Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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which the more people become custom- ers or users, the stronger and smarter the algorithm gets, the better the solu- tion gets. … "One of the big benefits of this appli- cation is it gets continually smarter as we collect more data." Once the app is available to down- load on Apple's App Store or Google Play — Soenen expects this to happen by the end of 2015 — anyone that has a smartphone can use it. In addition to the increased accuracy Soenen said the app will have as more people continue to use it, he says speed and usability are benefits of the product. "It's very simple and easy to use as most apps are," he said. "They don't require any medical training. There's no hardware involved, and it is very easy to deploy on the sidelines. It's also very fast, where previous tests could take up to an hour. Contect takes five minutes." PROFESSOR RESEARCHES INJECTABLE COMPOUND Several years ago, Notre Dame chem- istry and biology professor Mayland Chang's son — then an avid snow- boarder — suffered a concussion while competing in the sport. At the hospi- tal, he was able to answer questions of where he was and what day it was. Not until days later did he fail a cognitive test when asked to name 10 words that start with 'Y.' He could only name two. Chang witnessed firsthand that ef- fects of brain injuries could take days to manifest. "On the football sidelines they have these players that are put back to play," she said. In search of a measure that can pre- vent the secondary effects of traumatic brain injuries (TBI), Chang is working on an injectable compound that would rescue brain cells lost during the ini- tial impact. To date, her tests — admin- istered to rodents — have rescued as much as 60 percent of lost brain cells. Her research has received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the NFL Charities in recent years. "We've been working on inhibitors for MMP-9, which turns out to be re- sponsible for the pathology of the dis- ease," she said. "If you can block off MMP-9 early on, it stops this cascade of events that kill brain cells." Chang said her tests have not shown any obvious toxicities or side effects on the rodents, but that more research Dr. Mayland Chang received grants from the National Institute of Health and NFL Charities to study an injectable compound used to treat trau- matic brain injuries. PHOTO BY MATT CASHORE/UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME