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Neurocritical Care Fellowship
DepartmentsDepartment of NeurologyDivisionsNeurocritical Care and Emergency NeurologyNeurocritical Care FellowshipResearch

Research

Fellows are encouraged and expected to take part in research. They will be involved in major clinical trials in stroke, ICH, SAH, status epilepticus, TBI, and SCI. Datasets are available for analysis in multiple outcomes projects (SAH/ICH, ECMO, large hemispheric infarct, TBI).

Funded basic science labs in bioinformatics, translational neuroengineering, neuroinflammation / cerebral edema, and traumatic brain injury.

Current fellows have presented research at national conferences on the following topics:

MFI-5 to Predict Outcomes in Patients with Large Hemisphere Infarction Syndrome

Mono CT Predicts Malignant Cerebral Edema after Large Hemispheric Infarction

Get Up, Stand Up: Pusing the Limits of Medical Management for ICP

Glibenclamide Improves Neurological and Electrophysiological Recovery after CA

Assessment of Trainees' Performance During AIS Simulation

Heart Variability and Secondary Brain Injury in Large Hemispheric Infarct

Previous fellows have presented research at national conferences on the following topics:

  • hyperacute MRI after ICH
  • paroxysmal sympathetic hyperactivity in non-traumatic brain injury
  • alarm fatigue in the neurocritical are unit
  • neuroimaging in ECMO patients
  • neurological complications and cognitive recovery in ECMO patients
  • optic nerve sheath ultrasound assessment of EVD weaning
  • utilization of continuous physiological monitoring to detect neuro-worsening in TBI and for determination of herniation in large hemispheric infarction
  • application of esophageal cooing for controlled normothermia after brain hemorrhage
  • use of albuterol for bradycardia in spinal cord injury
  • biomarkers of neuroinflammation in intracerebral hemorrhage

Military-Relevant TBI Research Careers Training

Uniformed Services University-NIH Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine (CNRM) Military Traumatic Brain Injury Research Group Fellowship

We offer the opportunity for fellows interested in military-relevant TBI research careers to take part in a joint clinical-research fellowship with the USU-NIH CNRM Military Traumatic Brain Injury Research Group.  The program is intended to be the premier TBI training program in the United States. The combined program would require at least 3 years.  The research fellowship requires a minimum of 9 person-months, but would likely total up to 18 person-months.

The research fellowship provides the following:

  1. an appointment as a Henry Jackson Foundation junior scientists
  2. $50,000 per year for research funds to allocate independently of the fellow’s mentors, and
  3. full access to the Center for Neuroscience & Regenerative Medicine (CNRM)

Activities and Research

TBI research group activities and resources including its core facilities at NIH and USU. Each research fellow will complete formal training at the NIH in the responsible conduct of research, ethics, scientific writing, grant applications, statistical analysis, scientific communication skills, and financial management. Each fellow will have a mentorship team that will minimally consist of a primary scientific mentor, a clinical mentor, one member of the executive group, and one scientist or clinician in the opposite branch of the federal government as the primary mentor. The research fellows will take part in a weekly or every other week TBI seminar series as well as a weekly journal club.

Research projects are expected to have clear clinical relevance, though the projects may involve humans, animal models, in vitro models, or datasets. Fundamental neuroscience research with only hypothetical applicability to human TBI will be less favored.

Fellows may work with any primary research group at NIH, USU, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), University of Maryland including Shock Trauma, Walter Reed Army Institute for Research (WRAIR), Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC), and the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC). Fellows are encouraged to collaborate with the leading TBI research group in the United States, and potentially elsewhere if appropriate arrangements can be made.

Fellows will have full access to the CNRM TBI research group activities and resources including its core facilities at NIH and USU. These include animal models of TBI, animal behavioral testing, small animal imaging, neuropathology, informatics, acute human studies, human imaging, human image processing, fluid biomarkers, recruitment, and phenotyping.

Application Process

Applications for the research fellowship will be accepted on a rolling basis. There will not be specific application deadlines. Applications will be submitted through the office of the Vice President for Research at USU, to the director at david.brody@usuhs.edu, or through the NIH for those applying to the K22 program. 

USU applications should include:

  • 1 page statement of career goals
  • CV
  • 2 page initial ideas regarding the fellowship plan including initial mentor or mentorship team
  • 2-4 letters of recommendation from previous mentors and collaborators
  • letter of support from proposed initial mentor or mentorship team

More information can be found here: https://cnrm.usuhs.edu/military-tbi-fellowship-program