BIAA Research Fund Grants Provide Foundation for Future Research
Categories: Research
In 2019, the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) established its research grant program with the lofty goal of finding cures for chronic brain injury, thanks to a generous bequest from the estate of Dr. Linda Redmann, as well as existing BIAA funds and ongoing contributions to the Brain Injury Research Fund. Each year, researchers have the opportunity to apply for dissertation grants of up to $5,000 and seed grands of up to $25,000 to fund scholarly work that seeks to answer questions and further understand chronic brain injury. To date, BIAA has supported more than $200,000 in research projects.
Recently, BIAA had the opportunity to check in with past grant recipients.
2022 William Fields Caveness Award Winner Steven P. Broglio, PhD, ATC
Each year, the Brain Injury Association of America recognizes outstanding contributions to research in brain injury with the William Fields Caveness Award.
This award recognizes an individual who, through research on both a national and international level, has made outstanding contributions to bettering the lives of people who have sustained brain injury. Steven P. Broglio, PhD, ATC, is the recipient of the 2022 William Fields Caveness Award.
Dr. Broglio is the director of the University of Michigan Concussion Center and director of the NeuroTrauma Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology. Since 2000, his research career has consistently focused on improving concussion assessment, management, and outcomes among athletes and military service members.
The most notable of these collaborative efforts is the National Collegiate Athletic Association and Department of Defense Concussion Assessment, Research, and Education (CARE) Consortium, the largest prospective investigation of concussions ever conducted. Through the investigations conducted within the CARE Consortium, he has led monumental advances in concussion assessment and management.
“I am honored to accept the William Fields Caveness Award from the Brain Injury Association of America and humbled to join the list of distinguished awardees. Dr. Caveness was a pioneer in the field who focused on improving the lives of individuals living with TBI,” Dr. Broglio said. “The real credit, however, belongs to the incredible team of individuals that I have had the pleasure of working with over the years.”
In addition to his work at the University of Michigan, Dr. Broglio also served as the lead author for the 2014 National Athletic Trainers’ Association Position Statement on Concussion Management, the forthcoming NATA Gap Statement on Concussion Management (planned for publication in 2023), and the 2018 National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and Department of Defense Sport-Related Concussion Common Data Elements. These publications directly influence policy and procedural documents and serve as the “gold standard” for clinical practice in concussion assessment and management for physicians, athletic trainers, and others involved in this line of care.
Dr. Broglio’s efforts in bridging neuroscience to society reflect his belief that disseminating best practices information on concussion prevention, identification, and management findings will ultimately benefit everyone, beyond the scientific research community.
Katherine Giordano
University of Arizona College of Medicine (Child Health)
Year Awarded: 2020
Topic: Precision Identification and Targeting of Rod Microglia in Diffuse Brain-Injured Cortex
Mentor: Jonathan Lifshitz, PhD
Grant amount: $5,000
Giordano, who is visiting her dissertation this summer, reported that thanks to her receipt of BIAA’s Dissertation Award in 2020, she was able to use that funding not only for preliminary data for her NINDS F31 fellowship, but for the pilot data that led to a newly funded R01 award from NIA. “We are really excited to have a large multi-year grant to continue this work,” Giordano said.
Kathryn Lenz, PhD
The Ohio State University (Psychology)
Year Awarded: 2021
Topic: Pediatric TBI Effects on Long-Term Myelination: Sex Specificity and Neuroimmune Modulation
Mentor: Jonathan Godbout, PhD.
Grant amount: $25,000
Dr. Lenz shared with BIAA that the $25,000 seed grant she was awarded in 2021 was instrumental in generating the pilot data she used in a recently funded NIH R01 grant from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke as well as a Department of Defense (DoD) TBI and Psychological Health Research Program Idea Development Grant. “The BIAA seed project successfully catalyzed my lab’s model development and growth into the pediatric TBI research space,” she said. Additionally, two other nonfunded grants (NIH R21 proposals) ) and two pending program project grants have been submitted (one NIH P01, one DoD focused program grant), in part using pilot data generated with this BIAA seed grant.
Coleen Atkins, PhD.
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Year Awarded: 2021
Topic: The Effects of Early Life Stress on Outcome after Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
Grant Amount: $25,000
The major objective of Dr. Atkins’ project was to determine if chronic stress limits recovery after mild TBI. “The BIAA grant provided us with support to investigate how immune cells in the brain, microglia, are altered with chronic early life stress. We found that chronic early life stress primes microglia,” she said. “A subsequent mTBI after chronic early life stress activates inflammatory signaling in the microglia, which worsens pathology in the brain and causes persistent cognitive deficits. Treatment with an anti-inflammatory treatment after mild TBI reduced the microglia activation and improved cognition.” Thanks to the BIAA’s $25,000 seed grant, Dr. Atkins used the data from this project to successfully apply for and receive a five-year grant from the Veterans Administration Rehabilitation R&D Service
This article originally appeared in Volume 17, Issue 2 of THE Challenge! published in 2023.