This is a complex of laboratories dedicated to the study of traumatic brain injury with the aim of understanding mechanisms of secondary brain injury. The ultimate goal of this research program is to develop novel clinical therapeutic strategies targeted at reducing the debilitating consequences of traumatic brain injury in patients.

Robert F. Berman Ph.D.
Bruce G. Lyeth, Ph.D.
Philip A. Schwartzkroin, Ph.D.
H. Jurgen Wenzel, M.D., D.Sc.

Neurosurgical residents
Postdoctoral fellows
Graduate students
Undergraduate students

The National Institutes of Health - NINDS
UCD Health Systems Research Award
Pharmaceutical Industry

These laboratories use a variety of pharmacological, behavioral, physiological, and neuroanatomical methods to investigate the neural mechanisms involved in traumatic brain injury pathology.

Current research projects:

1. Investigation of the involvement of metabotropic glutamate receptors in modulating excitotoxic processes associated with brain injury
2. Examination of the role of calcium in secondary cell injury after brain trauma
3. Development of calcium channel blocking drug for neuroprotection after brain injury.
4. The contribution of PLC–coupled muscarinic receptor activation to brain injury pathophysiology
5. Activation of intracellular cascades leading to free radical generation and energy depletion initiated by injury-induced glutamate receptor activation.
6. Studies of environmental neurotoxins and methods for early detection of toxin-mediated brain injury.