For the past year, Dr. Cynthia Bir, associate professor of Biomedical Engineering in the College of Engineering, has jetted back and forth from Detroit to Hollywood to serve as the lead scientist for the Emmy Award winning show, “Sports Science” that airs on Fox Sports Network on Sunday evenings at 9 p.m. 

The show, nominated for four Emmy’s including Technical Achievement with Dr. Bir at the helm, examines dramatic sports injuries and attempts to answer questions such as “Does protective gear really protect?”  The show, which appeals to even non-sport buffs, applies tools developed in Bir’s lab to record, measure and map the speed, force and range of the human body, specifically the athlete.  The result is more than just entertainment - it’s educational as well. 

When Dr. Bir isn’t busy in Hollywood, she along with co-investigators Drs. Mark Haacke, John Hannigan and Pamela VandeVord are ramping up research efforts to determine why so many soldiers are returning from Iraq with mild to moderate trauma to the brain after being exposed to the pressure wave caused by roadside bombs with symptoms often associated with mild to moderate trauma to the brain. 

The project funded with nearly $800,000 from the Office of Naval Research, will attempt to identify key, unanswered questions such as: “How is the pressure wave transmitted through the body? How is the pressure causing shock and injury to the brain cells?”

The team will also investigate the effectiveness of drugs both before and after exposure to the air blasts, with the goal to identify a biomarker and an effective drug treatment that can be provided to the medical staff in the field as both preventative and treatment tools.