Laura R Ment, MD, is Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology and Associate Dean, Yale School of Medicine. A graduate of Brown University and Tufts University School of Medicine, Dr. Ment received her training in both pediatrics and pediatric neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.

A former member of the NANDS Council of the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke at NIH and Chair of its Clinical Trial Subcommittee, Dr. Ment’s research interests include adaptive mechanisms of developing brain. She was the principal investigator of two multicenter clinical studies exploring prevention of injury in preterm neonates, the long-term neurodevelopmental and neuroimaging sequelae of preterm birth and the genetic mechanisms responsible for these changes. Her magnetic resonance studies investigate neural connectivity in the preterm brain and both typically developing and at-risk fetuses across the third trimester of gestation, and her most recent work employs state of the art MR imaging and emerging molecular technologies to identify sensitive, reliable and actionable biomarkers of growth and maturation of the developing brain.