Physics-Based Approach for Understanding Directed Energy Traumatic Brain Injury
Abstract
Approved for Public ReleasePANTHER has a track record of bringing together collaborative teams of researchers with diverse backgrounds to rigorously interrogate complex biological systems to define how an exposure induces injury. The goal of this approach is to define the connection between pulsed microwave exposure and injury to define biophysical safety limits for future work. This work will be foundational for several areas including clinical diagnosis (i.e. What should we look for to identify injury?), identifying opportunities for therapeutic intervention or treatment and developing effective strategies to prevent injury. We propose to achieve this in 5 aims:1. Identify cellular injury pathology and mechanisms resulting from pulsed microwave exposureObjective: understand thermoelastic strains and stresses during pulsed microwave exposure (PMW), identify and compare the resulting injury pathology or biological alteration in a living rodent brain tissue model.Impact: Characterizingthe effects of PMW radiation on ex vivo tissue will quantitatively assess the risk of injury to brain tissue. This framework can enhance EM protective measures and form the basis for developing protective technologies.2. Quantitative comparison of the biological cellular injury response in ex vivo traumatic brain injury (TBI) modelsObjective: Identify differences or similarities in the injury pathways and mechanisms, establishing the most comprehensive and quantitative database encompassing a broad spectrum of TBI sources and wide range of injury severities to date.Impact: Understanding TBIs from diverse exposures will reveal if treatments, interventions and diagnostic techniques need to be customized to match of each source.3. Modeling pulsed microwave interactions using the multiphysics framework of neuronal injuryObjective: Validate the injury pathway for neuronal cell death, and a computational injury risk curve for secondary injury.Impact: Identify tolerance levels of microwave exposure in humans and potentially identify therapeutic targets within the neuronal microstructure.4. Determine chemical pathways underlying neuronal injury through multiphysics and transcriptomic analysis and estimate the secondary injury risk curve.Objective: Determine the chemical pathways underlying secondary injury in rat neuron models subjected to different loading and pulsed microwave excitations.Impact: The modeling will yield computationally estimated injury risk curves, the foundation for predicting and preventing injury.5. Effects of Directed Energy Exposure on Neuronal Microenvironment Damage and Estimation of Primary Injury Risk CurveObjective: Use molecular level computations to advance understanding of how exposure to PMW energies causes primary cellular injury.Impact: Supports developing protective measures (helmets or sensors)
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Nov 09, 2024
- Source ID
- N000142512008
Entities
People
- Christian Franck
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Wisconsin System