$1.7 Million Awarded to The Miami Project for Military Neurotrauma Research
Article Summary
- Researchers at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis are studying treatments for traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries with support from the U.S. Department of Defense.
- Military personnel suffer traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury at rates much higher than the general population.
- Dr. W. Dalton Dietrich says the project’s goal is to develop new approaches to repair the nervous system so people can live fulfilling lives after injury.
Neurotrauma to the brain and spinal cord is a significant public health concern, impacting nearly 1.5 million Americans. Within this demographic are military personnel facing unique neurotrauma challenges.
Researchers at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, a Center of Excellence at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, are answering the call for new diagnostic and therapeutic agents with a $1.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
The DOD awarded the two-year grant for “Army Battlefield Exercise and Combat-Related Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Spinal Cord Injury (SCI),” a project backed by U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz. SCI is a common combat injury, with thousands of veterans living with chronic disabilities. Likewise, TBI occurs in military personnel following cases of blunt head injury, shrapnel or a blast wave from exploding bombs.
“We were very pleased that our grant application was well received by the grant review boards and recommended for funding,” said W. Dalton Dietrich, Ph.D., scientific director of The Miami Project and senior associate dean for discovery science and professor of neurological surgery at the Miller School. “The multidisciplinary program will allow our researchers to generate new data to further support future investigations and clinical translation.”
Team Science Approach to Military Neurotrauma
Six projects from the center are in the works, focusing on discovery, translational and clinical research. These research enterprises are directed at testing novel diagnostic and treatment approaches for acute and chronically injured patients.
From 2001 to 2009, the DOD reported 5,928 new SCIs within the Armed Forces, a rate almost eight times higher than the general U.S. population. Further emphasizing the scale of the issue, the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center highlighted nearly 414,000 TBIs among U.S. service members worldwide from 2000 to late 2019.
“Ongoing research into neurotrauma often highlights the need for better predictive tools that can accurately determine the outcome of various interventions,” Dr. Dietrich said. “This would personalize treatment plans and optimize resource allocation.”
The first project will investigate how lead kinase inhibitors with polypharmacological properties signal multiple pathways involved in cell communication, particularly those related to the regeneration of nerve fibers. It will be led by:
• Hassan Ali, Ph.D., M.S.M., associate professor of neurological surgery and medicine and director of high content screening at the Miller School
• Vance Lemmon, Ph.D., professor of neurological surgery and the Walter G. Ross Distinguished Chair in Developmental Neuroscience at the Miller School
• John Bixby, Ph.D., emeritus professor of pharmacology and neurological surgery at the Miller School
A second project will test the safety and benefits of Schwann cell-derived exosomes in a model of SCI. Dr. Dietrich will be joined by investigators:
• Damien Pearse, Ph.D., professor of neurological surgery at the Miller School
• Aisha Khan, Ph.D., M.B.A., executive director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute’s GMP laboratory operations
Neuromodulation Use in Spinal Cord Injury
Three DOD-funded projects will study state-of-the-art neuromodulation to improve specific functions in people with SCI.
• James Guest, M.D., Ph.D., clinical professor of neurological surgery at the Miller School, will lead a study that focuses on arm and hand function.
• Matija Milosevic, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurological surgery and biomedical engineering at the Miller School and The Miami Project’s director of neuromotor rehabilitation, will utilize transcutaneous stimulation to produce locomotor function based on signals from the brain.
• Mark Nash, Ph.D., professor of neurological surgery, physical medicine and rehabilitation, physical therapy and kinesiology and sports sciences and associate scientific director for research for The Miami Project, and Patrick Ganzer, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Miami, will evaluate the benefits of transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation on glycemic homeostasis.
“New strategies for the stimulation of residual circuits after neurotrauma combined with task-specific motor activity are showing real results,” said Dr. Guest. “These neuromodulation approaches are not only improving motor function but also other quality-of-life issues that people are living with.”
The sixth and final project will evaluate a blood biomarker diagnostic platform as a potential surrogate marker for advancing behavioral improvements. It will be led by:
• Pablo de Rivero Vaccari, Ph.D., associate professor of neurological surgery and a distinguished faculty member of the Center For Cognitive Neuroscience and Aging
• Ayham Alkhachroum, M.D., assistant professor of clinical neurology at the Miller School
• Robert Keane, Ph.D., professor of physiology and biophysics and neurological surgery at the Miller School
“After traumatic brain injury, when patients are in the intensive care unit, physicians and families are often faced with extremely critical life-or-death decisions,” Dr. de Rivero Vaccari said. “Using a blood-based biomarker approach combined with clinical data from eye tracking and EEG patterns, we aim to identify complementary and novel information that can better educate all parties involved when making decisions about the care of comatose patients after brain trauma.”
The studies will span two years and feature collaborative team science, with results communicated at conferences and peer-reviewed journals.
“Managing these injuries doesn’t stop at the hospital exit. It’s a lifelong journey of adaptation and rehabilitation,” Dr. Dietrich said. “For military and civilian personnel, life after such injuries involves navigating many challenges. This transition requires comprehensive support systems, including physical therapy, mental health services and community reintegration programs. Our overreaching goal is to develop and test new approaches that can help repair the nervous system and promote improved function to ensure individuals can lead fulfilling lives, post-injury.”
Tags: Aisha Khan, Dr. Ayham Alkhachroum, Dr. Damien Pearse, Dr. Hassan Ali, Dr. James Guest, Dr. John Bixby, Dr. Matija Milosevic, Dr. Pablo de Rivero Vaccari, Dr. Robert Keane, Dr. Vance Lemmon, Dr. W. Dalton Dietrich III, Mark Nash, spinal cord injuries, The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, traumatic brain injury, U.S. Department of Defense