Frank Bloomfield

Associate Professor of Neonatology
BSc(Hons), MBChB, MRCP(UK), FRACP, PhD 

Contact details

Phone: +64 9 923 6107
Email: f.bloomfield@auckland.ac.nz

Key research interests

• Neonatal paediatrics
• complications of preterm birth
• fetal growth and development, particularly endocrine development
• developmental origins of health and disease
• neonatal growth and its consequences.

Research theme

Fetus and newborn

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.

Cross-appointments in the Departments of Paediatrics: Child and Youth Health and Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Research collaborations within NZ and also with Monash University, Melbourne, University of Manchester and the University of Toronto.

Cormack BE, Bloomfield FH, Dezoete JA, Kuschel CA. Does More Protein in the First Week of Life Change Outcomes for VLBW Babies? Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. Accepted 8th February, 2011.

Goudoever H, Guandalini S, Kleinman R (eds): Early Nutrition: Impact on Short- and Long- Term Health. Nestlé Nutr Inst Workshop Ser Pediatr Program 2011; 68: 1–16 Nestec Ltd., Vevey/S. Karger AG, Basel.

Harding JE, Jaquiery AL, Hernandez CE, Oliver MH, Derraik JGB, Bloomfield FH. Animal studies of the effects of early nutrition on long-term health. In: van
Mühlhaüsler BS, Hancock SN, Bloomfield FH, Harding R. Are twins growth restricted? Pediatric Research 2011. Doi: 10.1203/PDR.0b013e31821f6cfd.

Bloomfield FH. How is maternal nutrition related to preterm birth? Annual Reviews of Nutrition 2011. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-nutr-072610-145141

Coetzee RL, Cormack BE, Sadler L, Bloomfield FH. Pregnancy and neonatal outcomes following hyperemesis gravidarum. Journal of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. doi:10.1017/S2040174410000735

Darp RA, de Boo HA, Phua HH, Oliver MH, Derraik JGB, Harding JE, Bloomfield FH. Differential regulation of igf1 and igf1r mRNA levels in the two hepatic lobes following IUGR and its treatment with intra-amniotic IGF-1 in ovine fetuses. Reproduction, Fertility and Development 2010; 22:1188-1197.

Harding JE, Derraik JGB, Bloomfield FH. Maternal undernutrition and endocrine development. Expert Review of Endocrinology and Metabolism. 2010 Mar; 5(2): 297-312

Rumball CWH, Bloomfield FH, Oliver MH, Harding JE. Different periods of periconceptional undernutrition have different effects on growth, metabolic and endocrine status in fetal sheep. Pediatric Research 2009; 66(6): 605-13.

Stevens A, Begum G, Cook A, Connor C, Rumball C, Oliver M, Challis J, Bloomfield FH, White A. Epigenetic changes in the hypothalamic pro-opiomelanocortin and glucocorticoid receptor genes in the ovine fetus after periconceptional undernutrition. Endocrinology 2010; 151: 3652-3664.

Connor KL, Challis JRG, van Zijl PL, Rumball CW, Alix, S, Jaquiery AL, Oliver MH, Harding JE Bloomfield FH. Do alterations in placental 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11βHSD) activities explain differences in fetal hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) function following periconceptional undernutrition or twinning in sheep? Reproductive Sciences Accepted for publication 10th July, 2009. doi:10.1177/1933719109345162

Rumball CWH, Oliver MH, Thorstensen EB, Jaquiery AL, Husted SM, Harding JE, Bloomfield FH. Effects of twinning and periconceptional undernutrition on late-gestation hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function in ovine pregnancy. Endocrinology 2008;149 1163-1172

Rumball CWH, Harding JE, Oliver MH, Bloomfield FH. Effects of twinning and periconceptional undernutrition on maternal metabolism, fetal growth and glucose-insulin axis function in ovine pregnancy. Journal of Physiology, 2008; 586(5):1399-411.

Bloomfield FH, Oliver MH, Harding JE. Effects of twinning, birth size and postnatal growth on glucose tolerance and hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal function in post-pubertal sheep. Am J Physiol 2007; 292 E231-E237.

Bloomfield FH, Oliver MH, Hawkins P, Holloway AC, Campbell M, Gluckman PD, Harding JE, Challis JR. Periconceptional undernutrition in sheep accelerates maturation of the fetal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in late gestation. Endocrinology 2004; 145(9):4278-4289.

Bloomfield FH, Oliver MH, Hawkins P, Campbell M, Phillips DJ, Gluckman PD, Challis JRG, Harding JE. A periconceptional nutritional origin for non-infectious preterm birth. Science 2003; 300:606.
 

National Research Centre for Growth and Development project grants:

• “Metabolic outcomes following increased protein intakes in extremely low birth weight babies” 2011
• “Life as a twin begins at conception” 2011

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