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Hypothermia Update

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Webinar Agenda | Day 1 | Thursday 22 January 2026

Day 1: What we know so far

Zoom Webinar

Time	Session	Speaker
13:00 – 13:05	Welcome	Prof. Shankaran Dr. Garegrat
13:05 – 13:45	Original Hypothermia and Optimising Cooling Trials	Prof. Shankaran
13:45 – 14:25	Delayed Hypothermia Trial	Prof. Laptook
14:25 – 15:05	Hypothermia in LMIC (HELIX Trial)	Prof. Thayyil
15:05 – 15:15	Short Break	-
15:15 – 15:55	Premature Infant Hypothermia Trial	Prof. Faix
15:55 – 16:35	Telemedicine in the Assessment of HIE	Dr. Craig
16:35 – 17:15	Explaining Outcomes After HIE to Parents	Dr. Lemmon
17:15 – 17:30	Panel Discussion & Wrap-Up	-

Webinar Agenda | Day 2 | Friday 23 January 2026

Day 2: What we need to know

Zoom Webinar

Time	Session	Speaker
13:00 – 13:05	Welcome	Prof. Shankaran Dr. Garegrat
13:05 – 13:45	MR Imaging in HIE	Prof. Grant
13:45 – 14:25	Seizures in HIE	Dr. Pressler
14:25 – 15:05	Outcomes After Mild HIE	Prof. Murray
15:05 – 15:15	Short Break	-
15:15 – 15:55	Outcomes After Birth Acidosis Without Mild HIE	Prof. Sabir
15:55 – 16:35	COOL PRIME Study	Dr. Chalak
16:35 – 17:15	COMET Trial	Prof. Thayyil
17:15 – 17:30	Panel Discussion & Wrap-Up	-

Speaker Profiles

Speaker	Profile
	Professor Seetha Shankaran Prof. Shankaran is an Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics at University of Texas at Austin and Wayne State University, recognised for leadership in neonatal neuroprotection RCTs. She led the first whole-body hypothermia RCT for HIE and optimising hypothermia trials, which established therapeutic cooling as the standard of care driving global adoption.
	Professor Abbot R. Laptook Prof. Laptook is an Emeritus Professor of Paediatrics at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and in the Division of Neonatology at Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island. He led the delayed-cooling trial, which enrolled 168 infants from 21 large academic centers across the USA over 6 years, followed by neurodevelopmental outcome assessments at 18 months.
	Professor Sudhin Thayyil Professor Thayyil is Chair of Perinatal Neuroscience at Imperial College London, and his work focusses on disease stratification and efficient clinical trials in HIE. He led the HELIX trial and is the chief investigator of the ongoing COMET (Cooling in Mild Encephalopathy Trial), a randomised controlled trial recruiting 430 babies with mild HIE from 50 neonatal units across the UK, Canada, Europe, and Australia, funded by the NIHR HTA program.
	Professor Roger G. Faix Prof. Faix is a Professor in the Division of Neonatology at the University of Utah School of Medicine, providing clinical neonatology care and training paediatric and neonatal advanced-practice clinicians across Utah’s NICU systems. He led the PREMIE hypothermia trial, which enrolled 168 infants over 5 years across 19 large academic centers in the USA, followed by outcome assessments at 18 months.
	Dr. Alexa Craig Dr. Craig is Vice Chair of Research at Maine Medical Centre and an Associate Professor of Paediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine. She leads telemedicine-enabled neonatal encephalopathy assessment research across rural and tertiary NICUs, validating the feasibility of remote neurological staging for HIE and driving statewide telehealth scale-up to reduce geographic variation and improve early access to neuroprotective care for high-risk newborns.
	Dr Monica Lemmon Dr. Lemmon is an Associate Professor of Paediatrics and Chief of Paediatric Neurology and Developmental Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. Her research defined evidence-based approaches to prognostic communication and shared decision-making for infants with HIE, advancing family-centred neuro-counselling standards and adoption of SDM support tools across neonatal networks.
	Professor Ellen Grant Prof. Grant is Professor of Paediatrics & Radiology at Boston Children’s Hospital and imaging research lead at Harvard Medical School. She pioneered multimodal neonatal brain imaging including MRI pulse-sequence innovation, MEG translation for infant epilepsy surgery, and bedside perfusion/oxygenation biomarkers (FDNIRS/DCS), driving improved injury detection, prognosis, and global evidence translation for newborn brain injury care.
	Dr. Ronit Pressler Dr. Pressler is Consultant in Clinical Neurophysiology and Clinical Lead of Telemetry at Great Ormond Street Hospital and Honorary Associate Professor in Developmental Neurosciences at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. She leads therapy innovation and neuromonitoring standards for neonatal seizures, including continuous EEG in HIE, through the ILAE Neonatal Task Force, advancing multi-centre monitoring consistency and improved long-term neurological outcomes.
	Professor Deirdre Murray Prof. Murray is Professor of Paediatrics and Chair in Early Brain Injury & Cerebral Palsy at University College Cork, and Deputy Director of INFANT Research Centre. Her research on early biomarkers and neurodevelopmental outcomes led national cohorts including BiHiVE and the Cork BASELINE Birth Study. Prof Murray will discuss the risk of adverse childhood outcomes following mild HIE.
	Professor Hemmen Sabir Prof. Sabir is Head of Experimental Neonatology at the Department of Neonatology, University Hospital Bonn. His research is on immune–sensitised hypoxic–ischaemic brain injury and emerging adjunct neuroprotection strategies. Prof. Sabir will discuss the risk of developmental delays in term-born infants with birth acidosis, even in the absence of mild HIE (PMID:40822685).
	Professor Lina F. Chalak Prof. Chalak is a Professor of Paediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Her research focuses on real-time neonatal cerebrovascular and neurovascular biomarkers using NIRS/EEG bundles. Prof Chalak leads the multi-center COOL PRIME study, which compares neurodevelopmental outcomes in 430 infants with mild HIE across 7 neonatal units that routinely use cooling and 8 units that do not, from the USA and Ireland.
	Dr Reema Garegrat Dr. Garegrat is a Neonatal Neurology Research Fellow at Imperial College London. She is the clinical lead for the ongoing EMBRACE study (Erythropoietin Monotherapy in Neonatal Encephalopathy in Low- and Middle-Income Countries) and serves as the neurological training lead for the COMET trial, certifying over 800 clinicians from more than 40 NHS hospitals.

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Centre for Perinatal Neuroscience
Department of Brain Sciences
5th Floor, Hammersmith House
Hammersmith Hospital
Du Cane Road
London, W12 0HS

Division of Neurology