Researcher Spotlight: Bryce Ortiz
Categories: Research
Bryce Ortiz, Ph.D., of the University of Arizona College of Medicine (Phoenix) was awarded a seed grant of $25,000 for his project “Analyses of the Relationship between Growth Hormone and Sleep after Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury.”
This project is funded by the Washington, D.C. law firm Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C.
Project Information
Project Title: “Analyses of the Relationship between Growth Hormone and Sleep after Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury”
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can lead to dysfunctions of the growth hormone (GH) axis and disrupt the sleep-wake cycle in children. Here, using advanced biological, analytical, and statistical methods, we will determine the relationship between the GH-axis and the sleep-wake cycle using a pediatric TBI animal model. We will also determine how hypothalamic nuclei that control the GH-axis are changed following TBI. These studies will inform us of novel research directions and potential treatments to help treat and care for pediatric TBI survivors.
What compelled you to make the career choice you have as a research scientist?
My interest in the brain and research began early in my undergraduate career. As a student of psychology, I was interested in what happens to the brain that allows mental illnesses to develop. Because of this, during graduate school, I was focused on studies that examined how periods of prolonged stress can lead to changes in the brain that may lead to mental disorders. In particular, I was focused on what allows some individuals to recover from a period of prolonged stress, while others are less resilient. This resiliency of the brain was fascinating to me, and so for my post-doctoral work, I joined the lab of Dr. Rachel Rowe where I was able to continue to investigate how various insults to the brain, this time in the form of traumatic brain injuries, lead some individuals to show lifelong impairments while others recover quickly.
How has support from the Brain Injury Association of America helped you achieve your research goals?
My current projects investigate the effects of pediatric traumatic brain injury on hormone regulation and sleep. I am interested in understanding the relationship between sleep and hormone regulation following pediatric brain injury. The Brain Injury Association Research Fund has been instrumental in supporting my research and allowing me to achieve my research goals. Specifically, I have the opportunity to purchase research supplies that are necessary to answer my research questions. The funding has also proven to be a great networking opportunity and I have had the honor of presenting my work at various national and international research venues, including giving a research talk at the International Brain Injury Association conference in July 2021.
What message do you have for donors supporting the Brain Injury Research Fund?
I would like to thank all the donors for supporting the Brain Injury Research Fund. Not only has your generous support allowed young investigators, like me, to flourish as research scientists, but your donations also support critical research with the main goal being to improve the lives of brain injury survivors. I particularly want to thank Ira Sherman, Joe Cammarata, and Allan Siegel for their generous support of my research.
Why is it important to support brain injury research?
Traumatic brain injuries are a leading cause of death and disability in children each year. And yet, a limited number of individuals investigate the consequences of brain injury in children. Indeed, injury in early life can lead to lifelong disabilities and affect developmental trajectories. The financial support from BIAA and its donors creates the necessary workforce and enthusiasm to research unanswered questions and improve outcomes for survivors.
What else would be helpful for our community of donors and supporters to know about your work?
Pediatric brain injury affects hormone production and release and leads to changes to sleep. These changes to hormones and sleep, if left unchecked and untreated, can impair recovery and affect the normal development of children. One interesting facet of this is that the TBI-induced changes to hormones and sleep look similar to regular symptoms of the pubertal transition. When children undergo puberty, there is a massive change in hormones and sleep as well. As such, it’s important to determine how age at injury affects hormonal and sleep outcomes and the pubertal transition. It is also important for parents, caregivers, and clinicians to recognize that TBI can lead to changes in sleep and hormones and to assess whether changes to physiology are due to puberty or brain injury.
After you complete the research that this grant supports, what new platform of information do you hope to have for you to base your next research grant upon? What is your expectation that the next research project will seek to reveal or determine?
At the completion of my current research project, I hope to show a clear bidirectional relationship between sleep and hormones following pediatric traumatic brain injuries and to understand the mechanisms in the brain by which impairments to these systems come about. After this, I hope that the mechanisms we identify in the brain will allow for the development of treatments for pediatric brain injury survivors that will improve their lives.
What opportunities exist to impact practice or policy with your research?
The opportunities that exist to impact practice and policy with my research are in the form of disseminating my findings through networking and publications. As stated above, I believe that the findings we generate from the research will have a direct impact on practice in the clinic for treating brain injury survivors.
About Bryce Ortiz
My foremost aspiration is to run my own research program studying the mechanisms underlying TBI-related disruptions in the pediatric population, with a focus on sleep and hormones, in order to improve health through patient-centered sleep care. In order to become a successful researcher, I will need to hone my conceptual, innovative technical, and advanced analytical skills to push the field and my research forward. The training, mentoring, and experiences I will receive through the Brain Injury Association of America’s Young Investigator Seed Grant will help to serve this purpose as it will allow me to strengthen and build on my knowledge and training.
Education
Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Neurotrauma, University of Arizona, since January 2018; Doctor of Philosophy in Behavioral Neuroscience, Arizona State University, November 2017; Master of Arts in Behavioral Neuroscience, Arizona State University, November 2017; Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Arizona State University, May 2011.
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