Professor Jonathan Hirst holds a research and teaching appointment in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy. He is also the Deputy Director of the Mothers & Babies Research Centre and has a major role in recruiting and training undergraduate students in perinatology.

Professor Hirst has an extensive perinatology track record and a long-standing interest in improving outcomes following pregnancy complications. He has a particular interest in mechanisms leading to perinatal brain injury and approaches to improving outcomes after exposure to hypoxia.

Professor Hirst has extensively studied the role of neurosteroids in pregnancy and was the first to demonstrate the essential neuromodulatory and neurotrophic action of these steroids in the late gestation fetus. This work showed that the production of the key neurosteroid, allopregnanolone, forms a major neuromodulatory system in the fetal brain and has significant neuroprotective and trophic actions.

Professor Hirst has demonstrated the key role of the placenta in regulating allopregnanolone synthesis and maintaining the elevated gestational levels that protect the fetus.  He has shown that the trophic action of neurosteroids is critical to myelination in the fetal brain and protects against white matter injury.

His recent work has focused on developing neurosteroid supplementation approaches for reducing brain injury following hypoxia-ischemia after term and preterm birth.  Prof Hirst is currently working on harnessing the potential of the recently developed neurosteroid analogue, zuranolone, for improving outcomes after pregnancy compromise and preterm birth.