8.12: Presentation session: Brain injuries and neuro-regeneration panel: “Basic research to reduce the socioeconomic costs of traumatic brain injury”

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major healthcare problem with significant socioeconomic costs. Approximately 2 million civilian head injuries occur every year of which 75% afflict those between the ages of 15 and 45. The majority of these injuries are mild, however TBI is responsible for 50,000 deaths and leaves 80,000 individuals with lifelong disabilities annually. Annual costs are estimate at $60 billion. Within the military population, blast accounts for about 70% of all TBI of which 12% are moderate or severe. Reducing the socioeconomic costs of TBI motivates research by us and others in three main areas: prevention, acute treatment, and restoration of function. Understanding the biomechanics of TBI is essential for developing protection strategies to prevent TBI in both the civilian and military populations. This is especially true for blasts since identification of the causative physics is essential for engineering effective armor. Not all head injuries are preventable, therefore improved treatments are desperately needed. Mechanical forces set in motion an extended cascade of biological responses that result in delayed cell damage and death suggesting a therapeutic window when treatment may ameliorate that progression. Through a better of understanding of these cascades, therapeutic targets can be identified, and new treatments tested. Some 5 million Americans live with a long-term disability due to TBI, and strategies to restore function in this chronic phase are being explored. Restoration may involve cell-based strategies leveraging the promise of stem cells. Alternatively, function may be restored through neuroengineering efforts and neuroprosthetics. This panel brings together basic researchers, clinicians, and the military to discuss current progress, promising avenues, and hurdles to reducing the socioeconomic costs of TBI.