As a new member of RESIST we welcome PD Dr. Sabine Pirr.
Why are newborns and especially premature infants so susceptible to severe infections compared to older children or adults? PD Dr. Sabine Pirr is investigating this question. In particular, she is focusing on the role of breast milk in the development of the immune system and microbiome of preterm infants. “Of particular interest to me are the cellular composition of breast milk, with changes over the course of breastfeeding, and the mechanisms of transmission and consecutive neonatal infections with human cytomegalovirus,” she says.
PD Dr. Pirr is a researcher and works as a senior physician in the field of neonatology in the Department of Pediatric Pneumonology, Allergology and Neonatology at MHH. She studied medicine in Halle/Wittenberg and Leipzig and received her PhD in 2009. Since 2005, she has been working in the pediatric clinic of MHH and received her accreditation as a pediatric specialist in 2010 and as a neonatologist in 2012. Since the establishment of the research group “Experimental Neonatology” at MHH in 2011, she has been conducting translational research on immune adaptation of newborn and premature infants under the direction of Prof. Dr. Dorothee Viemann. In 2022 she received her habilitation in pediatrics.