Manon Ranger

PhD

Assistant Professor and Investigator

My research program aims at investigating how early-life stress (e.g. pain, inflammation, clinical treatments) affects the developing brain of very preterm infants, conducting pre-clinical and clinical research. I use an animal model that closely captures critical aspects of what preterm infants are like and what they may experience in the NICU. The use of preclinical models allows mechanistic studies on how exposure to early-life adversity alters the normal trajectory of brain development. This research, in turn, better informs clinical studies in preterm infants and the development of novel treatments to mitigate adverse effects from these exposures.

This work is motivated by my clinical nursing background as a paediatric clinical nurse specialist in acute pain, and builds upon my doctoral training in infant brain reactivity to pain (McGill University/Harvard University/Boston Children’s Hospital) and postdoctoral fellowship in pediatrics/neuroscience at UBC (2012-16), as well as my work as a research scientist at Columbia University in the division of Developmental Neuroscience (2017-18).