Advancing Biomarker Research for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

In the early portion of the 21st Century, after decades of neglect and an almost complete lack of concern, concussions and head trauma (and their aftermath) have come to dominate the public consciousness. With the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the alarming injury rates and subsequent deaths linked to contact sports, particularly American football, the onus has been placed on researchers to discover new and novel ways to address this significant and growing problem. There are estimates that every 21 seconds in the United States someone sustains a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) with 50,000 attributable deaths each year. These numbers account for one-third of all injury-related deaths in the U.S. and more than 1 million people seeking medical care for TBI annually. More than 5 million Americans are living with TBI-related disabilities and the United States spends an estimated $56 billion per year treating the after-effects of this condition