Inside Duke Medicine
Duke and Durham VA receive Department of Defense award
posted April 7th, 2008
Researchers at Duke University and Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Centers have been selected as one of 10 collaborative investigative teams receiving Department of Defense grants as part of a nationwide effort to address the urgent needs of our nation’s veterans.
Gerald Grant, M.D., of the Department of Surgery and Christine Marx, M.D., of the Department of Psychiatry will be leading a team of researchers focusing on critical research gap areas in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Duke University Medical Center and the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center/Mid-Atlantic Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC) will combine forces to create a unique interdisciplinary translational center that will conduct both clinical and preclinical investigations focusing on TBI and PTSD, disorders which frequently exist together in newly returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan and mandate innovative treatment approaches.
Grant is director of neurotrauma at Duke and will act as the principal investigator in the effort and lead the TBI investigative team. Marx directs the Clinical Interventions Core of the VA Mid-Atlantic MIRECC and will lead the PTSD investigative team.
Marx’s research focuses on novel treatment interventions and biomarker discovery in PTSD and other disorders impacting veterans. The duration of this award is 5 years and encompasses $1.5 million in support in addition to the funding for the upcoming clinical trials.