Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of combat casualty. Previous estimates for 20th century conflicts were that 15 - 25% of all injuries were sustained to the head. However, with the increased incidence of blast injuries that military personnel are suffering in the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, head injury is becoming an even more frequent occurrence. Far forward medics need a device to objectively and quantifiably diagnose brain injury in order to effectively triage and provide appropriate treatment to their casualties, thereby providing for improved long-term outcome. The overall objective of this STTR topic is to develop a hand-held point-of-care device for analyzing biomarkers of brain injury that can be used as a diagnostic and triage tool by military medics on the battlefield. This Phase I proposal will establish the feasibility of adapting standard Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) of three brain injury biomarkers into an automated miniaturized, multiplexed assay panel using antibody microarray technology. The proposal combines the expertise of the University of Florida in identifying and validating biomarkers of brain injury, of Banyan Biomarkers in developing and optimizing ELISAs for these biomarkers, and of Clinical Microarrays (CMA) in adapting ELISA technology into their patented biochip format
