The U.S. Department of Defense granted researchers from Penn, Columbia University and Duke University $6.25 million to study blast waves on brain behavior — “the 21st-century signature injury for warfare,” according to neurology professor D. Kacy Cullen.
The goal of the “Blast Induced Thresholds for Neuronal Networks” project is to identify the threshold, or minimum level, at which blast pressures cause brain cell dysfunction. In doing so, the study may lead to new technologies for soldiers in the field — potentially including “some type of new helmet that would reduce pressures in the brain,” according to study leader David Meaney.
The project, led by Meaney — chairman of Penn’s Bioengineering Department — is one of 32 research efforts funded through DoD’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, or MURI. The program sponsors projects in a series of categories, but this is the first year it sought ideas for a project to address blast-induced brain injuries, Meaney said.
Cullen, also involved in the study, said blast-induced traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is a “critical issue that has been increasing in awareness due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
He noted that 3 percent of combat injuries in 20th-century conflicts were a result of blast exposure. However, in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, blast exposure constitutes two-thirds of combat injuries.
The purpose of the five-year study, therefore, is “to apply expertise that researchers have amassed … to the newer problem of blast-induced TBI,” Cullen added.
According to Meaney, the scope of academic backgrounds of the researchers involved, ranging from engineering to neurology, fulfills one of MURI’s goals — to support research efforts that draw from different institutions and areas of study.
“Each of them brings their own expertise to the project,” he said.
Throughout his career, Meaney has studied brain injuries inflicted through motor vehicle crashes and concussions. However, this study will focus solely on blast impact in war settings.
In the study, researchers at Duke will create computation models that will allow the team to simulate different blasts. This, Meaney said, will model “how a blast event that occurs in the field is physically transmitted to the brain.”
According to Cullen, a blast is caused by “a chemical detonation that releases energy very rapidly” and causes pressure waves to affect the brain.
Using the digital simulations, researchers will then use a device created by Duke researchers to recreate the same pressure predicted in the models and apply them to neural cells of rats to observe their activity.
