Thao Griffith, PhD, RN

• Milwaukee Campus-Children's Wisconsin
  8915 W. Connell Court
  Milwaukee, WI 53226

Dr. Griffith is a junior nurse scientist whose main responsibility is to conduct a program of research related to neonatal care and disseminate relevant findings.

Dr. Griffith’s program of research focuses on the impact of early life stress in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) on preterm infants' biobehavioral outcomes, with a particular emphasis on neurodevelopment, oral feeding skills, and epigenetic regulation of glucocorticoid genes. Through her NIH-funded work, she has examined how excessive NICU stress disrupts stress regulation pathways, as evidenced by altered DNA methylation of NR3C1 exon 1F and HSD11B2 promoters, and its association with suboptimal neurodevelopment and oral feeding outcomes. Building on this foundation, she investigates interventions that mitigate early life stress and promote optimal neurodevelopment and oral feeding skills. Her research includes a pilot randomized controlled trial of the Multisensory Early Oral Administration of Human Milk (M-MILK) intervention. Through multidisciplinary collaborations, she integrates biobehavioral, epigenetic, and clinical methodologies to inform NICU care strategies that optimize growth and developmental outcomes for preterm infants.

Bibliography

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1pSeFEjqohMoei/bibliography/public/

Education

• 2017, University of Illinois Chicago, PhD

Awards