Congratulations to Andrea Ibarra, MD, MS, who has been awarded the inaugural $250,000 Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP)/Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) Mentored Research Training Grant (MRTG) for her project “The Effect of Preeclampsia on Cognitive Function.” The study period will span July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2026.
The MRTG supports the development of the next generation of independent obstetric anesthesiology and perinatology physician-scientists by helping them develop the skills and preliminary data needed to become independent investigators.
Dr. Ibarra’s long-term career objective is to develop a broad knowledge of how preeclampsia and social determinants of health impact cognitive function across women’s lifespan and understand the mechanistic role of biomarkers associated with poor peripartum and perioperative cognitive outcomes.
Preeclampsia is a pregnancy-related hypertensive disorder and a leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity in the US that disproportionally affects women who live in deprived communities. Preeclampsia is also linked to deficits in memory, perception, and motor functioning in this population, a condition termed postpartum neurocognitive dysfunction (PPND). In her study, Dr. Ibarra will investigate whether deficits in attention, working memory, and executive function can be detectable in the peripartum period to identify strategies to prevent preeclampsia-related PPND.