Reuter-Rice Submits Translating Duke Health: Immune System Grant Application

Kudos to Karin Reuter-Rice, associate professor, and her entire team for the submission of her Translating Duke Health: Immune System Grant application entitled “Immuno-methylomic and Genomic Modifiers of Outcomes in Children Experiencing Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)." This proposal request funding for a one-year period with a start date of July 1, 2019.

Pediatric TBI results in unpredictable outcomes and immense burden to families and society. The goal of this first-of-its-kind study is to determine immune and genetic variants associated with neurologic outcomes, which will allow rapid identification and appropriate triage of at-risk patients. We hypothesize that TBI disrupts immune and inflammatory homeostasis in children, which directly contributes to prolonged brain injury and neurologic disability. Aim 1 will use a novel immuno-methylomics method to characterize peripheral immune cell phenotypes and ratios in 23 children with TBI to assess the relationship to outcomes. Aim 2 will use a dbGaP pediatric TBI cohort to evaluate the contribution of genetic variants to immunophenotypic alterations and cognitive outcomes. The findings of this study will provide preliminary data regarding immune system responses and neurologic recovery after injury, and will form the basis of an external grant application that will include prospective recruitment to validate our findings.