Research Programs

Biomarkers Program

The Biomarkers Program will identify molecules with physiological relevance or that can be used as surrogate indicators along with diagnostic and neuroimaging criteria to further improve patient assessment and personalize treatment options when applicable. Information from both the Biomarkers and Diagnostics Programs will be important for classification of patients into future clinical trials and to monitor outcome, along with the Rehabilitation and Evaluation Program.

Biomarkers Program's Primary Goals:

• Evaluate the most promising of the proposed TBI biomarkers in different cohorts of injured subjects, both military and civilian.
• Conduct parallel studies of putative clinical biomarkers in models of TBI to permit analyses of their relationship to injury occurrence, injury severity, and repair mechanisms.

Critical Issues for the Biomarkers Program:

• Candidate biomarkers may be useful markers of edema early after TBI, and may have a unique opportunity to exit the CNS to blood at this time point.
• Putative biomarkers may be of use in evaluating the effectiveness of potential TBI therapies in animal models for TBI and in the treatment of TBI patients.
• Biomarkers may offer unique insights into the pathology of TBI and the mechanisms underlying recovery processes.
• TBI may be associated with characteristic changes in gene expression in circulating blood cells that might be reliably detected with very high sensitivity.

Biomarkers Program Research Projects

Click here to download project abstracts