Dr Crossley is a perinatal physiologist focussed on improving the fetal to neonatal transition in all infants requiring assistance at birth. Her research is particularly focussed on understanding how the respiratory and cardiovascular systems interact causing brain injury.

Dr Crossley is a leading expert in the development and use of the most advanced animal models in perinatal research. With over 18 years’ experience, she has developed a unique skill set using a multi-pronged approach investigating newborn physiology and biomedical imaging in collaboration with physiologists, clinicians and physicists. Her research utilises both the Australian and Japanese synchrotrons as well as sophisticated pre-clinical models in rabbits and sheep.

More recently,  Dr Crossley has been involved in biomedical imaging experiments that provide evidence of fundamental mechanisms regulating the transition from fetal to newborn life. Specifically, identifying interventions to improve spontaneous breathing in premature newborns. This pre-clinical evidence has led to a current clinical trial focussed on the effect of oxygenation during resuscitation on promoting spontaneous breathing in premature newborns. Her current involvement in projects focussed on improving respiratory and cardiovascular outcomes for newborns with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia and transient tachypnoea of the newborn have uncovered previously unrealised mechanisms underpinning complications at birth and identifying interventions that can be translated into future clinical trials to improve outcomes for these newborns.

Selected publications

• Kashyap AJ, DeKoninck PLJ, Rodgers KA, Thio M, McGillick EV, Amberg BJ, Skinner SM, Moxham AM, Russo FM, Deprest JA, Hooper SB, Crossley KJ, Hodges RJ (2019) Antenatal sildenafil treatment improves neonatal pulmonary hemodynamics and gas exchange in lambs with diaphragmatic hernia. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol.

• McGillick EV, Davies IM, Hooper SB, Kerr LT, Thio M, DeKoninck P, Yamaoka S, Hodges R, Rodgers KA, Zahra VA, Moxham AM, Kashyap AJ, Crossley KJ (2019) Effect of lung hypoplasia on the cardiorespiratory transition in newborn lambs. J Appl Physiol (1985) 2019 Aug 1;127(2):568-578.

• Kashyap AJ, Hodges RJ, Thio M, Rodgers KA, Amberg BJ, McGillick EV, Hooper SB, Crossley KJ, DeKoninck PLJ (2019) Physiologically based cord clamping improves cardiopulmonary haemodynamics in lambs with a diaphragmatic hernia. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2019 May 23.

   

   

• Kashyap AJ, Crossley KJ, DeKoninck PLJ, Rodgers KA, Thio M, Skinner SM, Deprest JA, Hooper SB, Hodges RJ (2019) Neonatal cardiopulmonary transition in an ovine model of congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2019 Feb 6.