First, how and why did you start working with the Chuck Noll Foundation for Brain Injury Research?
I’ve had a long history with the foundation community in Pittsburgh. I worked for Elsie Hillman for 25-plus years on civic projects and that brought me into the circle of the Rooneys since they did a number of projects together. I got to know Art and when he decided to launch the Chuck Noll Foundation he asked if I’d serve as the executive director. That was early 2017 – that’s how I got involved. I’m by no means a science expert or expert in brain injury research. My strength is in managing the foundation’s operations and facilitating connections.
How does the foundation operate and get funding?
The most important part of the foundation is the National Science Advisory Committee. It consists of five of the top neurosurgeons across the country – many of who have leadership roles with the American Association of Neurosurgeons. The committee keeps the board apprised of brain injury research and reviews our annual grant proposals. They meet every year to recommend which grant proposals should be considered for funding. That’s a hugely important role.
We raise funds as a public charity – that raised between 1.5 to two million dollars a year and we have major donors who give us multi-year pledges. We do a lot of events as well – our biggest is our annual golf outing – that’s in its fourth year and nets us around $250,000. That’s co-chaired by Jerome Bettis and Merril Hoge who serve on the board as well. The Steelers charity also makes a significant contribution as well.
What are the sports you’ve identified as most concerning – what may surprise people?
Soccer causes more brain injuries than any other sport. The most common cause generally in society is tripping and falling.
We’ve had six total grant cycles so far and given out 4.2 million in grants – most to early-stage research. Those are $50,000 to $150,000 sized grants. Mostly clinical. The 4.2 million has leveraged 18.2 million more through NIH, DoD and private funds and other foundations. We don’t have tons of money to be able to offer bigger grants so we measure a lot of our success in how much our funding has leveraged more funding.
We also measure success by seeing if the projects we fund get recognized in major publications. Of the 37 grants we’ve funded, 18 have received significant recognition and 1o are still in the early stages.
Any good examples of what the funding has helped uncover so far?
One project that’s underway – one of our most significant grants we’ve given – is with the Magee Women’s Hospital Women’s Research Institute – in conjunction with UPMC’s Sports Concussion Center. They originally produced a paper in 2017 on the impact of concussions on female athletes’ reproductive health. They are now doing further studies on the impact of concussions on menstrual cycles. It’s not just about football and the brain – it shows how concussions impact other areas of health. They are on the second year of that study. That’s a good example of the kind of research we help support.
We’re also looking at bio-markers that can help detect whether a person has suffered a concussion. Saliva may be a bio-marker. Sweat and blood too. We’re seeing that blood especially can be a bio-marker – we’re getting closer to seeing it as a valid one – but we’re still way off and may not be enough on its own to indicate it. You may need to combine that with cognitive testing.
I know Chuck Noll and Dr. Maroon were so forward-thinking in the implementation of the ImPACT test – what has changed since then with the test and its adoption?
Now over 25 million athletes across all sports – at all levels – have taken the ImPACT test. They do before they play to get a baseline then if they are suspected of having a concussion they need to pass the test before they can play again.
What’s most concerning now is that we’re in a scary environment where significant cuts in the NIH budget and staff have severely impacted research in many different areas including brain injury research. We lost a lot of expertise already. Pittsburgh is considered the leading hot spot for brain research – the cutbacks are affecting the research done in the area and the expertise that remains in the area as well.
To make it worse, the congressionally directed Research Priority Program of the DoD dropped traumatic brain injuries as a priority, which makes no sense considering how many vets and active military suffer from it.
What changes are you expecting to make, if any?
Because of the NIH issue, we’re pausing our grant cycle momentarily and going back to our completed grantees to see what kind of impact the NIH cuts have had on them. We’ll see if we need to do a one-year add-on to their funding if they need it – we’re identifying those needs now.
We also are working with the RK Mellon Foundation – they are providing a $250,000 grant to help fund a program for early career researchers. We heard and learned from them. We invite all those who applied for grants but didn’t get them to a meeting where they can ask us questions about how we choose who we fund. A lot of those were early career researchers who struggle more to get grants. They usually need smaller proof of concept types of grants so we developed a program for them – solely for those in the Pittsburgh area. There are economic considerations to all of this we’re trying to assist with.
In terms of the research, what have been some of the big discoveries to date?
We’re seeing a number of interesting studies. Reuben Craft at Penn State is doing a study using sensors in mouthpieces. They are able to detect whether a hit of a certain level has occurred and where in the brain was affected and its impact.
Another interesting study is being down with military veterans. Dr. Pravat Mandal at Pitt is looking at swift boat operators like Navy Seals. They travel over big waves at great speed and they are seeing how that has caused compounding pressure on their heads – creating traumatic brain injuries. So they are researching them along with football players to see i. glutathione – an over-the-counter medication – can help to restore the brain back to health.
What’s the ultimate goal?
To reduce head injuries related to sports activities. That’s the goal.