Current Projects

The major goals of this project are to validate accuracy of leading amyloid and tau blood biomarkers in Veterans, determine whether military-relevant exposures alter the relationship between amyloid and tau blood and neuroimaging biomarkers, and identify clinical predictors of amyloid and tau biomarker positivity. Funding: U.S. DoD W81XWH-21-PRARP-ADRA. Status: Analysis of pre-existing samples ongoing; 50/100 enrolled into new DoD-ADBI cohort. PI: RCGardner. CoIs: Renaud LaJoie, Lisa Silbert, Les Shaw, Kristine Yaffe

This 2-site prospective cohort study (UCSF and University of Pittsburgh) will elucidate the natural history, identify key outcome predictors, and rigorously study clinical-pathological correlations of geriatric TBI in a representative sample of older adults presenting acutely to 2 level 1 trauma centers with all-severity TBI. This project will also identify age-appropriate blood-based TBI diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. Funding: NINDS R01 NS110944. Status: 270/270 TBI enrolled; 90/90 controls enrolled; follow-up ongoing. PIs: RCGardner & Geoffrey T Manley. 

This single-site prospective cohort study will leverage the TRACK-GERI infrastructure and protocols to comprehensively characterize baseline and longitudinal endophenotypes of older Veterans presenting to the San Francisco VA Medical Center with acute traumatic brain injury to inform age-appropriate diagnosis, treatment, and disease-monitoring. Funding: VHA Merit CX002346. Status: Enrolling. PIs: RCGardner transferred to Pratik Mukherjee & Phiroz Tarapore 09/2022. 

Leverage unique siloed data-sets from the Gertner Institute of Epidemiology and Health Policy linked to Israel National Health Fund Databses to investigate the association of childhood exposure to low-moderate dose ionizing radiation with risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), AD-related dementias, and Parkinson’s disease. Funding: Binational Science Foundation. Status: Analysis ongoing. PI: RCGardner CoIs: Angela Chetrit, Kristine Yaffe, Sam Goldman, Michal Beeri

This project will develop a novel CT biomarker and clinical prediction tool to identify patients at highest risk for cognitive decline after mild TBI. This, in turn, will facilitate research into mechanisms, treatments, and prevention strategies for post-TBI cognitive decline and dementia. Funding: U.S. DoD NIRA W81XWH-18-1-0514 Status: Completed. Manuscript in preparation. PI: RCGardner CoIs: Esther Yuh, Russell Huie

This project leverages data from Sheba Medical Center and the Israel National Trauma Registry to create a fully-automated registry of all war-injuries arriving to the Emergency Department, inpatient units, or rehabilitation units of Sheba Medical Center from 7 October 2023 to present. The resgistry incudes over 200 unique coded variables relating to patient demographics, acute injury features, diagnostic studies, treatments, and hospital outcomes. Funding: None. Status: Ongoing; initial manuscript in preparation. PIs: RCGardner & YRLang

Funding: Sheba Research Authority. Status: Ongoing. PIs: RCGardner & Guy Rosenthal. 

Funding: Sheba Clinical Laboratories and Sheba Research Authority. Status: Ongoing. PI: RCGardner CoIs: Shahar Shapira, Keren Asraf

This project will establish the HITS cohort of N=75 emergently evacuated injured soldiers who have blood collection on the day of injury and again 6-12 months post-injury. Participants also undergo comprehensive neuropsychiatric assessment using standardized validated outcome assessments widely used in large-scale clinical studies of PTSD and TBI in military populations (Injured Trauma Survivor Scale, ISI, PSQI, PCL-5, PHQ9, RPQ, HIT6, QOLIBRI, GOSE, NIH Toolbox Cognitive Battery) and gold-standard PTSD diagnosis by a Psychiatrist. We will identify day-1 blood-based biomarkers that are predictive of subsequent PTSD among soldiers with and without co-occurring blood-biomarker defined TBI. Funding: Gift to Sheba Medical Center from the Friends of the IDF (FIDF) & MAFAT. We are actively seeking funding to expand the cohort size, extend the follow-up duration, and incorporate MRI or other digitial biomarkers. Status: Enrolling. PI: RCGardner CoIs: Raz Gross, Shachar Shapira, Abigail Livny Ezer

This pilot randomized wait-list control trial will assess feasibility of group CBTi versus usual care to improve sleep (primary) and reduce PTSD symptoms (secondary) among N=20 injured soldiers with co-occurring PTSD and moderate-severe insomnia.  Additional exploratory endpoints of interest will include: cognitive function, quality of life, pain, blood-biomarkers. Blood will be collected before the intervention, immediately after completing the intervention, and 6 months after completing the intervention. Neuropsychiatric symptoms will be assessed at the same timepoints using the following outcomes: PCL-5, ISI, PSQI, PHQ9, RPQ, HIT6, QOLIBRI, GOSE, NIH Toolbox Cognitive Battery. Funding: Gift to Sheba Medical Center from the Friends of the IDF (FIDF). We are actively seeking funding to expand the trial size, extend the follow-up duration, and develop an app to deliver CBTi to this patient population. Status: Preparing Helsinki (IRB) Protocol. PI: RCGardner CoIs: Raz Gross, Shachar Shapira, Meirav Cohen Zion