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Michael Cho
Nearly 300,000 soldiers have returned from service in Afghanistan and Iraq with symptoms of traumatic brain injuries caused by shockwaves from explosions. But since these injuries can go undetected by brain scans, they are often left untreated.
In an attempt to fix that, Michael Cho, chair of the Bioengineering Department, is leading a team to determine the mechanisms that cause these symptoms. Their findings could potentially change the way doctors look for brain injuries in soldiers returning from battle.
Though a soldier may be physically protected from shrapnel in a blast, he or she is not protected from the shockwaves. Scientists suspect that brain injuries could be caused by microcavitation—tiny pressurized bubbles formed in the brain by shockwaves that create tremendous force when they collapse, damaging the brain tissue. Dr. Cho and his team plan to use microcavitation systems and other technologies to monitor responses induced by shockwaves in models of brain tissue and the blood-brain-barrier.
"Microbubbles have been observed in a phantom model of the head, but have yet to be seen in the human brain. Because we developed models that can be monitored in real-time, we can follow the effects of microcavitation and study the molecular mechanisms that are responsible for causing damage to brain cells," explains Cho. "We know the symptoms are there, but they're not being addressed because we don't know the cause. If we can see that the blood-brain-barrier is damaged, we can perhaps begin contemplating clinical strategies to treat the cause."
