Nicole O’Brien

Nicole O'Brien's research focuses on how severe infections and critical illness affect the brain in children, especially cerebral malaria and coma in African settings. Her work uses tools like transcranial Doppler ultrasound, EEG, and MRI to study blood flow and injury in the brain, and also examines related complications such as acute kidney injury, stroke risk in sickle cell disease, and outcomes after cardiac or respiratory critical care in children. Much of this research is conducted in collaboration with clinical sites in Malawi and other African countries, alongside pediatric critical care studies in higher-resource settings.

Publication output has grown over the last decade, rising from around 6 papers per year in 2017-2021 to a sustained higher pace of 15-19 papers per year from 2022 through 2025.

Generated by claude-sonnet-5 from public bibliographic data · Jul 20, 2026