Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute at JFK University Medical Center in Edison recently received a major research grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
The five-year award of more than $2.2 million is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health and will be used to study a novel approach on whether the blocking of formation of Neutrophil extracellular traps provides better outcomes after a traumatic brain injury.
Specifically, the money will fund a project entitled “Neutrophil Extracellular Traps and Associated Pathogenesis in TBI: A Novel Peptide Therapeutic Strategy,” proposed by Mohammed Abdul Muneer, research scientist and principal investigator, Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute at JFK University Medical Center, and associate professor of neurology at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine.
The Muneer lab at the Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute at JFK University Medical Center seeks to demonstrate a unique therapeutic strategy for TBI focusing on the activation of leukocytes, especially neutrophils that cause the release of nuclear and granular contents to form an extensive web-like structure of DNA called neutrophil extracellular traps.
“We are honored to receive this prestigious NIH grant,” Dr. Gregory Przybylski, chairman, Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute at JFK University Medical Center, and professor of neurosurgery at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, said.
In TBI, the mechanism of injury-induced formation of NET and its mechanistic regulatory role in thrombosis have remained elusive. Moreover, it is unclear whether blocking NET formation provides better outcomes after TBI. Therefore, Muneer’s novel research efforts to suppress the formation of NET will provide critical information potentially supporting a valuable new therapeutic strategy to enhance functional recovery following TBI.
