Biofidelic Rat Surrogate for Blast-Induced Neurotrauma Studies

Blast-induced Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a major threat to the health of military personnel serving in modern theaters. As such, the biomechanical injury pathways of TBI are and have been the focus of many animal studies. However, differences in the experimental setups across laboratories make it difficult to draw definitive conclusions from the resulting data. A tool that can accurately estimate the biomechanical loading experienced by the rat model across sites is needed; such a tool would also provide an approach for validating computational models of neurotrauma. Creare, working with our STTR partners at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, proposes to develop the Rat Surrogate for TBI Studies (RSTS). The RSTS is a biofidelic model of a rat designed from three-dimensional medical images and manufactured using modern rapid prototyping technologies. This biofidelity offers key physiological components that are relevant during blast loading. It is instrumented with sensors to best capture the biomechanical loading conditions most relevant to TBI. The RSTS will provide researchers with the missing tool needed to accurately correlate pressure wave insults with the biomechanical loading experienced by the animal.