Lead University: Lehigh University
PI: Neal G. Simon
Co-PIs: Vassie Ware and Javier Buceta
Effective therapeutics for moderate-to-severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Multi-Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis remain major unmet medical needs. In the United States alone, an estimated 1.7 million people sustain a Traumatic Brain Injury each year. Massive costs are associated with these injuries--52,000 deaths, 275,000 hospitalizations, and some 1.4 million individuals treated and released from emergency departments, with an annual economic burden estimated at $76.5 billion.TBI is a contributing factor to a third of all injury-related deaths in the United States. And among military personnel, there are over 30,000 medically diagnosed cases of TBI annually. Tuberculosis (TB) is second only to HIV/AIDS as the greatest killer due to a single infectious agent. Nearly 10 million new cases of TB were reported globally in 2014 and the increase in prevalence of antibiotic-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis challenges global initiatives to eradicate this disease because multi-drug-resistant (MDR) TB does not respond to standard drug treatment. In the proposed project, a collaborative effort between Lehigh University and Azevan Pharmaceuticals, experiments will be conducted to determine the feasibility of new therapeutic approaches to the treatment of these serious medical conditions. With positive results, the project is expected to generate additional sources of funding that will support continued collaboration directed toward addressing these significant public health needs.