CIC/Big 10 Traumatic Brain Injury Research Collaboration

A joint effort of the CIC and the Big Ten Athletic Conference, the Traumatic Brain Injury Research Collaboration aims 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.

This past spring, the Big Ten Conference, in conjunction with the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (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 on solutions 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."

For more information, please visit the CIC/Big 10 Traumatic Brain Injury Research Collaboration page.