Grants Funded | Trauma Research and Combat Casualty Care Collaborative TRC4

2024 TRC4
Grant Awards

2024 Total Award: $18,037,863

Direct Award

Novel Short Wave Assessment Tool in Texas (SWATT) to Enhance Burn Tissue Viability Assessment
a. PI: Benjamin Levi, MD (UT Southwestern)
b. Award $1.5M
Project TRUST – Trauma Recovery Using Support from Trauma-Informed-Care-Approach
a. PI: Erika Brigmon, MD and Lillian Liao, MD (UT Health Science Center San Antonio)
b. Award $250K
Identifying SUR1/TRPM4 Polymorphisms to Reduce Contusion Expansion After Traumatic Brain Injury: Clinical Trial Planning Grant
a. PI: Charles Cox, MD (UTHealth Houston) and Susannah Nicholson, MD (UT Health Science Center San Antonio)
b. Award $500K
iRemedyACT: Identification and Remediation of Delays to Definitive Care of Critically Injured Patients in the Texas Trauma System (Remedy) with Advances in AI to Improve Care for Trauma (ACT)
a. PI: Brian Eastridge, MD (UT Health Science Center San Antonio), Alan Cook, MD (UT Tyler), and Amina Qutub, PhD (UT San Antonio)
b. Award $1M

Direct Award Total: $3.25M

Competitive Award

UT Arlington – $781,064

A Pre-hospital Hyperbaric Oxygen Regimen to Stimulate Skeletal Muscle Regeneration after Blunt Trauma
- PI: Barbara Schneider, PhD
Adaptive Spine Board Overlay for Pressure Injury Prevention and Vibration Reduction during Long-range Aeromedical Evacuations
- PI: Muthu Wijesundara, PhD
Engineered 3D Bioprinted Muscle Grafts Loaded with Prostaglandin E2 for Volumetric Muscle Loss
- PI: Kamal Awad, PhD

UT Dallas – $1,099,560

A Polyrotaxane-based Systemic Hemostatic Agent
- PI: Yongsheng Gao, PhD
Targeting Nerve Growth Factor-driven MNK Signaling to Prevent Pain and Promote Tissue Recovery in Complex Trauma
- PI: Theodore Price, PhD
Targeted Plasticity Therapy for the Treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- PI: Seth Hays, PhD

UT Tyler – $199,999

Investigating Trends and Risk Factors Associated with Traumatic and Chemical Injuries Among U.S. Service Members, 2001-2023
- PI: Tuan Le, MD
Wearable Sweat Monitoring Device for Real-time Analysis of Traumatic Brain Injury Biomarkers
- PI: Shawana Tabassum, PhD

UT San Antonio – $799,974

Nanoparticle-mediated Modulation of Adipocyte Thermogenic Activity for Cold-Induced Injury Management
- PI: Maria Gonzalez-Porras, PhD
Accelerated Performance and Health Recovery of Skeletal Muscle Using Autophagy Modulators After Ischemia Reperfusion Injury
- PI: Hugo Giambini, Phd
Enhancing Neuromuscular Recovery Following Peripheral Nerve Injury by Inhibiting NLRP3 Inflammasome
- PI: Chia Hsu, PhD

Human Brain Organoid Transplants into the Mouse Motor Cortex as a Neural Repair Model and Therapeutic
- PI: Jenny Hsieh, PhD

Tissue Damage Mimetic Biomaterials for Regeneration of Critical Sized Bone Defects
- PI: Alisa Isaac, PhD
Evaluation of In Situ Forming Gels in Retinal Cellular Models of Traumatic Optic Neuropathy
- PI: Marissa Wechsler, PhD

UT Rio Grande Valley – $500,000

Chronic Pain and Depression: Towards Effective Management of Both Comorbidities
- PI: Khalid Benamar, PhD

UT El Paso – $200,000

Nanoparticle-enabled Immunomodulation for Sepsis Prevention in Trauma and Combat Casualty
- PI: Wilson Poon, Ph

UT Medical Branch at Galveston – $1,722,433

Identification of Subtypes in Texas Burn Injuries: From Registries to Targeted Patient Care
- PI: Celeste Finnerty, PhD
Novel Strategies for Reducing Burn Scar Itch
- PI: Celeste Finnerty, PhD
Molecular Iodine for Advanced Complex Wound Management
- PI: Joseph Wenke, PhD
Targeting Polytrauma-induced Immunosuppression in a Novel Model of Invasive Fungal Disease
- PI: Alison Coady, PhD
Target Treatment of High Mobility Group Box 1 (HMGB1) Alleviates Skeletal Muscle Impairment in Burn and Hindlimb Unloaded Rats
- PI: Juquan Song, MD
Biorepository for Chronic Subdural Hematoma Treatment with Embolization Versus Surgery Study
- PI: Peter Kan, MD

UT Health San Antonio – $3,195,899

Targeting Lactate Dehydrogenase to Prevent Trauma-related Organ Injury
- PI: William Reeves, MD
Assessing Potential Adjunct Medications such as
Hydroxocobalamin and Methylene Blue, with REBOA, in the Management of Hemorrhage in a large animal (Sus scrofa) model of polytrauma
- PI: Patrick Ng, MD
Regeneration of Muscle Tissue Using Biomimetic Hematoma and RSPO-2 mRNA
- PI: Vaida Glatt, PhD
Novel Therapy for Multi-Organ Failure
- PI: Kumar Sharma, MD
Improving Procurement-to-Transplantation Timeline via Hemoglobin Based Oxygen Carriers (HBOC)-Enhanced Machine Perfusion for Optimal Trauma Care
- PI: Charles Fries, MD
Echocardiography and Lung Evaluation while Visiting Altitude Transient Extremes (ELEVATE)
- PI: Savannah Chavez, MD
Accelerated Image-guided Robotically Delivered Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Combat PTSD
- PI: Felipe Salinas, PhD

UT Health Houston – $3,413,377

Role of Neutrophil-derived Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1 Alpha in Liver Injury
- PI: Yankai Wen, PhD
Consequences of TBI in aged animals with Abeta pathology
- PI: Pramod Dash, PhD
An Assessment of Green Plasma: The Potential Hemostatic Superiority of a Currently Discarded Blood Product
- PI: Bryan Cotton, MD
Freeze Dried Mechotransduced MSC Derived Exosomes for Neurological Injury
- PI: Charles Cox, MD
Investigation of the Therapeutic Potential of Eosinophils to Attenuate Trauma and Combat Casualty-related Liver Injury
- PI: Cynthia Ju, PhD
Pediatric Prospective Observational Vascular Injury Trial (Pedi PROOVIT)
- PI: Natalie Drucker, MD
A Novel Role of Eosinophil-specific Cyclooxygenase-2 in Trauma-related Liver Injury
- PI: Yang Yang, PhD
Assessment of the Relationship between Statins, Microvascular Dysregulation, and Venous Thromboembolism in Severely Injured Trauma Patients
- PI: Gabrielle Hatton, MD
Prevention of Hemorrhagic Shock-induced Acute Kidney Injury by Targeting Hypoxia-sensitive ATP4A with Pantoprazole: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial
- PI: Yafen Liang, MD
Hemodynamic Management following Acute Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury: A Pilot Randomized, Controlled Trial
- PI: David Meyer, MD

UT Southwestern – $2,875,557

Transcutaneous Auricular Neurostimulation in TBI (tAN-TBI)
- PI: Alex Valadka, MD
Financial Toxicity Associated with Upper Extremity Trauma
- PI: Jessica Billing, MD
Neurovascular Coupling and Disorders of Consciousness in
Severe Traumatic Brain Injury
- PI: Kartavya Sharma, MD
Targeting JMJD3 to Enhance Recovery from Muscle Trauma
- PI: Prashant Mishra, MD
Physiological and Molecular Determinants of Shock-induced Torpor in the Mouse
- PI: Laurent Gautron, PhD
Mechanisms of Poloxamer 188 in Burn Injury
- PI: Vanessa Nomellini, MD
Novel Pharmacologic Strategies to Mitigate Post-traumatic Extremity Complications
- PI: Benajmin Levi, MD
Identifying the Role of Lymphatic Vessels in Tendon Healing
- PI: Neda Vishlaghi, PhD
Dissecting the Function of ER Stress during Skin Wound Repair
- PI: Zaili Yang, PhD
Development of Ultra-fast Cardiac MR Protocol for Cardiac Trauma Evaluation and Diagnosis
- PI: Qing Zou, PhD

Competitive Total Award: $14,787,863

Areas of Research

Clinical Research: research supported by substantial preliminary or published data.

Early Career Mentored Research: research that is innovative and in the early stages of idea development or is an untested theory that addresses an important problem associated with trauma.

Pre-Clinical Translational Research: research that is supported by substantial preliminary or published data.

Proof of Concept Research: research that is innovative, high risk/high-reward and in the early stages of idea development or is an untested theory that addresses an important problem associated with trauma.

Program Focus Areas

Pre-hospital Care – Research focused on trauma care prior to a patient’s arrival to a hospital.

Innovative and Novel Surgical Support Technologies – Research and technologies that can treat life-threatening injuries of patients who are delayed in receiving definitive surgical care.

Innovative and Novel Devices, Drugs and Therapies – Research and technologies to treat trauma/combat casualty-induced injuries.

Clinical Practice Techniques – Research focused on expanding the scope, speeding the progress, or increasing the efficiency of active trauma/combat casualty research. Improvement of capabilities and partnerships for conducting multi-center, longitudinal, FDA regulated and non-regulated trauma clinical trials.

Trauma System Registries and Information Management – Research designed to assess current trauma care and recovery procedures (e.g. registries, existing data sources). Development of methods to improve coordination of the digital and remote-based patient data capture and collection.

Advanced Complex Wound Management – Research and development of therapies and solutions for traumatic injuries, such as complex burn, soft tissue, open fracture, penetrating torso and brain injury.

2024 TRC4 Grant Awards