Professor Frank Harry Bloomfield

PhD, MCChB, BSc, FRACP, MRCP (UK)

Director - Liggins Institute

In: Liggins Institute

Professor, Clinical

In: Liggins Institute

Biography

Professor Frank Bloomfield is the Director of the Liggins Institute. He is a Professor in Neonatology, a Consultant Neonatologist at Auckland City Hospital, and the current President of the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Frank took a BSc (first class honours) in Experimental Immunology and Oncology at the University of Manchester and then MBChB, also at Manchester. He trained in paediatrics in the north-west of England, obtaining MRCP before moving to New Zealand where he specialised in neonatal paediatrics, obtaining FRACP. He took a PhD in paediatrics at The University of Auckland and spent two years in Toronto as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto and a neonatal transport fellow at the Hospital for Sick Children. He was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Neonatology at The University of Auckland and a specialist neonatologist at Auckland City Hospital in 2002. In 2013 he was promoted to Professor and in 2015 was appointed Director of the Liggins Institute at the University of Auckland.

Affiliations and collaborations:

Research collaborations within NZ and also with Monash University, Melbourne, University of Manchester and the University of Toronto. Member of the international NEOMUNE consortium to improve neonatal nutrition.

Research | Current

Neonatal paediatrics
complications of preterm birth
fetal growth and development, particularly endocrine development
developmental origins of health and disease
neonatal nutrition and growth and the life-long consequences of altered growth

Major research grants:

HRC project grant "ProVIDe RCT: does better early nutrition in preterm babies improve development?"
HRC programme grant “Perinatal Care and its consequences” 2009
HRC project grant “Periconceptional regulation of fetal growth and adult physiology: studies in twins” 2007
HRC Programme grant “Fetal growth and its consequences” 2001-7
Canadian Institutes of Health Research project grant “Mechanisms of Parturition” 2004

Postgraduate supervision

Currently supervising 3 health professionals enrolled in PhDs

Co-supervising 5 PhDs

7 previous PhDs through to completion as primary supervisor

Distinctions/Honours

FRACP
MRCP

Committees/Professional groups/Services

President, Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand

Member, National Maternity Monitoring Group, Ministry of Health

Member, Governance Board, New Zealand National Intestinal Failure Service

Member, Ministry of Health Expert Working Group on Maternity Indicators

Member, New Zealand Paediatric and Child Health Division Committee of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians

Document Development Committee on Newborn Premature Screening, Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute

Selected publications and creative works (Research Outputs)

Harding, J. E., Cormack, B. E., Alexander, T., Alsweiler, J. M., & Bloomfield, F. H. (2017). Advances in nutrition of the newborn infant. Lancet (London, England), 389 (10079), 1660-1668. 10.1016/s0140-6736(17)30552-4
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Barbara Cormack, Jane Harding, Jane Alsweiler, Tanith Alexander
Jaquiery, A. L., Park, S. S., Phua, H. H., Berry, M. J., Meijler, D., Harding, J. E., ... Bloomfield, F. H. (2016). Brief neonatal nutritional supplementation has sex-specific effects on glucose tolerance and insulin regulating genes in juvenile lambs. Pediatric Research, 80 (6), 861-869. 10.1038/pr.2016.168
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/32009
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Anne Jaquiery, Jane Harding, Mark Oliver
Oyston, C., Stanley, J. L., Oliver, M. H., Bloomfield, F. H., & Baker, P. N. (2016). Maternal Administration of Sildenafil Citrate Alters Fetal and Placental Growth and Fetal-Placental Vascular Resistance in the Growth-Restricted Ovine Fetus. Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979), 68 (3), 760-767. 10.1161/hypertensionaha.116.07662
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/31896
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Mark Oliver
Cormack, B. E., Embleton, N. D., van Goudoever, J. B., Hay, W. W., & Bloomfield, F. H. (2016). Comparing apples with apples: it is time for standardized reporting of neonatal nutrition and growth studies. Pediatric research, 79 (6), 810-820. 10.1038/pr.2016.26
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/31071
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Barbara Cormack
Flenady, V., Wojcieszek, A. M., Middleton, P., Ellwood, D., Erwich, J. J., Coory, M., ... Boyle, F. M. (2016). Stillbirths: recall to action in high-income countries. Lancet (London, England), 387 (10019), 691-702. 10.1016/s0140-6736(15)01020-x
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/30781
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Cindy Farquhar, Lesley McCowan
Bansal, A., Bloomfield, F. H., Connor, K. L., Dragunow, M., Thorstensen, E. B., Oliver, M. H., ... Alsweiler, J. M. (2015). Glucocorticoid-Induced Preterm Birth and Neonatal Hyperglycemia Alter Ovine β-Cell Development. Endocrinology, 156 (10), 3763-3776. 10.1210/en.2015-1095
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/29785
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Mark Oliver, Jane Alsweiler, Michael Dragunow, Jane Harding, Eric Thorstensen
Bloomfield, F. H. (2015). The challenges of research participation by children. Pediatric research, 78 (1), 109-110. 10.1038/pr.2015.75
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/31078
Cester, E. A., Bloomfield, F. H., Taylor, J., Smith, S., & Cormack, B. E. (2015). Do recommended protein intakes improve neurodevelopment in extremely preterm babies?. Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition, 100 (3), F243-F247. 10.1136/archdischild-2014-307521
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/31072
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Barbara Cormack