Research Program Partners with Institutions to Improve Care of Brain Injuries

Collaboration is a vital aspect of research, as it allows for new avenues of exploration and understanding that can, in the end, improve the quality of care.

At the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, the Translational Neurotrauma Research Program thrives on these partnerships, as its scientists conduct hypothesis-driven, peer-reviewed research that will improve the care and quality of life for those with acquired neurological injuries.

Led by Jonathan Lifshitz, PhD, the program is a joint venture through Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, the Department of Child Health at the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix and the Phoenix Veterans Administration Health Care System.

“The mission of the program is on acquired neurological injuries,” Lifshitz said. “These are events that occurred during an individual’s life and have changed their neurological function whether that be epilepsy, stroke, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury or intracerebral hemorrhage.”

Through partnerships with leading institutions, Rachel Rowe, PhD, and Murtaza Akhter, MD, have received funding that will allow for new national and international collaborations and the chance to expand the program’s areas of interest.

Rachel Rowe

Rachel Rowe, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the College, recently received funding through the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium to research the extent that brain injury might lead to age-related cognitive impairment. Through the study, she published a paper in the journal Developmental Neuroscience and was awarded the WiNTR VISA Award by the National Neurotrauma Society.

The award will provide Rowe travel funds to visit the Wicking Dementia Center at the University of Tasmania in December to learn techniques and approaches to evaluate age-related pathology.

“Going to Tasmania is important because Neuroscience is collaborative, and this international collaboration gives me the opportunity to receive training at a world class facility,” Rowe said. “I can then apply that training to research I am conducting in Arizona and share the techniques I’ve learned with local collaborators.”

In addition to Rowe’s WiNTR VISA award, she also led an effort with Theresa Thomas, PhD, to understand endocrine dysfunction and how a brain injury can disrupt hormone regulation.

Rowe is supported by the Bisgrove fellowship given by the Science Foundation Arizona, a prestigious award that allowed her to work on this project and publish her results with Thomas in the journal Endocrine Connections.

“The research is motivated by veterans who are suffering from chronic morbidities as a result of brain injury,” Rowe said. “One of these morbidities is hormone dysfunction. This study tested a way to model this in rodents, so we can begin to test therapeutics such as hormone replacement.”

The manuscript was a collaborative effort of the College of Medicine – Phoenix, the Science Foundation Arizona and the Phoenix Veterans Administration Hospital.

Murtaza Akhter

Murtaza Akhter, MD, an attending physician and assistant professor at the College, was recruited to the Translational Neurotrauma Research Program as an emergency medicine physician with the goal to be a clinician scientist — a physician who wants to lead his field through research.

He still practices at Maricopa Medical Center, but also dedicates part of his efforts to research and discovery.

“I decided to become a clinician scientist back in medical school. It was then that I realized that I really did like basic sciences, and academics provides me the opportunity to do both,” he said.

Dr. Akhter was recently awarded $50,000 by the Emergency Medicine Foundation to pursue his interest in intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Because his interests are within the scope of practice of the Translational Neurotrauma Research Program, Dr. Akhter was welcomed and expanded the program’s areas of interest — which focused primarily on TBI — to include ICH.

Dr. Akhter has been at the College for 10 months. His research focuses on investigating the genetics of microglial activation in injury by combining laser capture microdissection and gene profiling. He also is investigating the activation and migration of microglia during ICH using multiphoton microscopy — a core facility supported by the college.

Lifshitz said Rowe’s and Dr. Akhter’s research have allowed the Translational Neurotrauma Research Program to explore immediate treatments, understand medium- to long-term consequences and expand their understanding of acquired neurological injury.

“The end goal is translation,” Lifshitz said. “For us, that means the transfer of knowledge and devices so as we understand more about the mechanisms of the disease and the potential avenues of treatment, we can then inform our clinical colleagues how to adapt their clinical practices based on verifiable medical evidence to improve treatments if not outcomes, from these acquired neurological injuries.”