Dr. Patrick Kochanek was recently awarded a three year contract for a pre-clinical study titled “Evaluation of Neurotherapeutic Resuscitation Strategies in Polytrauma associated with Traumatic Brain Injury.”
This work represents a collaborative project targeting the development of novel therapies to prevent the development of cerebral edema in the challenging setting of traumatic brain injury resuscitation. Investigators at the Safar Center and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, including Drs. Kochanek and Raj Aneja, are collaborating with a team of scientists at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), that includes Drs. Deborah Shear, Lai Yee Leung, and Janice Gilsdorf .
The new collaborative project will be targeting therapies directed at the HMGB1-TLR4 axis, and, if successful, could help bring a new class of therapies to prevent the treatment of cerebral edema after traumatic brain injury toward clinical trials. This is an important problem in both the setting of combat casualty care and civilian trauma, and thus, is a perfect area for joint research by this investigative team.