NFL Charities, the charitable foundation of the National Football League owners, has awarded a $100,000 grant to the Center for the Study of Retired Athletes at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to support concussion research.
NFL Charities, the charitable foundation of the National Football League owners, has awarded a $100,000 grant to the Center for the Study of Retired Athletes at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to support concussion research.
Kevin Guskiewicz, Ph.D., Kenan Distinguished Professor and chair of the department of exercise and sport science in the College of Arts and Sciences, is the principal investigator. Guskiewicz is a national expert on the topic of the short and long-term effects of concussions on athletes.
The grant supports the center’s continuing research into the association between football and dementia in retired players. The project will study retired athletes to try to determine if individuals who played and trained more and/or who have higher degrees of mild traumatic brain injury are more likely to develop neurodegenerative disorders compared to those who did not play beyond college.
NFL Charities awarded research grants to support sports-related medical research at 16 organizations. In addition to UNC’s research, the grants support studies such as concussion surveillance among a large national sample of middle school football players, the role of the cervical spine in football-related concussions, and examining how genetics may influence the outcome after repeated concussions.
Guskiewicz’ work is an example of the type of research that supports the Innovate@Carolina Roadmap, UNC’s plan to help Carolina become a world leader in launching university-born ideas for the good of society. To learn more about the roadmap, visit innovate.unc.edu.
For more on the NFL Charities’ grant recipients visit: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d81d15901/article/nfl-charities-awards-grants-for-sports-medical-research
College of Arts and Sciences contact: Kim Spurr, (919) 962-4093, spurrk@email.unc.edu
News Services contact: Patric Lane, (919) 962-8596, patric_lane@unc.edu