Boston University | Alzheimer's Disease Center

BU ADC Announces Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy

Researchers at the Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Center (BU ADC) have announced a formal collaboration with the non-profit Sports Legacy Institute (SLI) to establish the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE). The Center, jointly located at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, will study Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes with a history of repetitive concussions.

CTE has been known to affect boxers since the 1920s. However, recent reports have been published of neuropathologically confirmed CTE in retired professional football players and wrestlers who have a history of head trauma. This trauma, which includes multiple concussions, triggers a progressive neurodegeneration associated with the development of memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, paranoia, aggression, depression, and dementia.

The multidisciplinary BUSM team will be led by Dr. Ann McKee, Associate Professor of Neurology and Pathology at BUSM, and Director of the BU ADC Neuropathology Core, and Dr. Robert Stern, Associate Professor of Neurology at BUSM, and Associate Director of the BU ADC Clinical Core. Inter-disciplinary support for this endeavor has been provided by the BUSM Departments of Neurology, Pathology, and Neurosurgery, the Health and Disability Research Institute at the BU School of Public Health, and the VA New England Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center. In addition, Drs. McKee and Stern recently received a $100,000 award from the National Institute on Aging to supplement the BU ADC’s funding to support CTE research.

The non-profit SLI was founded by Mr. Chris Nowinski, a former Harvard football player and professional wrestler who retired at age 24 due to multiple concussions, and his neurosurgeon, Dr. Robert Cantu, a world-renowned concussion expert, Chief of Neurosurgery Service at Emerson Hospital, and Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at BUSM. Their goal was to advance the health and wellness of athletes and the safety of sports and athletic endeavors. SLI promotes medical and scientific research, prevention and advocacy of sports injury issues, and education. The organization was conceived after SLI and their colleagues discovered four cases of CTE in professional athletes. At the time of their deaths, all four athletes, who were under 50 years of age, had remarkable early cell death and excessive amounts of the protein, tau, throughout their brains.

The seriousness of CTE was tragically revealed when 40 year-old professional wrestler, Chris Benoit, murdered his wife and 7 year-old son and then committed suicide. Mr. Nowinski was aware of Chris Benoit’s severe concussion history, so SLI sought and analyzed Benoit’s brain, discovering the most advanced case of CTE yet. “We are pleased to partner with SLI to research the long-term effects of repetitive concussion in athletes,” explains Dr. Stern. “By preventing the development of future cases in children, teenagers, and young adults, and by treating the progression of the disease in former athletes, we hope to eradicate the tragedies that inspired this collaboration.”

The newly formed CSTE will develop a research program designed to advance knowledge and understanding of the lifelong cognitive, emotional, and health effects of sports-related brain injuries. An important first step in this new collaboration is the establishment of a brain donation program for current and former athletes who wish to have their brain tissue examined by scientists after they die. Ted Johnson, former New England Patriot’s star and three-time Super Bowl champion, was the first living athlete to join the brain donation program, and 16 other professional athletes have followed. The CSTE research team will establish a “brain bank” for tissue from deceased athletes that will be available to BUSM researchers and other scientists. For more information regarding the new CSTE, please call Ms. Megan Wulff at 617-638-6143 or visit our website at www.bu.edu/alzresearch.

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