TBI Research Collaboration Key Faculty
Dennis L. Molfese, Ph.D
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Director, Big Ten/CIC Traumatic Brain Injury Research Collaboration
Mildred Francis Thompson Professor
Director, Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior
Editor-in-Chief, Developmental Neuropsychology
Director, Developmental Neuroscience Laboratory
National Institutes of Health Reading & Learning Disabilities Research Network
TBI Research Collaboration RepresentativesParticipating CIC Labs
Dennis L. Molfese
The Traumatic Brain Injury Research Collaboration is a collaborative research effort emerging from the Big Ten Athletic Conference, whose mission is to better understand the causes and effects of sport-related concussion and head injuries. Dennis L. Molfese, a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, directs the effort that brings together CIC researchers to work collaboratively on this common problem, giving them access to a larger collection of laboratories, coaches, athletic trainers, scientists, and team physicians.
In the Spring of 2010, the Big Ten Conference, in conjunction with the CIC, served as host for the Big Ten/CIC Head Injury Summit. Representatives from each of the Big Ten institutions participated in the two-day summit in an effort to continue to address the issue of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and concussions in sports. The list of 42 attendees included individuals across several disciplines, including athletic medicine, neurology, neuropsychology, physics, engineering and biological sciences. The summit provided a forum for institutions to identify the current clinical aspects and research being done in this area, allowing the attendees to garner a sense of ongoing efforts that exist across the Big Ten.
A great deal of exciting collaboration across the universities of the CIC is emerging out of the conference. This landmark collaboration was featured in a Chronicle of Higher Education article exploring how experts are working together to better understand the causes and effects of sports-related concussions and head injuries.
One of the key components to this successful collaboration is a centralized data-sharing platform which will both enhance and accelerate traumatic brain injury research. The CIC Data Storage Working Group met with leaders of the TBI collaboration effort in May to begin to identify their data storage needs and is ready to work together onsolutions that will enable this critical research data to reach the sidelines of all of the Big 10 schools.
As Christie L. Sahley, a professor of biological sciences at Purdue University, said in the Chronicle article, "... when it comes to concussion research, having one or two brains tackling the problem is fine. Thirteen universities' worth is even better."
CIC Traumatic Brain Injury Research in the News
The Damage Done, Sports Illustrated, November 2010