Dr Dr Michelle Fernandes

Current Positions:

• MRC Clinical Research Training Fellow & Academic Clinical Lecturer in Paediatrics at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
• Speciality Registrar and GRID Trainee in Neonatal Medicine, Wessex Deanery, UK
• Honorary Research Fellow in Perinatal Health, Nuffield Department of Women's & Reproductive Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
• Research Fellow, The Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation, Grenada, West Indies
• Visiting Researcher, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
• Trainee Associate Editor, Archives of Diseases in Childhood Fetal & Neonatal Edition

Biography:

Dr Fernandes obtained her MBBS from St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore, India (2002) and her MRCPCH in Paediatrics from Wessex Deanery (2018). She completed a DPhil in Child Psychiatry with Professors Alan Stein and Paul Ramchandani at Department of Psychiatry and Exeter College, Oxford (2011) and was awarded the Clarendon Fund, Exeter Kokil Pathak and the Harold Hyam Wingate Scholarships for her doctoral research. This was followed by a post-doctoral research fellowship (2012-2015) with the INTERGROWTH-21st Project and the INTERBIO-21st Study at the University of Oxford, where she led the design, development and implementation of the INTER-NDA, a novel multi-dimensional international screening tests for early child developmental delay. This work resulted in two seminal research outputs: (1) The construction of the first international standards of early child development developed according to the WHO’s prescriptive guidelines, and (2) Confirmation, from a large international dataset, that young children across geographically and culturally disparate population show remarkable similarities in neurodevelopment if their health, nutritional and social needs are met during early life.

In 2016, Dr Fernandes was awarded an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in Paediatrics by the University of Southampton. In 2019, she was awarded the Southampton Biomedical Research Centre Career Track Fellowship in Paediatrics and the British Science Association’s Media Fellowship. In 2020, she secured a sub-speciality (GRID) training position in Neonatal Medicine ranking 3rd in the national recruitment interviews and in 2021 she was awarded an MRC Postdoctoral Clinical Research Training Fellowship in Paediatrics for her ongoing research in early child development at the University of Southampton with Professors Caroline Fall, Nicholas Harvey and Cyrus Cooper. 

She has continued to work closely with NDWRH at Oxford through her collaborations with the INTERGROWTH-21st Project and the INTERBIO-21st Study, and in 2018 co-led the launch of the EveryPrem Study at Oxford.  She has co-authored three novel early child development tools: the Neo-NDA, the OX-NDA©TM and the INTER-NDA©; the latter and its standards have been applied in over 15,000 children from 14 countries. Over the past decade, she has been involved with 17 child development focussed research projects spanning 21 research groups across 14 countries, including 3 as Chief Investigator, and 5 as Co-Principal Investigator with research awards from the NIHR and MRC (UK); NIH, USAID and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (USA); and ICMR (India). Dr Fernandes has served as a technical advisor to the WHO’s Early Child Development Initiative, and the Bill & Melinda Gates’ Foundation HBGD Knowledge Initiative.

Prizes

• Neonatal Society spring meeting 2021, trainee presentation award (2021)
• MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowship (Post Doctoral) (2021)
• Membership of the Neonatal Society (2021)
• British Science Association Media Fellow 2019 (2019)
• NIHR Biomedical Research Centre Career Track Fellow in Paediatrics (2021)
• NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in Paediatrics (2016)
• Harold Hyam Wingate Scholarship (2011)
• Clarendon Fund Scholarship (2008)
• Exeter Kokil Pathak Scholarship (2008)
• Donald J. Cohen Fellow (2009)