We are working to develop an in vitro traumatic brain injury platform to study the effects of compressive forces on neuronal damage and inflammation-induced injury in 3D neural microtissues.

The goal of this work is to identify injury thresholds at early time points post-traumatic injury (0-24 hours), examining how neural microtissues respond to forces. The significance of the overall work is to define injury thresholds and predict injury severity in a temporal fashion which can be used to study both the progression of tissue damage and the efficacy of therapeutic interventions. Additionally, these injury probabilities can also be used to inform design decisions in the development of protective head gear and early diagnostic tools that more effectively mitigate an individual’s risk of traumatic brain injury. 

This work is being conducted in collaboration with Prof. Christian Franck at University of Madison Wisconsin and Prof. Andrea Armani at USC as a part of the Physics-based Neutralization of Threats to Human Tissues and Organs (PANTHER) Research Group