“ Our searchable atlas is a foundation for future research to understand cell-specific impacts post-TBI . This is a living atlas in that we are continuing to build upon this with additional samples and variables .”
COVER STORY
Breakthrough Interactive Atlas Offers Pathway to Precision Medicine for TBI Patients
“ Our searchable atlas is a foundation for future research to understand cell-specific impacts post-TBI . This is a living atlas in that we are continuing to build upon this with additional samples and variables .”
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Researchers at Phoenix ’ s Barrow Neurological Institute and the University of Pittsburgh have created a vast interactive atlas that may eventually help doctors use precision medicine to target treatments for traumatic brain injury ( TBI ) patients – and could replace the existing uniform treatment model .
With 40-50 million new cases each year , the global incidence of TBI outstrips common neurological diseases , including stroke and Alzheimer ’ s disease . Effective treatments have remained elusive because each TBI is different , but treatments are not .
The atlas , the first of its kind , includes 334,376 cells and information about how they responded to TBI . The goal was to deconstruct TBIs at the molecular level , opening pathways for therapies based on the severity , time and brain region of the TBI .
All of the clinical trials over the past several decades testing different therapies have failed to show benefit . In large part this might be because of a ‘ one size fits all ’ approach to management – when really each patient , indeed each cell , is different .”