand
and develop. We have already gathered significant pilot data showing the impact
of SES-related factors on early brain activity in infants and there are a number of
high impact papers already in preparation and planned [see 25-26,30-32].
Impact of poor antenatal care and health inequalities on neuro-cognitive outcomes
The post will formalise links with the work of Harden in IHHD, who in her jointly
funded post with Newham University Hospital Trust is developing a programme of
research linked to improving health and reducing inequalities in health, focusing
in particular on issues around ethnicity and teenage pregnancy [33-34]. This
includes a new NIHR Programme Development Grant to explore issues around
access to antenatal care. One of the challenges for this area is in bringing better
and more detailed outcome measures to bear so we can better assess the impact
of health inequalities and the effects of interventions designed to tackle health
inequalities. IRCD are already working with IHHD in the area of children and public
health in the Well London Study [see 35] and the RF will develop the existing links
between IRCD expertise in the area of neuro-developmental outcomes, and IHHD
expertise in public health, community interventions, health prevention and health
policy. Thus, a key program of work for the RF will be in developing projects that
utilise neurobehavioral methods for studying the long term outcomes of infants at
risk and that tie in with NIHR and NHS agendas.
References
1.
2.
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Cebula, K, Moore, D.G. & Wishart, J.
(2010) Social Cognition in Children
with Down’s Syndrome: Challenges
to Research and Theory Building.
Invited Review. Journal of Intellectual
Disability Research, 54, 113-134
Ceponiene, R., Kushnerenko, E. ,
Fellman, V., Renlund, M., Suominen,
K., & Naatanen, R. (2002). Eventrelated potential features indexing
central auditory discrimination by
newborns. Cognitive Brain Res, 13,
101-113.
Fewtrell, M.S., Bishop, N.J., Edmonds,
C.J., Isaacs, E.B. & Lucas, A.L. (2009).
Aluminium exposure from
intravenous feeding solutions and
later bone health: 15 year follow-up
of a randomised trial in preterm
infants. Pediatrics, 124, 1372-1379.
Edmonds, C.J., Gringras, P., Rogers, M.,
Lanigan, J., Singhal, A., Lucas, A.,
Denton, J., & Isaacs, E.B. (in prep.).
Executive Functions in children born
preterm.
Edmonds, C.J., Isaacs, E.B, Cole, T.J.,
Rogers, M., Lanigan, J., Singhal, A.,
Gringras, P., Denton, J., & Lucas, A.
(under revision). Effects of
birthweight on cognition in
childhood: a monozygous twin
study. Pediatrics
Isaacs, E.B., Edmonds, C.J., Chong,
W.K., Lucas, A., Morley, R., & Gadian,
D.G. (2004) Brain morphometry and
IQ measurements in preterm
children. Brain, 127, 2595-2607.
Isaacs, E.B., Edmonds, C.J., Lucas, A. &
Gadian, D.G. (2001). Calculation
difficulties in children of very low
birthweight: a neural correlate.
Brain, 124, 1701-1707
Mikkola, K, Kushnerenko, E., Partanen,
E., Serenius-Sirved, S., Leipäläa, J.,
Huotilainen, M., Fellman, V. (2007)
Auditory event-related potentials and
neurocognition of preterm children
at five years of age. Clin
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Moore, D.G., Goodwin, J.E., Toplis,
A.S., Axelsson, E.L., Braddick, F.M.B.,
Turner, J.J.D., Parrott, A.C., Singer,
L.T., Fulton, S. (in preparation)
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Infants exposed to MDMA in
pregnancy show greater self
comforting behaviours in face-to-face
and still-face contexts: indications of
increased anxiety? Child
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Moore, D.G., Oates J.M., Goodwin, J.E.,
& Hobson, R.P. (2008). Behaviour of
infants with Down syndrome and
their mothers in the still-face
paradigm. Infancy 13(1), 75-89
Moore, D.G., Oates, J.M., Hobson, R.P.
and Goodwin, J.E. (2002) Cognitive
and social factors in the
development of infants with Down
syndrome. Down Syndrome Research
and Practice. vol 8, p43-52.
Moore, D.G., Turner, J.J.T. et al (in
press) In-utero exposure to Ecstasy
(MDMA) and Methamphetamine (MA):
preliminary findings, limitations and
predictions. Invited chapter for Philip
Preece and Ed Riley (Eds). The price
for the child. Exposure to foetal
teratogens and long-term neurodevelopmental outcome.
Moore, D.G., Turner, J.J.T., Parrott, A.C,
Goodwin, J.E., Fulton, S.E. Min, ,
M.O., Fox, H.C., Braddick, F.M.B.,
Toplis, A., Axelsson, E.L., Lynch, S.,
Ribeiro, H.,Frostick, C.J. & Singer L.T.
(in press) During pregnancy,
recreational drug-using women stop
taking ecstasy (MDMA) and reduce
alcohol consumption but continue to
smoke tobacco and cannabis. Journal
of Psychopharmacology
Singer, L.T., Fulton, S, Moore, D.G.,
Goodwin, J.E., Toplis, A.S., Axelsson,
E.L., Braddick, F.M.B., Turner, J.J.D.,
& Parrott, A.C. (in preparation)
Neonatal reflexes and activity in
infants exposed to recreational
drugs (including MDMA) during
pregnancy.
Csibra, G., Kushnerenko, E., &
Grossmann, T. (in press).
Electrophysiological methods in
studying infant cognitive
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& M. Luciana (Eds.), Handbook of
Developmental Cognitive
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Csibra G. (2008) Electrophysiological
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speech percept in human infants.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008
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17. Kushnerenko, E., Johnson, MH (2010)
The Newborn Behavior. In
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18. Kushnerenko, E., Ceponiene, R., Balan,
P., Fellman, V., Huotilainen, M., &
Naatanen, R. (2002). Maturation of
the auditory event-related potentials
during the 1st year of life.
NeuroReport, 13, 47-51
19. Kushnerenko, E., Winkler, I., Horváth, J.,
Näätänen, R., Pavlov, I., Fellman, V.,
et al. (2007). Processing acoustic
change and novelty in newborn
infants. European Journal of
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20. Moore, D.G., Goodwin, J.E., & Oates,
J.M. (2008) A modified version of the
BSID-II scales for cognitive matching
of infants with and without Down
syndrome. Journal of Intellectual
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21. Sambeth, A., Huotilainen, M.,
Kushnerenko, E., Fellman, V., &
Pihko, E. (2006). Newborns
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sounds: A study using
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22. Tomalski, P., Csibra, G., & Johnson, M.
H. (2009). Rapid orienting toward
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23. Tomalski, P., Johnson, M. H., & Csibra,
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24. Winkler, I., Kushnerenko, E., Horvath, J.,
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What are the effects of early
adversity on the adult and
developing brain? Current Opinion in
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26. Tomalski, P., Kushnerenko, E. Ribeiro,
H., Johnson, M.H. & Moore, D.G.
Infant resting brain EEG activity and
its relationship to family socioeconomic status in a sample of lowSES families from East London.
Developmental Neuropsychology
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E., Huotilainen, M., Fellman, V.
(Submitted) Perinatal cerebral insults
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H., Potton, A., Axelsson, E., Murphy,
E., Moore, D.G. (in preparation)
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Visual attention to mouth
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in 6-9 month old infants. (in prep)
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
31. Tomalski, P., Kushnerenko, E., Moore,
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E., Murphy, E., Does attention to
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E. Parallel processing of speech and
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UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON
JOB DESCRIPTION
Job Title :
Research Fellow in Infant Health and Development
Grade :
Research Fellow
School/Service : IRCD Psychology
Campus :
Stratford
Responsible to : Director of IRCD
Responsible for : Development of existing and new research projects
Liaison with :
Other members of the IRCD, with Angela Harden in
IHHD, and with staff and colleagues in Psychology and other units across
the University.
JOB PURPOSE
To contribute to the development of research initiatives in the area of
Infant health and development. To aid in the analysis and publication of
existing data and to lead and develop new research projects on the
impact and alleviation of social deprivation, stress, drugs, nutrition,
prematurity on infant and child health and developmental outcomes. To
work with staff from IRCD and IHHD to publish high quality papers and to
develop new research ideas and gain further research funding.
MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
To publish original research in prestigious high-impact academic journals
based on existing data sets held by IRCD and IHHD
To lead the development and submission of research grant proposals
with IRCD and IHHD staff on the impact and alleviation of social
deprivation, stress, drugs, nutrition, prematurity on infant health and
developmental outcomes.
To lead and develop a programme of research on the impact and
alleviation of social deprivation, stress, drugs, nutrition, prematurity on
infant and child health and developmental outcomes.
To work with IRCD and IHHD staff to coordinate research efforts across
the university.
To help and support other researchers, including research students,
associated with the Institute.
To engage in other research activities as determined by the Director of
the Institute for Child Development.
To contribute to the reputation of the Institute for Research in Child
Development by the pursuit of research of high standing.
UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Post: Research Fellow in Infant Health and Development
Grade: RF
School: IRCD Psychology
EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS:
Essential criteria:
PhD in Psychology, Medicine, Physiology or related area (A,C)
Desirable criteria:
Masters level expertise in statistics or research methods (A,C)
KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:
Essential criteria:
Experience of infant testing research methods (A,I)
Experience in studying the impact of early risk factors on immediate or
long term health and developmental outcomes.(A,I,P)
Knowledge or experience of studying the impact of interventions to
ameliorate the impact of early risk factors on child health. (A,I,P)
Publications in high quality academic journals (A,I,R)
Experience of preparing and submitting grant proposals (A,I)
Desirable criteria:
Experience of working on interdisciplinary/collaborative projects and
success in gaining research funding (A,I)
Publication of first or single author papers (A,I,R)
SKILLS AND ABILITIES
Essential criteria:
Administrative and organizational abilities and excellent interpersonal
skills (A,I)
Ability to organize and undertake research projects (A,I)
Ability to work with parents and infants or children from diverse
backgrounds(A,I)
Desirable criteria:
Understanding of new infant assessment techniques and high level
understanding of multifactorial statistical analysis (A,I,C)
PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES AND QUALITIES:
Essential criteria:
Abilities to work with a research team, use initiative and flexible approach
to work (I)
Availability to work some evenings and occasional weekends (I)
Commitment to and understanding of equal opportunities issues within a
diverse and multicultural environment (I)
Criteria tested by:
A = Application form
C = Certification
I = Interview
P = Presentation
R = Research papers
T = Test