Professor Brian Darlow

Professor Brian Darlow was born in London and attended Cambridge University, where he undertook an initial degree in basic sciences before completing an MB BChir in 1973.  His post-graduate training was in the UK, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.  He completed his MD in 1989 with a thesis entitled “The epidemiology of retinopathy of prematurity in New Zealand”.

Professor Darlow holds the Cure Kids Chair of Paediatric Research at the University of Otago, Christchurch where he completed a ten year stint as Head of the Department of Paediatrics in April 2010.  His clinical work has been predominantly as a neonatologist and his main research interests have focused on free-radical disease in the newborn, longer term outcome following preterm birth, and neonatal networking and unit variations in outcome.  He has been principal investigator on over 12 project grants from the NZ Health Research Council, together with other grants from various funding bodies and is the author of over 140 original publications. Professor Darlow has been a member of the Australia and New Zealand Neonatal Network (ANZNN) Executive since its foundation in1994 and is now Chair of the Network Management Committee.  For the past few years he has contributed to workshops aimed at the prevention and treatment of retinopathy of prematurity and improving care of the newborn in several developing and middle-income countries.

Research highlights include

• Initiation of New Zealand 1986 National Very Low Birthweight Cohort and studies on retinopathy of prematurity and long-term neurodevelopment

• Introduction of exogenous surfactant use in New Zealand as part of a collaborative study involving all regional neonatal units

• Studies of selenium deficiency in very preterm infants and multicentre randomised controlled trial of selenium supplementation

• Studies on contribution of oxidative damage and inflammation to neonatal chronic lung disease

• Contributions to the establishment of the Australian and New Zealand Neonatal Network and ongoing management of the ANZNN

• Award of Gold Medal for Research, University of Otago, Christchurch, 2010