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 Some practical applications from the researchers, who each received
a $500,000 award to advance their work, could be seen within the
next two years, said Jeff Miller, the NFL senior vice president of
the league's Health and Safety Policy.
"It's not too far in the future," Miller told Reuters in an
interview.
"This partnership has proven to be all that we had hoped and vastly
more in terms of being able to advance the neuro sciences in ways
that will lead to better protection and the health and safety of our
players.
"And have significant impacts beyond the soccer field, other sports
and throughout our community and the military."
Head injuries have become a high priority for the NFL in recent
years.
The issue of concussion and the effects of chronic traumatic
encephalopathy (CTE) on former players was intensified following the
suicide deaths of Junior Seau and Dave Duerson, who shot themselves
in the chest to preserve their brains for study.
In April, the league also reached a final settlement of a lawsuit
brought by former players over concussions that could cost the NFL
$1 billion.
Three of the winning projects, Banyan Biomarkers Inc. of San Diego,
University of Montana, Missoula, and Quanterix of Lexington,
Massachusetts, study blood for biomarkers that inform different
aspects of concussion.
The other three, BrainScope Company Inc. of Bethesda, Maryland,
Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and the University of
California, Santa Barbara, focus on neuroimaging tools and EEG-based
traumatic brain injury detection to analyze and understand
concussions.
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"The lessons we are learning and the innovations we are helping to
accelerate are not only going to help us and society overall around
mild traumatic brain injury and the safety of the game, and improve
safety for athletes across other platforms," Alan Gilbert, director
GE's Global Government and NGO Strategy, told Reuters.
"We're going to learn and be able to apply those lessons to things
like ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease),
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
"We feel that it's already happening -- partnerships we're doing
right now with ALS are a direct result around this multiplier effect
because we partnered with the NFL."
Miller envisioned tests being administered on NFL sidelines or at
the stadium to quickly diagnose concussions and their severity.
"Blood tests on the sideline, better imaging to identify a
concussion -- that's the sort of transcendant science we were hoping
to capture and encourage by running this challenge," he said.
Two other NFL Head Health Challenge projects to protect the brain
and to find materials that better absorb or dissipate energy in
protective equipment are also ongoing in conjunction with GE and
equipment manufacturer Under Armour.
(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
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