Jeffrey Bazarian, M.D., M.P.H.

Research

Research efforts in the Bazarian/Blyth lab are aimed at reducing the disability occurring after mild traumatic brain injury.

Current investigations fall into three broadly based areas: mechanisms of cell injury, biomarkers of cell injury, and therapeutics. Our overall research strategy reflects a belief that clinical trials are the ultimate means by which post-mild TBI outcome will be improved, but that they will fail unless we have an accurate means of identifying brain injury rapidly.  In order to accomplish this, heavy emphasis is currently placed on efforts to uncover serum proteins intimately related to the process of BBB damage and axonal injury after mild TBI.  Blast-related TBI is a common cause of head injury among US forces in Iraq and victims of terrorist bombings and may have a unique pathophysiology.  Studies are planned to elucidate the pathophysiology and discover unique biomarkers for this injury process.  Proteomic analysis of serum, CSF and brain tissue will play a key role in these studies.

Although we are initially focusing on biomarker discovery, we recognize that successful clinical trials will depend on a better understanding of the process by which axonal stretch eventually leads to synaptic dysfunction and cell death. Our efforts to acquire and gain experience with animal models simulating mild TBI (CCI and CHI models) will play a key role in this regard. It is hoped that efforts to understand the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury, and in particular of neuroinflammation, will yield targets potentially modifiable by drugs.

In parallel to these efforts, we are building the clinical infrastructure to validate our diagnostic results and to perform therapeutic trials in humans. This will put us in a unique position to rapidly translate results acquired at the bench, or as other have so aptly put it, to be  "First in Humans". To this end, we have established a network of six Upstate NY Emergency Departments-totaling over 300,000 patient visits per year-all dedicated to performing clinical research. The University of Rochester is the Coordinating Center for this network, which is overseen by one of our team members. The inaugural project, which involves the collection of serum and CT data from 1500 subjects, is well underway.  In addition, our first clinical trial involving mild TBI patients will soon commence. This has required the installation of state-of-the-art neuromonitoring in the Trauma ICU (eg, Licox), the hiring of dedicated research staff, and the creation of data linkages between the ED, the ICU and the outpatient setting.

 

Recent Publications

 

Bazarian JJ, Zhong J, Blyth B, Kavcic V, Zhu T, Peterson D. (2007) Diffusion Tensor Imaging Detects Clinically Significant Axonal Damage after Mild TBI. J. Neurotrauma 24: 1447-1459

Bazarian JJ, Blyth B, Cimpello L. (2006) Evidence for brain injury after concussion: looking beyond the CT scan. Academic Emergency Medicine 13:199-214

Bazarian JJ, Blyth B,  Zemlan F, Stigbrand T. (2006) S100b and cleaved tau are poor predictors of long-term outcome after mild TBI. Brain Injury 20:759-65

Bazarian JJ, Beck C, Blyth B, von Ahsen N, Hasselblatt M. (2006) Impact of CPK correction on the predictive value of S-100B after mild TBI.  Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience 24:163-172

Begaz T, Kyriacou DN, Segal J, Bazarian JJ. (2006) Serum Biochemical Markers for Post-concussion Syndrome in Patients with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A Systematic Review. J. Neurotrauma 23:1201-1210

Jeffrey Bazarian, M.D., M.P.H.
Assistant Professor

MRB 1-9629
(585) 273-2928
jeffrey_bazarian
@urmc.rochester.edu