Research aimed at detecting problems

EDGEFIELD, S.C. --- The ball of plastic explosives erupted and shattered the nearest clear plastic bin filled with gel and stalks of celery. Others were left mostly intact, and Mark George is hoping they will provide clues to what is happening inside the heads of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and thereby help partner company Force Protection design vehicles and equipment that can limit traumatic brain injuries.

They are "the signature diseases of the last two wars," said Dr. George, a professor of psychiatry, radiology and neuroscience at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Better protection is ensuring that fewer soldiers die from roadside bombs and land mines, but they could have residual brain injuries from the blasts.

The Department of Defense reported that 360,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq suffered a traumatic brain injury, according to Force Protection.

The damage often does not show up on standard imaging, which Dr. George and others are trying to correct.

"The area we're trying to go into scientifically is a black hole," he said.

Enter the celery.

It is imaged before and after a blast so Dr. George can gauge the cellular damage, in much the same way neurons might be affected.

MUSC is hoping to grow its own neurons for testing, the same way some companies now grow sheets of skin from a small sample, Dr. George said.

Those neurons could then be loaded into "phantom" heads that could be blasted and studied, he said.

This is done at the Edgefield range, which Force Protection bought in 2007, and where the company also tests its armored vehicles and other equipment.

The company provided $1.5 million last year to partner with MUSC on traumatic brain injury research, and it believes it is the only defense company funding research into the problem, CEO and Chairman Michael Moody said.

"We are somewhat surprised some of this work hadn't been done before," he said.

The hope is not only for better imaging to detect the injuries but also to test chemicals that could lessen the damage, Dr. George said.

What Force Protection and MUSC uncover about head injuries also could apply to the NFL or even automakers, Mr. Moody said. It could also help the company design safer vehicles, he said.

Randy Rita saw firsthand how good the company's current vehicles are when his South Carolina National Guard Unit used the Buffalo Mine Protected Clearance Vehicle to drive around Iraq finding and destroying 400 roadside bombs.

"About 80 of them found us," said Mr. Rita, who is now senior range supervisor for the company's physical testing range in Edgefield County.

When the bombs went off, it was "pretty loud, of course," Mr. Rita said. "It does rattle you. But you're protected; you've got all of your parts when it's over with. And you walk away."

And that is the bottom line, Mr. Moody said.

"A lot of people are returning who wouldn't have survived these blasts," he said. "Many of these folks couldn't have survived without these vehicles."

Reach Tom Corwin at (706) 823-3213 or tom.corwin@augustachronicle.com.

FORCE PROTECTION INC.

Force Protection Inc., based in Ladson, S.C., near Charleston, is a leading manufacturer of armored and blast-resistant vehicles. It is also a leading researcher into armor and explosive issues and it uses its Edgefield County range to conduct a wide variety of physical (and sometimes very loud) testing.