UT Tyler Continues TBI Care Research Project Through UT System Collaborative

October 23, 2025 | Hannah Buchanan

The University of Texas at Tyler received an additional $500,000 from UT System’s Trauma Research and Combat Casualty Care Collaborative to help improve the lives of patients with Traumatic Brain Injury, or TBI. Dr. Shawana Tabassum, the UT Tyler Mary John and Ralph Spence Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, serves as principal investigator. This award follows the initial $100,000 grant UT Tyler received last spring.

“We are pleased to receive additional funding to continue this research project in partnership with UT System, UT San Antonio and the Trauma Research and Combat Casualty Care Collaborative,” said Dr. Amir Mirmiran, UT Tyler chief research officer. “We applaud Dr. Tabassum and the UT Tyler team for their outstanding work on this project, which could significantly enhance how we treat those with traumatic brain injuries and have even broader implications across health care.”

The university’s research team, including UT Tyler research scientist Dr. Madhavi Pali, UT Tyler Health Science Center’s Dr. Alan Cook and UT Tyler graduate students, is developing a wristband-style, multiplexed sweat sensor for noninvasive and continuous monitoring of TBI. They will now incorporate artificial intelligence-driven data into their work and begin sensor testing through 2027. Other team collaborators are UT Arlington and UT Health Houston.

“We have been investigating the role of inflammatory biomarkers released in sweat across different stages of TBI,” said Tabassum, who joined the UT Tyler College of Engineering in 2020. “Our long-term goal is to transform TBI management by creating a real-time, noninvasive system to detect,monitor and predict TBI progression using sweat biomarker profiles. By supporting evidence-based triage and optimizing resource deployment, this technology could also improve outcomes for at-risk military and civilian populations.”

Tabassum’s current research explores the development of flexible sensors and electronics using micro/nanoelectronics and photonics technologies in areas like sustainable agriculture, plant sciences and biomedicine.

Trauma injury is the leading cause of mortality and permanent disability among individuals under 45 years of age globally, according to the National Institutes of Health. Established in 2022, the Trauma Research and Combat Casualty Care Collaborative (TRC4) is a research entity singularly focused on addressing the critical need for improved trauma care in the United States. To learn more, visit: trc4.org/.

With a mission to improve educational and health care outcomes for East Texas and beyond, UT Tyler offers more than 90 undergraduate and graduate programs to more than 11,500 students. Through its alignment with UT Tyler Health Science Center and UT Health East Texas, UT Tyler hasunified these entities to serve Texas with quality education, cutting-edge research and excellent patient care. Classified by Carnegie as a doctoral research institution and by U.S. News & World Report as a national university, UT Tyler has campuses in Tyler, Longview, Palestine and Houston.