Among the soldiers who survive conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the traumatic brain injuries account for

a larger proportion of their casualties than in any o ther US war in recent history. According to the Joint Theater Trauma Registry, e stablished by the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research, approximately 22 per cent of the injured US soldiers received injuries to the head, face, or neck. A major reason for this high ratio of these injuries is Kevlar body armor and helm ets. Although, it successfully protects these soldiers from bullets and shrapnel exposure,Kevlar helmets cannot fully protect theface, head, and neck areas. Add itionally, it is also unsuccessful in preventing the closedbrain injuries produc ed by blasts. Furthermore, among patients evaluated at Walter Reed hospital, clo sed head injuries outnumber other penetrating injuries (originally published in New England Journal of Medicine). Most individuals with a mild traumatic brain injury improve entirely within a ye ar,but moderate and severe brain injuries are more complex and have long-term co nsequences. The Center of disease Control and Prevention estimated that 5.3 mill ion Americans are living with disabilities resulting from traumatic brain injury . Dr. Michael Mullan (Director of the Roskamp Institute) Dr. Fiona Crawford (Ass ociate Director of the Roskamp Institute) and their team of scientists previousl y demonstrated that apolipoprotein E (APOE) influences traumatic brain injury ou tcomes. These Roskamp Institute scientists examined 110 participants from the De fense and Veterans Head Injury Program to determine a relationship between APOE gen otype and memory performance on certain cognitive tests administered to these he ad injured soldiers. The memory performance was much worse in soldiers who had a t least had one APOE epsilon 4 allele compared to those who did not. This Roskam p Institute team also determined that these findings were limited to memory and not other cognitive performances such as executive functioning. Therefore, these data support a specific role for the APOE protein in memory outcome following T BI, and suggest an APOE isoform-specific effect on neuronal repair processes (or iginally published in the journal Neurology). Dr. Fiona Crawford received a Merit award from the Veteran s Administration to furth er study, using genomics technology, the role of APOE in Traumatic Brain Injury. Dr. Fiona Crawford and her Roskamp Institute team have now completed the experi ments showing differences in genomics response among the different mouse models after traumatic brain injury. Recently, Drs. Michael Mullan and Fiona Crawford received a prestigious award of $1.5 million from the Department of Defense whic h will allow the Roskamp Institute to investigate ApoE and other proteins to fin d potential peripheral biological markers and novel therapeutic treatments for t raumatic brain injury. Florida Senator Bill Nelson recently toured the Roskamp I nstitute to observe its traumatic brain injury program in support of the soldier s affected by this devastating condition. The Roskamp Institute is a world-renowned state-of-the-art research and clinical facility located in Sarasota Florida dedicating to finding novel therapeutics f or treatment of neuropsychiatric disorder, especially Alzheimer s disease, traumatic brain injury and substance abuse. The Roskamp Institute is supported by the fun ding from government agencies such the National Institutes of Health, the Vetera n s Administration and the Department of Defense as well as private donations from t he Robert and Diane Roskamp Foundation. for more information on Alzheimer http://www.mullanalzheimer.com http://www.mullanalzheimer.info www.rfdn.org s please visit: