NFL awards $100,000 grant to continue concussion research at WSU
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PULLMAN, WA - Football season is over for the National Football League, but Washington State University recently received a grant from the NFL to research ways to repair brain damage caused by concussions.
Whether you're a football player taking a hit from a linebacker, or just a victim of bad luck, getting a concussion can be a terrifying prospect.
"Concussions are like a timing bomb," said WSU Assistant Professor Krzysztof Czaja.
There's no telling how a concussion will affect the brain, or when signs of brain damage will appear. Not to mention, the damage is irreversible.
"We know for sure that significant population of neurons will die," said Czaja. "And we might live a happy life forever, but we might have some problems, some nerve death."
The National Football League has awarded Washington State University Assistant Professor Krzysztof Czaja with a $100,000 grant to continue his research in repairing brain damage caused by concussions.
"Our recent discovery showed that we can generate neurons, we can produce neurons outside the brain," said Czaja.
Czaja discovered this about five years ago when he was experimenting on rats' brains.
"We can trigger generation of new neurons outside the brain, in the nodose ganglia, which is sort of a little brain outside the brain," said Czaja. "And we have the same. Humans, we have the same ganglia."
We visited the lab where one of Czaja's students was cleaning a nodose ganglia, which contain thousands of nerve cells.
"It's really delicate so you have to be gentle," said WSU student Lindsey Ballsmider. "You don't want to damage any of the cells."
Now, Czaja is looking for a way to stimulate the creation of new neurons in an injured person so they can be transplanted into the damaged area of the brain, something that hasn't ever been done before.
"Our data challenged the current Dogma, but they show that there is hope, and bringing this hope brings the best reward for me," said Czaja.
If researchers at Washington State University are successful in stimulating the production of these nerve cells and repairing brain damage caused by concussions, the same technique could also be used to fight Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.
Whether you're a football player taking a hit from a linebacker, or just a victim of bad luck, getting a concussion can be a terrifying prospect.
"Concussions are like a timing bomb," said WSU Assistant Professor Krzysztof Czaja.
There's no telling how a concussion will affect the brain, or when signs of brain damage will appear. Not to mention, the damage is irreversible.
"We know for sure that significant population of neurons will die," said Czaja. "And we might live a happy life forever, but we might have some problems, some nerve death."
The National Football League has awarded Washington State University Assistant Professor Krzysztof Czaja with a $100,000 grant to continue his research in repairing brain damage caused by concussions.
"Our recent discovery showed that we can generate neurons, we can produce neurons outside the brain," said Czaja.
Czaja discovered this about five years ago when he was experimenting on rats' brains.
"We can trigger generation of new neurons outside the brain, in the nodose ganglia, which is sort of a little brain outside the brain," said Czaja. "And we have the same. Humans, we have the same ganglia."
We visited the lab where one of Czaja's students was cleaning a nodose ganglia, which contain thousands of nerve cells.
"It's really delicate so you have to be gentle," said WSU student Lindsey Ballsmider. "You don't want to damage any of the cells."
Now, Czaja is looking for a way to stimulate the creation of new neurons in an injured person so they can be transplanted into the damaged area of the brain, something that hasn't ever been done before.
"Our data challenged the current Dogma, but they show that there is hope, and bringing this hope brings the best reward for me," said Czaja.
If researchers at Washington State University are successful in stimulating the production of these nerve cells and repairing brain damage caused by concussions, the same technique could also be used to fight Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.
