Severe brain injury that develops slowly after preterm births, causing cerebral palsy, may be treatable, new research from the University of Auckland finds. “The current thinking is that this form of brain injury is so severe that there is no point trying to understand it, let alone treat it,” says senior research fellow Dr. Christopher Lear, lead author on the new study. “Just the concept that it might be treatable is revolutionary.”

The University of Auckland team showed, in an animal model, that there was intense local inflammation before the injury developed.