• Antenatal brain development under normal and stress conditions. Focus on autonomic nervous system responses to inflammation (fetal neuroimmunology).
• Fetal cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway;
• Monitoring fetal and neonatal well-being using computer-aided EEG and ECG (HRV) analyses;
• Postnatal consequences of prenatal stress (fetal programming of adult diseases). 
• I am also interested in how methods derived from the theory of nonlinear dynamics can be used to estimate neuronal complexity and to improve prediction of the physiological and pathophysiological behavior mentioned above.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Children Health Research Institute, Lawson Health Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, Canada, 2009.

Research Topics and Interests
Effects of chronic hypoxia without progressive acidemia as might be seen in the human fetus antenatally on brain development and inflammatory response; Effects of acute hypoxia with progressive acidemia as might be seen during labor on fetal electrical brain activity (ECoG, EEG) and systemic and brain inflammatory responses; Developmental changes in fetal electrocortical activity (sleep states) due to chronic hypoxia in the last pregnancy trimester.

Residency and Research

Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany. Research on fetal asphyxia and programming of adult diseases (Principal Investigator: Matthias Schwab, Prof. Dr. med. habil.), 2006.

Research Topics and Interests
Acute and chronic effects of hypoxia with and without acute or long-term effects of betamethasone administration on fetal heart rate variability as well as fetal electrical spontaneous (ECoG) and evoked (SEP, AEP) brain activity and cerebral blood flow;
Acute and subacute alterations in autonomic nervous system activity in adult patients with ischemic stroke.

Doctorate in Neurosciences (summa cum laude)

Institute for Pathophysiology (School of Medicine), Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany. Advisor: Prof. Ulrich Zwiener, Dr. med. habil., PhD. Thesis: Investigating complex coordination of neurovegetative and brain electrical activities in sleep and anesthesia using nonlinear signal analysis. Awarded October 4, 2004.

Research Topics and Interests
By studying the coupling between heart rate variability and respiratory movements, I was able to retrospectively discriminate human neonates at low and normal risk for adverse outcomes during the first year of life. I also characterized information flow in reticulo-thalamo-cortical communication in an animal model of propofol sedation using analysis of linear and complexity properties of cortical and thalamic electrical activity.

Doctor of Medicine

Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, 2001.