March is Brain Injury Awareness Month, a time dedicated to raising awareness about the causes, consequences, and ongoing research surrounding brain injury. At the University of Georgia, ARCS Atlanta Scholar Moira Taber is working to address one of the most pressing challenges in the field: the lack of effective treatments for traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Taber is a third-year PhD student in the Regenerative Bioscience program and a member of the Translational Neural Regeneration and Repair Lab. Her research focuses specifically on pediatric traumatic brain injury—a leading cause of death and lifelong disability worldwide.

“Traumatic brain injury is a leading cause of death and lifelong disability, with over 55 million cases occurring around the world every year,” Taber explains. “Unfortunately, there are no FDA-approved treatments or therapies for TBI.”

Children are particularly vulnerable. As they explore the world around them, they are more prone to falls and accidents that can result in head injuries. Yet despite the scope of the problem, treatment development has been slowed by significant knowledge gaps and limitations in traditional research models.

To address this, Taber’s lab uses a preclinical pig model rather than the more commonly used rodent model. The reason is translational relevance.

 “They have similar brain size and development to human children,” she says. “Also, the architecture and tissue composition of pig brains are more similar to humans compared to rodents.”

This similarity increases the likelihood that findings may successfully translate into human clinical trials.

Taber’s specific project investigates sex differences in pediatric TBI. Research has shown that sex can influence everything from injury incidence to mortality risk to long-term outcomes.

“Sex can play an important role in pretty much all aspects of TBI pathophysiology,” she notes.

One theory her team is exploring is known as threshold volume loss—the idea that a certain minimum amount of structural damage must occur before a functional deficit becomes apparent.

“For example, the hippocampus, a region critical for memory, is typically larger in girls than in boys,” Taber explains. “As a result, memory impairments may differ between sexes even with similar injuries.”

Understanding these differences could help clinicians move toward precision-based medicine, ensuring that sex is considered alongside other injury factors when determining treatment plans.

In addition to studying injury mechanisms, the lab is also exploring potential therapies, including induced neural stem cell transplantation and neural stem cell extracellular vesicles. These therapies have shown promise in stroke models and are now being applied to TBI research.

Taber’s passion for the work is deeply personal.

“One of the things that really got me into this research was that my brother has sustained multiple TBIs, and I know the persistent struggles that he lives with every day as a result,” she shares. “I want to make sure that he has more options to alleviate this burden.”

Support from ARCS has played a critical role in advancing that mission.

“ARCS has been absolutely wonderful to me,” Taber says. “Funding not only helps alleviate the financial burden of graduate school but also enables me to attend national training programs and present my research at conferences. I would not have this opportunity without ARCS.”