NIH Grant for Brain Research
In an effort to lower medical costs and improve patient recovery, scientists will attempt to identify a genetic brain-injury signal under a $4-million, five-year federal grant to Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix Children’s Hospital and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).
This signal, or biomarker – a molecule of RNA, the body’s DNA genetic messenger – could help identify patients most at risk for two secondary brain conditions after a brain injury:
• Subarachnoid hemorrhage
• Brain aneurysm, an abnormal bulge in an artery wall
Identification of this biomarker could lead to faster diagnosis and intervention.
“We hope this study will lead to less injury, less testing and cost, and shorter stays in the hospital,” said Yashar Kalani, M.D., Ph.D., a Barrow neurosurgery resident and one of the study’s principal investigators.
Barrow will collect daily spinal fluid samples from patients with ruptured aneurysms, and TGen will analyze the samples to look for changes in RNA levels. These changes might identify patients at risk of vasospasm.
RNAs are cell molecules that help create proteins.
“We know RNAs have additional functions, as well. If an injury happens somewhere in the body, RNAs can message the rest of the body about the injury,” said TGen’s Kendall Van Keuren-Jensen, Ph.D., a principal investigator in the study, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health.
This type of study is possible because of improvements in optics and computer speed. Yashar Kalani, M.D., Ph.D.
While it took 13 years and $2.7 billion to spell out the first human genome, such sequencing
can now be done in days and for less than $5,000.
Only half of patients with brain-aneurysm ruptures survive, and those who do often are severely disabled. In the 10 days after such ruptures, blood vessels narrow, leading to loss of oxygen, strokes and brain damage.
“If we knew what is happening during this period, we might be able to intervene and prevent the secondary injury,” Dr. Kalani said.
