SAEMF/RAMS Resident Research Grant - $5,000 and The David E. Wilcox, MD, FACEP Scholarship - $1,250
"Assess the Efficacy and Target Engagement of 3TC After Traumatic Brain Injury"
Rapid decision-making and treatment administration by emergency medicine physicians is critical for improving long-term neurological outcomes after traumatic brain injury (TBI). TBI carries a devastating prognosis due to the significant association with disability and the current lack of disease modifying treatments. The proposed study will provide significant insight into how TBI leads to neuronal death and if modulation of retrotransposon activation via 3TC that can be administered early in the emergency department is effective for TBI.
Recipient(s)
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Gabrielle Zuniga, MD, PhD
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
"Assess the Efficacy and Target Engagement of 3TC After Traumatic Brain Injury"
Gabrielle Zuniga, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist in the emergency medicine residency program at the University of Texas Health San Antonio. She earned a medical degree and a doctorate from the South Texas Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her work in the laboratory of Dr. Bess Frost focused on identifying mechanisms downstream of tau-induced neurodegeneration. Dr. Zuniga discovered that tau-induced deficits in ribonucleic acid (RNA) quality control are a novel pharmacologically targetable mechanism of neurodegeneration. She also played a key role in the development and completion of the clinical trial investigating the safety and feasibility of antiretroviral therapy in Alzheimer’s disease (ART-AD). Her current research interests are to elucidate tau-based mechanisms of neurodegeneration in the context of emergency medical care of patients after traumatic brain injury.