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DISCOVERY THEMES

CHRONIC BRAIN INJURY PROGRAM

ADVANCING THE PREVENTION, DETECTION, AND TREATMENT OF BRAIN INJURIES

The brain is the body's most complex organ. It makes us who we are. It is critical to our abilities to speak, think, remember, interact, and move.

The Ohio State University is advancing how we understand and approach brain injury as a chronic condition. Even mild brain injuries can have persistent, long-term effects that impact our future health and wellness. Understanding, detecting, treating, and preventing these effects is essential to solving the silent epidemic of traumatic – or rather, chronic – brain injury.

ABOUT US

To accelerate discovery, our scientists and clincians are forming interdisciplinary teams that are translating knowledge, partnering with industry and community organizations, and expanding capacity to implement practical solutions.

Our researchers are:

  • Deepening an understanding of how brain injuries result in visible and chronic conditions and higher risk for dementia and movement disorders
  • Studying the mechanisms of the immune system's response to neurotraumas that will inform pharamlogical, rehabilitative, and arts-based interventions
  • Developing new approaches to imaging, sensing, and clinical data analytics that better detect, monitor, and predict the trajectories of brain injuries
PROGRAM & HIGHLIGHTS
OUR PARTNERS
ANNUAL REPORT (FISCAL YEAR 2020)

We are investing in people, projects, and resources that enable convergence research in the lab, the clinic, and the community. Learn more about our program and offerings at the links below.

FUNDING & RESOURCES
RESEARCH DAY
ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

We've built a network of over 100 research labs at Ohio State in fields spanning neuroscience, electrical engineering, psychology, public health, music, and rehabilitation sciences. Through our community partners, we are building a coalition of professionals and patients to help brain injury survivors recover and thrive.

DIRECTORY & LABS
ENGAGE WITH CBI
OPEN POSITIONS

Current Opportunities

Partnership & Engagement Grants (PEGs)

We are seeking proposals for projects supporting Ohio State's land-grant mission that develop and deepen relationships with community members and organizations to enhance research recruitment, translation, and strategic partnerships that advance the prevention, detection, and treatment of brain injuries.

LEARN MORE - CLOSED

Action Potential Grants (APGs)

CBI Action Potential Grants (APGs) support the development and capture of federally-funded program or center grants that elevate interdisciplinary faculty clusters currently working in basic, clinical, and translational research on chronic brain injury topics. Faculty clusters, or groups of faculty working on interdisciplinary or convergent research within a relevant topic area, can use these awards to develop, coordinate, and submit federal grants.

LEARN MORE - OPEN/ROLLING SUBMISSIONS

2022 CBI Research Day

​Join researchers, clinicians, and trainees to share, discuss, and connect at #CBIRD2022. This flagship scientific event for brain injury research features invited and local speakers, poster presentations, and updates on program and pilot projects. We invite all Ohio State faculty, staff, and students to attend. CME credits are available.

Registration and abstract submission is open from December 1, 2021 to February 1, 2022!

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FACULTY NEWS

Chronic Brain Injury

"CARE-4-TBI" Bolsters TBI Research with $16 Million in Federal Funding

"The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes has allocated $16 million toward a seven-year, multicenter research project led by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine that will compare inpatient rehabilitation treatments for traumatic brain injuries (TBI). More than $2.5 million has been awarded for the first year of the project, with the remainder expected to be awarded as the project progresses." Congrats to Jennifer Bogner, PhD and the rest of her team on this amazing accomplishment!

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Chronic Brain Injury

Making Headway Podcast Series - "SEE BI" with Julianna Nemeth, PhD

In partnership with the Making Headway Podcast, a new series titled “SEE BI” interviews CBI researchers about their work and findings in the brain injury field. Julianna Nemeth, PhD, MA, continues the podcast series with “Domestic Violence and Brain Injuries – Helping DV Advocates Best Reach Survivors.” The episode is live on all major podcast platforms, or you can listen by clicking the link below!

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Chronic Brain Injury

Andrew Sas, MD, PhD - Buckeye Neurotrauma Lecture (July 14, 2021)

Click the link below to view Dr. Sas's talk, titled "Neutrophil mediated axon regeneration."

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Chronic Brain Injury

Summer 2021 Funding Winners Have Been Announced!

CBI provides seed funding for cross-college collaborations that push the boundaries of our knowledge and capabilities in brain injury research. We also offer equipment cost-share funding, travel awards, undergraduate summer fellowships, and other resources to our members. Our most recent awards were announced on July 9th, 2021 for Pilot Awards, our Resource Award, and our inaugural Action Potential Grant (APG)! Check out the winners by clicking the link below!

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Chronic Brain Injury

Phillip Popovich, PhD - Buckeye Neurotrauma Lecture (April 2, 2021)

Click the link below to watch Dr. Popovich's talk, titled "Spinal Cord Injury Causes an Acquired Bone Marrow Failure Syndrome"

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Chronic Brain Injury

Making Headway Podcast Series - "SEE BI" with Olga 'Niki" Kokiko-Cochran, PhD

The Making Headway Podcast is a podcast made by two brain injury survivors, Mariah and Eryn. They have developed a new series titled “SEE BI” - which features various CBI researchers and their work in brain injury! Dr. Kokiko-Cochran kicked off the first episode in the series, titled “Sleep Disruption, TBI, and Long-Term Effects.” Listen and learn more by clicking the link below!

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Chronic Brain Injury

Jonathan Godbout, PhD - Buckeye Neurotrauma Lecture (January 15, 2021)

Click the link below to view the recording of Dr. Godbout's talk, titled "Unique trauma associated microglia induced by diffuse brain injury promote chronic cortical inflammation, neuronal dysfunction, and cognitive decline"

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Chronic Brain Injury

CBI Affiliates Represented on 6 'Accelerator' Awards from the President's Research Excellence Program!

"Nineteen teams have been awarded funding through the Accelerator Grant program. These grants of up to $50,000 are for small teams formed to pursue curiosity-driven, novel, high-risk and high-reward research." Congratulations to Drs. Jingzhen "Ginger" Yang, John Sheridan, Scott Hayes, Anne Kloos, Deborah Kegelmeyer, Olga "Niki" Kokiko-Cochran, Asimina Kiourti, Jinghua Li, and Xia Ning!

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Chronic Brain Injury

Congratulations to our 2021 Poster Winners!

CBI Research Day is a flagship scientific event for presenting the best of brain injury research – and 2021 was no exception! Congrats to our poster winners, exhibiting excellence in the next generation of TBI researchers: Antonia Zouridakis of the Tedeschi Lab, Brigette Gonzalez Olmo of the Barrientos Lab, and Angela Filous of the Schwab Lab.

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Chronic Brain Injury

Congratulations to our 2021 Pilot Award winners!

Congratulations to our 2021 Pilot Award winners! These interdisciplinary teams will develop innovative brain injury research in human imaging, movement analysis, and infection risks.

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Chronic Brain Injury

Lise Worthen-Chaudhari Creates Revolutionary Gaming Therapy to Help Brain Injury Survivors

"How can gaming technology or virtual reality be a rehabilitation tool that engages someone recovering from a traumatic brain injury? How can it get them to enjoy the rigorous work? That’s the world Lise Worthen-Chaudhari lives in." A new article by Ohio State Insights details how Dr. Worthen-Chaudhari's revolutionary gaming therapy, Embedded Arts, helps patients recovering from brain injuries increase their range of motion control by creating abstract art through motion sensors.

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Chronic Brain Injury

2020 CBI Paper of the Year

Andrew Sas, MD, PhD was selected as the winner for CBI's 2020 Paper of the Year for his work entitled “A new neutrophil subset promotes CNS neuron survival and axon regeneration." His work was published October 26, 2020 in Nature Immunology, and you can read it at the link below. Congratulations, Dr. Sas!

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Chronic Brain Injury

Z-Lab Reveals Disconnect in Newborn Brains

Ohio State CBI faculty Zeynep Saygin (Ph.D) and fellow researchers have revealed a disconnect between visual and emotional regions in newborn brains. By studying development of this brain circuitry, we are closer to new diagnostics and treatments for emotional disorders.

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Chronic Brain Injury

Ginger Yang, PhD, Finds Success in 2017 CBI Pilot Award

Ohio State CBI affiliate, Ginger Yang, PhD, and her team have been awarded a $3 million R01 grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), in partnership with the University of Alabama at Birmingham Translational Research for Injury Prevention Laboratory (UAB) to further understand the effects of mild traumatic brain injuries on teen driving. The project funding was awarded to Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) and will be conducted at Ohio State’s Driving Simulation Lab and counterparts at UAB – further illustrating how indispensable interdisciplinary research expertise is when trying to conquer the chronic challenges of TBI.

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Chronic Brain Injury

Zeynep Saygin, PhD, Finds Brains "Prewired" for Language

A recent study by CBI faculty member Zeynep Saygin, PhD, has found novel connections to the language areas of the human brain. Dr. Saygin, senior author of the study and an Assistant Professor within Ohio State’s Department of Psychology, has revealed new research that suggests humans are born with a dedicated portion of the brain that is prewired to see words and letters – a necessary prerequisite for learning how to read.

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Chronic Brain Injury

Congratulations to the 2020 CBI SURF Fellows!

We at CBI are proud to award three Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF Awards) to Ohio State undergraduate students pursuing brain injury research with our faculty affiliates. Each student will spend the summer completing a research project and will present these projects at an upcoming seminar or conference. Fellowships support the student’s time, while the mentor provides project funding and training... Join us in congratulating our new fellows!

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Chronic Brain Injury

Dr. Quatman-Yates Publishes the First APTA CPG for the Care-Management of Concussion

Dr. Quatman-Yates and her team have made great progress in this front with their recently published Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) for the physical therapy management of concussion, which have been endorsed by the American Physical Therapy Association and its affiliated academies. This is the first CPG to provide detailed guidance on care-management strategies for physical therapists that are treating patients who have experienced a potential concussive event. Prior CPGs for concussion management have largely focused on sideline management, acute treatment, and return to sport protocols.....

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Chronic Brain Injury

2019 CBI Paper of the Year

Andrea Tedeschi, PhD., Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, won the 2019 CBI Paper of the Year for his work, "ADF/Cofilin-Mediated Actin Turnover Promotes Axon Regeneration in the Adult CNS", which was published in Neuron. This work described essential mechanisms for axonal regeneration in neurons following central nervous system injury, which may inform future regenerative interventions. Several publications were nominated for this annual award, and are listed on our Projects & Highlights page. Read Dr. Tedeschi's paper at the link below.

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Chronic Brain Injury

CBI 2019 Brain Health Hack Winners

CBI's annual weekend workshop for undergraduates saw teams build and develop mobile and virtual reality applications that address brain health research and clinical needs. Teams often bridged engineering and health sciences disciplines, and completed their applications in under 20 hours. Several projects were suggested by Ohio State and Nationwide Children's Hospital faculty, and successful teams will continue to develop their work in partnership with the sponsors. Congratulations to winning teams 119, Project Velvet, and VrNS!

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Chronic Brain Injury

CBI 2019 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows

CBI launched its Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) Awards in Spring 2019 to support training and development of outstanding Ohio State undergraduates through participation in basic, clinical, and translational research. SURF Fellows complete a research project with CBI faculty mentors during the summer semester. Congratulations to the inaugural SURF Fellows who will each receive $4,000 stipends for their project. Sebastian Bejarano, College of Engineering (Mentor: Liang Guo, PhD) Mahin Hossain, College of Medicine (Mentor: Jan Schwab, MD, PhD) Praneethkumar Madhu, College of Medicine (Mentor: Harry Fu, PhD) Matthew Moritz, College of Arts & Science (Mentor: Yune Lee, PhD)

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Chronic Brain Injury

Jonathan Godbout named interim faculty director for Chronic Brain Injury

Jonathan Godbout, PhD, has been named interim faculty lead of the Chronic Brain Injury (CBI) program, a focus area of the $500 million Discovery Themes initiative created by Ohio State to address global challenges.

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Chronic Brain Injury

CBI 2018 Paper of the Year

Congratulations to Harry Fu, PhD, for winning the CBI 2018 Paper of the Year! Harry is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience, and was awarded $500 and a plaque for his accomplishment. This award recognizes scientific impact and contribution to chronic brain injury research.

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Chronic Brain Injury

CBI affiliate Lise Worthen-Chaudhari awarded 2016 Early Career Innovator of the Year

As Ohio State continues to expand its role in the commercialization of research, it is important to create an environment that facilitates and rewards research creativity and entrepreneurship. To support and stimulate entrepreneurial activity among Ohio State researchers, three university-wide awards were presented on January 25, 2017, to Ohio State’s most successful entrepreneurs.

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Chronic Brain Injury

Brain injury common in domestic violence

New research by CBI affiliate Julianna Nemeth suggests that brain injury caused by blows to the head and by oxygen deprivation are likely ongoing health issues for many domestic violence survivors. Because of poor recognition of these lasting harms, some interactions between advocates and women suffering from the effects of these unidentified injuries were likely misguided.

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CBI Faculty Spotlight

Cynthia Beaulieu, PhD

cynthia.beaulieu@osumc.edu

Dr. Beaulieu's OSU journey began over 30 years ago as a first year graduate student and following completion of undergraduate work at that school up north. She trained at Dodd Rehabilitation during graduate school, and returned to OSU in 2019 as an Associate Professor in PM&R, specifically to continue research in TBI rehabilitation with Drs. Bogner and Corrigan.

What should people know about your research?
Data is the key to discovery. While technically a “next-step” in our investigation into TBI rehabilitation, CARE-4-TBI will be the first step in bringing acute TBI rehabilitation into the realm of big data. CARE-4-TBI will build the infrastructure to capture day-to-day clinical data generated by rehabilitation teams. This infrastructure is targeted for implementation across 15 sites within the TBI Model Systems. Imagine the volume of data this will generate at the patient-level! Then, imagine what will be possible to discover and to create with this volume of data!!

What do you like to do in your free time? I recently became a grandmother for the first time, so I'm having lots of fun babbling with a really cute tiny human (and getting to watch another brain evolve!). When I'm not babbling, I enjoy time with my husband. Together we like to travel (usually to wine regions), watch football, and spend time outdoors walking, biking, or hiking. I also enjoy running, reading, cooking, and contemplating the next 14er climb in the Rockies.

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