About us
Imperial College London has international reputation for research in perinatal neurology and brain imaging, spanning over several decades. We were the first in the world to have a dedicated in-unit neonatal 3 Telsa MRI scanner.
We lead one of the largest clinical research programs in neonatal encephalopathy in the world. Neonatal encephalopathy, or brain injury related to 'birth asphyxia' is a devastating condition due to a presumed lack of oxygen and blood flow to the fetal brain, possibly around the time of birth. Pioneering research undertaken in the unit, along with many other researchers and collaborators in the UK and worldwide led to the establishment of brain cooling as the first effective therapy for neonatal encephalopathy. However, despite cooling therapy, almost half of the babies born with neonatal encephalopathy will have adverse outcomes.
Our current work is focussed on developing effective disease stratification tools for developing personalised neuroprotection in neonatal encephalopathy and evaluating these using quantitative MR spectroscopy biomarkers in a multi-country setting.
HELIX Trial Video
HELIX Trial
Research team
Dr Sudhin Thayyil

Dr Sudhin Thayyil
Professor of Perinatal Perinatal Neuroscience and Centre Director
Mythilli Babu

Mythilli Babu
Research Nurse (HELIX)
Ms Constance Burgod

Ms Constance Burgod
MRes student
Dr Gaurav Atreja

Dr Gaurav Atreja
Consultant Neonatologist
Phoebe Ivain

Phoebe Ivain
Research assistant
Dr Vaisakh Krishnan

Dr Vaisakh Krishnan
Clinical Research Associate (PhD student)
Dr Vijay Kumar

Dr Vijay Kumar
Clinical Research Associate (PhD student)
Josephine Mendoza

Josephine Mendoza
Neonatal Neurology Research Nurse
Dr Chris Merin Varghese

Dr Chris Merin Varghese
Project manager (PREVENT)
Dr Paolo Montaldo

Dr Paolo Montaldo
MRC Doctoral Research Fellow
Maria Morales

Maria Morales
Neonatal Neurology Research Nurse
Ms Pallavi Muraleedharan

Ms Pallavi Muraleedharan
NIHR SPARK Fellow and Research Associate (PhD Student)
Vania Oliveira

Vania Oliveira
NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow
Indiramma Prabhu

Indiramma Prabhu
Research Nurse (HELIX)
Dr Vijayakumar Shivamurthappa,

Dr Vijayakumar Shivamurthappa,
Consultant Neonatologist
Dr Deepika Shukla

Dr Deepika Shukla
Senior MR Physicist
Dr Ravi Swamy

Dr Ravi Swamy
Consultant Neonatologist and Director of Perinatal Trials Unit Foundation, Bangalore