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Frances Northington

Frances Northington, MD

Neonatology

Johns Hopkins Affiliations:
  • Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty

Languages

  • English

14 Insurances Accepted

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Gender

Female

About Frances Northington

Professional Titles

  • Co-Director, Neurosciences Intensive Care Nursery
  • Director, Maryland Regional Neonatal Transport Program

Primary Academic Title

Professor of Pediatrics

Background

Dr. Frances Northington is a professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her area of clinical expertise is neonatal and perinatal medicine.

Dr. Northington is one of the founders and co-directors of the Neurosciences Intensive Care Nursery at Johns Hopkins, which brings together experts from neonatology, pediatric neuroradiology, pediatric neurology, maternal fetal medicine, developmental medicine and the Kennedy Krieger Institute to care for newborns who have developmental brain abnormalities or are at high risk of neurological injuries. 

She received her medical degree at the Medical College of Georgia. She went on to complete a residency at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital and a fellowship at the University of Virginia. 

Centers and Institutes

Johns Hopkins Children's Center

Additional Academic Titles

Professor of Neurology

Research Summary

Frances Northington’s research focuses on mechanisms of neurodegeneration following neonatal hypoxic-ischemia (HI) brain injury. Dr. Northington’s research team has developed one of the first mouse models of the role of hypothermia treatment following neonatal HI. Along with Dr. Chavez-Valdez, they have published multiple papers on this model. Dr. Northington was the first to recognize the importance of programmed necrosis in neonatal HI and has now defined novel roles for the endoplasmic reticulum and proteasome system in this injury. Dr. Northington has just begun a collaboration with Sujatha Kannan (Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine-Pediatrics) to investigate the potential of nanoparticle delivery of N-acetyl cysteine as a microglial targeted therapeutic to prevent the development of cerebral palsy. This dendrimer-drug combination is under review by the FDA for use in humans. Additionally she, along with her former fellow, Dr. Fang, have found important novel responses to treatments aimed at mitochondrial neuroprotection in the neonatal model. In collaboration with Jiangyang Zhang and Dan Wu, Dr. Northington is co-investigator on an NIH grant that investigates novel and advanced imaging analysis of neonatal brain injury. From this work has recently come the first direct evidence of nuclear and mitochondrial swelling detected by MRI/DTI. She also collaborates with Raul Chavez-Valdez in his interest in the role of HI in perturbation of brain neurotrophins following neonatal HI. Dr. Northington is pioneering work on the effect of early life injury in the setting of genetic susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease with Lee Martin on a funded R21. With Lauren Jantzie, she is also introducing advanced metrics of cognition and executive function to the evaluation of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury in newborns. Finally, Dr. Northington’s work extends to the clinic where Allen Everett, Ernest Graham and she have done a decadelong collection of neonatal brain injury biomarkers. She is funded through the NIH with several R01s, an R21 and a U01 grant.

Selected Publications

  • Hayashi M, Poretti A, Gorra M, Farzin A, Graham EM, Huisman TA, Northington FJ. “Prenatal Cerebellar Hemorrhage: Fetal and Postnatal Neuroimaging Findings and Postnatal Outcome.” Pediatr Neurol. 2015 Jan 29. pii: S0887-8994(15)00041-7. doi: 10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2015.01.011. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 25724371.

  • Kesavan K, Ezell T, Bierman A, Nunes AR, Northington FJ, Tankersley CG, Gauda EB. “Breathing and temperature control disrupted by morphine and stabilized by clonidine in neonatal rats.” Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 2014 Sep 15;201:93-100. doi: 10.1016/j.resp.2014.06.015. Epub 2014 Jul 5. PubMed PMID: 25008573.

  • Wu D, Martin LJ, Northington FJ, Zhang J. “Oscillating gradient diffusion MRI reveals unique microstructural information in normal and hypoxia-ischemia injured mouse brains.” Magn Reson Med. 2014 Nov;72(5):1366-74. doi: 10.1002/mrm.25441. Epub 2014 Aug 28. PubMed PMID: 25168861; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4198437.

  • Xu J, Qin Q, Wu D, Hua J, Song X, McMahon MT, Northington FJ, Zhang J, van Zijl PC, Pekar JJ. “Steady pulsed imaging and labeling scheme for noninvasive perfusion imaging.” Magn Reson Med. 2015 Mar 2. doi: 10.1002/mrm.25641. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 25732958.

Locations

  1. Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center
    • 4940 Eastern Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21224
    • The Johns Hopkins Hospital
      • 1800 Orleans Street, Baltimore, MD 21287

      Expertise

      Education

      University of Virginia School of Medicine

      Fellowship, Neonatology, 1992

      University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

      Residency, Pediatrics, 1988

      Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University

      Medical Education, MD, 1985

      Board Certifications

      Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine

      American Board of Pediatrics, 1993

      Insurance

      Johns Hopkins providers accept various commercial health insurance plans. However, they may not be included in all of an insurance company's plans or offerings. This may include Exchange, Medicaid, Medicare, and specific limited benefit plans. Exceptions to participation also exist based on your employer’s benefits package and the provider's location or specialty. Please contact your insurer directly to make sure your doctor is covered by your plan. For more details, please review our Insurance Information.
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      • Aetna
      • CareFirst
      • Cigna
      • First Health
      • Geisinger Health Plan
      • HealthSmart/Accel
      • Humana
      • Johns Hopkins Health Plans
      • MultiPlan
      • Pennsylvania's Preferred Health Networks (PPHN)
      • Point Comfort Underwriters
      • Private Healthcare Systems (PHCS)
      • UnitedHealthcare
      • Veteran Affairs Community Care Network (Optum-VACCN)