Maria Lehtinen, PhD

2024 Accelerator Award Recipient

This award was supported by Team Hydro.

A Large Animal Model of Germinal Matrix Hemorrhage for the Advancement of Choroid Plexus Therapies.

Dr. Maria Lehtinen is a Professor and Hannah C Kinney Chair in Pediatric Pathology Research at Boston Children’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School. Joined with her colleagues, Dr. Alexandra Hochstetler and Dr. Costine-Bartell, their project aims to understand mechanisms of hydrocephalus and elucidate new choroid plexus (ChP) based therapies to treat not only cerebrospinal fluid volume, but also associated sequelae. This study will build upon their work in a mouse model of post-
hemorrhagic hydrocephalus (PHH) to create a biofidelic model of germinal matrix bleeds and PHH in neonatal piglets. Their goal is to test the safety and efficacy of their previously validated choroid plexus-based therapy for PHH in the new piglet model.