UCSF-Led Consortium Studying Traumatic Brain Injury Receives $26.2 Million

Development of new therapies to treat traumatic brain injury or TBI has received a boost thanks to a $26.2-million award bestowed on a research consortium led by the University of California at San Francisco, university officials announced today.

The award, from the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity, allows the consortium to lead clinical trials of drugs tested nationwide in 18 hospitals with Level 1 trauma centers.

The trials will match patients with a treatment according to findings on imaging, such as hemorrhage, brain bruising or neuro-inflammation.

“Over the course of decades, there have been more than 30 clinical trials for TBI, but to date no effective drugs have been identified,” said Dr. Geoffrey Manley, a UCSF professor of neurosurgery and principal investigator for the UCSF-led consortium, the Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in TBI.

In 2013, there were roughly 2.8 million TBI-related hospitalizations, visits to emergency rooms and deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although many patients recover spontaneously from TBIs, such as concussions, long-term impacts on memory, movement, sensations and emotions may still emerge.