Multimillion brain trauma investment aims to revolutionise diagnosis and treatment

Until now, lack of coordinated use of data from individual research projects has been a brake on progress in treating TBI. 

Now, the MRC,  National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Ministry of Defence and Alzheimer’s Research UK are jointly funding the establishment of the TBI-REPORTER platform. Research will be coordinated by the Universities of Cambridge, Glasgow and Sheffield, Imperial College London, and Swansea University, with involvement also from the public through the United Kingdom Acquired Brain Injury Forum (UKABIF). 

Leading experts will examine data for individuals ranging in age from children to the elderly and also understudied populations, such as prisoners, homeless people and domestic violence victims. 

Source collaborators will include Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) NHS and population-based UK research, such as UK Biobank and Dementias Platform UK (DPUK. It will also coordinate research data collection and clinical studies and share information with researchers worldwide. 

The plan is to develop more targeted treatment and better predict how different types of injuries are likely to affect TBI patients. And it will establish a network of NHS specialist neuroscience hospitals primed to trial innovative ways of diagnosing and treating TBI. 

Project lead Professor David Menon, Head of the Division of Anaesthesia at the University of Cambridge, said the work, in combination with that of international partners, would re-energise drug development in TBI and deliver new treatments for patients.

Professor John Iredale, Executive Chair of the MRC, part of UKRI, added: “This award will capitalise on the UK’s unique scientific strengths to see research into TBI accelerated on a scale not seen before. This will lead to the discoveries we need to give survivors of TBI all around the world a much more hopeful future.”

Dr Susan Kohlhaas, Director of Research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, pointed out that more than a million people in the UK were living with long-term symptoms of a traumatic brain injury, and evidence suggests that exposure to such an injury can increase dementia risk. The programme will be fundamental in improving understanding of how brain injury contributes to dementia risk , she said.

TBI-REPORTER is the result of a collaboration of leading institutions, coordinated by the Universities of Cambridge, Glasgow and Sheffield, Imperial College London, and Swansea University, with involvement also from the public through the United Kingdom Acquired Brain Injury Forum (UKABIF).