The Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Center for Trauma Innovation is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2023 Stepping Strong Innovator Awards.
Each year, the Stepping Strong Innovator Awards support research and innovation across the continuum of trauma care from prevention to treatment and recovery. The following individuals received this year’s awards:
After a traumatic brain injury (TBI), persistent neuroinflammation contributes to disease progression and poor outcomes. Microglia — brain cells that regulate brain development, maintenance of neuronal networks, and injury repair — play a critical role in the neuroinflammatory response following injury. Saef Izzy, MD, FNCS, and his team have discovered that nasal administration of anti-CD3, which stimulates regulatory immune cells to travel to the brain, can reduce the inflammatory nature of microglia and encourage these cells to be more protective rather than disease-inducing. When nasal anti-CD3 was administered within 4 hours of brain injury in animal models, the team found decreased neuroinflammation and improved neurological outcomes.
With funding from the Stepping Strong Innovator Award, Izzy plans to test whether the beneficial effects remain even after stopping treatment, as well as expand the treatment window. The team will administer the nasal anti-CD3 at 24 and 72 hours after TBI in animal models and determine the effects on the brain and immune system over time. This research will allow for a better understanding of the role of the neuroinflammatory response after injury and potentially offer a novel therapeutic option to improve the long-term quality of life and neurological outcomes for millions of Americans with TBI.
Traumatic injuries from burns, blasts, or major surgery dysregulate immune system function, predisposing injured people to life-threatening infections or persistent critical illness. Targeted therapeutics to restore immune function and homeostasis have not yet been developed for clinical use and are urgently needed. James Lederer, PhD, and his team believe that the diversity among human beings serves as justification for targeting evolutionarily conserved immune system regulatory networks in order to help restore immune system function after traumatic injuries. The research team uses these “innate” stimulatory networks to enhance immune system recovery from severe injuries and to prevent the development of life-threatening infections.
Lederer and his team target an immunological process known as trained immunity, which is the process of reprogramming innate immune cells to enhance their function. They discovered a type of immune stimulant called CpG-DNA — small pieces of DNA found in bacteria and cell mitochondria — that can activate a highly protective trained immunity response in mice exposed to high-dose radiation or burn trauma. CpG-DNA acts in the bone marrow to help regenerate immune cells that are better poised to respond to infections and eliminate bacteria in people who are severely injured or have a compromised immune system.
With funding from the Stepping Strong Innovator Award, Lederer will test and develop novel CpG-DNA for immunomodulatory activity in mouse trauma models and will investigate how CpG-DNA mediates its trained immunity effects on mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) to explore the potential of using CpG-DNA-stimulated MSCs as a cellular therapy for immune dysfunction following traumatic injuries.
The United States has created an impressive and sustainable trauma system that excels at saving the lives of trauma patients but falls short of achieving comparable success in ensuring that survivors and their families receive appropriate care and support after leaving the trauma center. As a result, many trauma patients and caregivers feel that their needs are not being met following discharge and report feeling abandoned by the trauma system. Collaborative care models (CCMs) have been a successful strategy used in the care of other chronic conditions such as cancer, depression, and HIV to prevent this from happening. CCMs involve a team-based approach to care, in which healthcare professionals from different disciplines work together to provide comprehensive and coordinated care to patients.
With funding from the Stepping Strong Innovator Award, Geoffrey Anderson, MD, MPH, and Juan Herrera-Escobar, MD, MPH, plan to implement the pilot of the Transforming Recovery After Injury for the Long-term (TRAIL) clinic at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which will be the first CCM for traumatic injury survivors in New England. The TRAIL Clinic will conduct a holistic health assessment, identify clinical and social needs, develop a collaborative care plan, and discuss recovery goals. This study will help the research team learn about how CCMs can help traumatic injury patients and which factors will allow for the implementation of more CCMs to help a wider range of trauma survivors.
Despite advancements in trauma care, errors in prehospital treatment are common, resulting in poor patient outcomes. Telemedicine has emerged as a promising tool for delivering care in prehospital settings and has been shown to improve the quality of care provided. However, conventional telemedicine tools have significant limitations when it comes to delivering real-time support and guidance to providers in point-of-injury (POI) settings, where rapid response and informed decision-making are crucial. Moreover, POI settings often require specialized equipment and expertise, which may not be available in conventional telemedicine setups.
With funding from the Stepping Strong Innovator Award, Rayan Harari, PhD, and his team plan to develop and test an augmented reality (AR)-based telemonitoring support system, which will aid real-time decision-making and procedural guidance to healthcare providers in challenging online and offline POI settings. The team will leverage the AR-Coach system, which was developed in previous NASA-supported projects, to create an AR telemonitoring system. By incorporating both online telemonitoring for real-time support and an offline interactive checklist based on best practices, the team aims to improve clinical practices in trauma care in civilian and military applications, leading to fewer deaths and reducing the cost burdens on healthcare systems.
Amid a critical gap in trauma research funding, The Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Center for Trauma Innovation catalyzes multidisciplinary, multi-institutional collaboration to transform care for civilian and military heroes recovering from traumatic injury.
Learn more about the work we fund and stay connected to future Innovator Award opportunities.
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