New Jersey Health Commissioner Mary O'Dowd announced today more than $6.3 million in grants for scientific research to develop treatments and cures for disabilities associated with traumatic brain injury. These grant awards are approved by the New Jersey Commission on Brain Injury Research.

In New Jersey, approximately 175,000 New Jersey residents suffer from traumatic injuries that damage the brain, and 12,000 new injuries occur each year that require inpatient or outpatient treatment. The economic consequences of physical disabilities due to traumatic brain injury are enormous.

"These grants will advance the assessment and treatment of traumatic brain injury as researchers translate their studies into improved outcomes for patients," said Commissioner O'Dowd.

Since 2007, the New Jersey Commission on Brain Injury Research has awarded more than $31 million to individual scientists at various academic and research institutions and has approved 77 separate scientific research projects that focus on effective treatments and cures for the disabilities associated with traumatic brain injury. In 2015, fifty-one applicants competed for available funds.

A wide range of grant opportunities are offered by the Commission including: Individual Research Grants; Post-Doctoral and Graduate Fellowships; Pilot Research Grants, Programmatic Multi-Investigator Research Grants, and Brain Injury Core Facility Grants.

The 2014 New Jersey Commission on Brain Injury Annual Report is available at:

http://www.state.nj.us/health/njcbir/news_info.shtml

Complete information on the grant recipient projects and funding is available at:

http://www.state.nj.us/health/njcbir/grantawards.shtml

The following is a complete list of all Fiscal Year 2015 grant recipients:

James Sumowski, Ph.D.

Kessler Foundation

Grant Award: $175,623

Project Title: Randomized Controlled Trial of Retrieval Practice to Improve Academic Achievement after Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury

Karen Nolan, Ph.D.

Kessler Foundation

Grant Award: $178,420

Project Title: Improving Mobility Utilizing Robotic Exoskeletons for Children with Traumatic Brain Injury

Mesut Sahin, Ph.D.

New Jersey Institute of Technology

Grant Award: $347,617

Project Title: Electrophysiological Assessment of Traumatic Cerebellar Injury

Glenn Wylie, Ph.D.

Kessler Foundation

Grant Award: $506,322

Project Title: Treating Emotional Processing Impairments in Individuals with TBI: A

Randomized Controlled Trial

Jorge Contreras, Ph.D.

Rutgers, Biomedical & Health Sciences

Grant Award: $540,000

Project Title: Pannexin Hemichannels as a Therapeutic Target for Traumatic Brain Injury

Gleb Shumyatsky, Ph.D.

Rutgers, Department of Genetics

Grant Award: $535,000

Project Title: The Role of Stathmin and Microtubule Stability in Vulnerability, Development and Recovery from mTBI and Accompanying PTSD

Sridhar Kannurpatti, Ph.D.

Rutgers, Biomedical & Health Sciences

Grant Award: $514,057

Project Title: Mitochondrial Facilitation Treatment in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and its Integrated Translatable Monitoring

Vineet Chitravanshi, Ph.D.

Rutgers, Biomedical and Health Sciences

Grant Award: $540,000

Project Title: Traumatic Brain Injury: Functional Alterations in the Brain Cardiovascular Regulatory Areas

Wilma Friedman, Ph.D.

Rutgers, Department Biological Sciences

Grant Award: $540,000

Project Title: Strategies for Neuroprotection from Seizures

Guang Yue, Ph.D.

Kessler Foundation

Grant Award: $1,918,684

Project Title: A Comprehensive Study of Balance Dysfunction, its Recovery Following Intervention and Underlying Neural Mechanisms in Traumatic Brain Injury

Cherylynn Marino

Kessler Foundation

Grant Award: $198,645

Project Title: Advances in Treatment: Examining the Influence of a Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy Program on Reducing Internalizing and Externalizing Problems Following Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury

Valentina Dal Pozzo

Rutgers, Cell Biology & Neuroscience

Grant Award: $100,500

Project Title: Role of Reelin in Traumatic Brain Injury

Akshata Korgaonkar

Rutgers Biomedical & Health Sciences

Grant Award: $100,500

Project Title: Differential Toll-like Receptor 4 Modulation of Hippocampal Plasticity in the Normal and Injured Brain

Mihir Patel, Ph.D.

Rutgers, Cell Biology & Neuroscience

Grant Award: $100,500

Project Title: Recovery of the Dendritic Network after Traumatic Brain Injury

Karla Frietze

Princeton University

Grant Award: $100,500

Project Title: Investigating the Role of MHCI in Excitotoxicity Following Traumatic Brain Injury

To apply for future research grants, access grant applications, find out application deadlines, and to obtain additional information on the New Jersey Commission on Brain Injury Research, visit the website at http://www.state.nj.us/health/njcbir. For telephone inquiries, please call 609-633-6465.

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