Fluorescent Gels to Help Scientists Study Blast Pressure on the Brain

U.S. Army Research Laboratory scientists have developed a gel substance with fluorescent properties that mimics the texture and mass of the human brain. Their goal is to show the scale of damage to the brain under the pressure conditions that soldiers encounter in combat or training. The laboratory is also creating materials that will enable the researchers to see details that have never been recorded. Using nanotechnology, scientists will see what happens to the brain during an explosion at the cellular level.

Transcript

00:00:00 Army researchers are studying the physiological effects of blast pressure on the brain in order to discover technology solutions to protect Soldiers. In order to develop, for example, the headgear or the helmet that would really cut down the affect of the blast pressure, we have to understand how much blast pressure really damages the brain and how much blast pressure is experienced at the cellular level, or inside the brain. Scientists at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, searched for a gel substance that mimics the texture and mass of the human brain. So we tried to mix it in to the gel and this is what happened. It created some strange bubbles and aggregates. Researcher Nile Bunce explains the process she and her fellow researcher Rebecca Jimenez

00:00:50 went through to find a solution that worked. It was more a trial and error — this doesn’t work, let’s move to the next thing. And so we got a nice dispersion of sample into our gels and that’s what we’ve been going with so far. The team infused the gel samples with fluorescent properties to show the scale of damage under pressure. Ad when we put it into the gel, since our nanoclusters are pressure sensitive, we apply a pressure and then the fluorescence intensity will either increase or decrease depending on an increase or decrease in pressure. Over the past two years, the laboratory has built a partnership with the Japanese Ministry

00:01:25 of Defense. In December 2016, Japanese medical researchers visited Maryland for an update. This is extremely important for us, for the Army Research Laboratory provides the technology that enables the Soldier to function on the battlefield, it provides the best lethality, the best protection. Karna said the Japanese team will test the Army’s samples with a laser-induced shockwave and share the results of the experiment. He said they hope to further understand the effects of blast pressure on the brain and help to protect future Soldiers. For ARL TV, I’m David McNally.