The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has awarded a five-year, $1.5 million grant extension to Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health to fund research into the function of a biomarker for brain injury called Translocator Protein 18 kDa, known as TSPO, in order to better understand its function in brain injury and inflammation and discover targets for therapy. Dr. Tomás Guilarte, chair of the department of environmental health sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, will lead the new studies. Dr. Guilarte pioneered these studies beginning in 1995 that led to the validation of the biomarker and established its use in research studies underway around the world.