European Research Council funds cutting-edge research on Traumatic Brain Injury
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded €780 million in grants to emerging science talent across Europe, including €1.5 million for a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) research project.
TBI affects 30 million women globally each year. The highest reported incidence is in people over 75 years old, and while women account for more TBIs than men, they remain underrepresented in the research.
Finite element brain models (FEBMs) have played a major role in improving understanding of TBI to date, but they have been developed using male-only data and cannot accurately model female TBI.
Director of the BRAIN Lab and Assistant Professor at UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Dr David MacManus, is working to address this problem through his brainsex project ‘Bridging the sex gap in traumatic brain injury biomechanics’.
“We currently lack female and geriatric specific computer models. This limits our understanding of TBI biomechanics and the efficacy of protective, diagnostic, and therapeutic technologies for these demographics,” said MacManus.
“This crucial support from the ERC will provide my lab with the necessary resources to embark on frontier research to understand the role sex specific neuroanatomy plays in TBI biomechanics.”
Dr MacManus and his team will develop the first sex specific computer models of the brain that incorporate sex specific neuroanatomy and material damage properties of brain tissue, its blood vessels and cells.
To obtain these damage properties, they will develop new experimental technologies to measure how such tissues and cells become damaged under conditions similar to those experienced during high energy head impacts.
He continued: “Brainsex will revolutionise our understanding of TBI and open a new horizon for biomechanics research focussing on the important role sex plays in the mechanical behaviour of biological tissues.
“I am very grateful to all of my collaborators, friends, and past and current members of BRAIN Lab for their inspiration and motivation that has contributed to this success. I am particularly grateful to my colleagues in UCD Research and the UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering for their continued support throughout.
“I would also like to thank Enterprise Ireland for their support through the EI Horizon Europe ERC Support grant. I am excited to begin this new research project and see what discoveries await.
President of the European Research Council, Professor Maria Leptin, said: “Empowering researchers early on in their careers is at the heart of the mission of the ERC.
“I am particularly pleased to welcome UK researchers back to the ERC. They have been sorely missed over the past years. With fifty grants awarded to researchers based in the UK, this influx is good for the research community overall.”
