Individuals exposed to repeated head injury (RHI), such as contact sports players, are at a higher risk of developing brain issues later in life. Whilst these types of head injury are often considered ‘mild’, their consequences can be considerable, with substantial economic and social burden. Despite this, the link between the initial ‘mild’ injuries and the long-term damage is unknown.
Dr Dashwood has been awarded a Brain Research UK post-doctoral fellowship to investigate new mechanisms involved in the long-term consequences of repeated head injury.
Funded in our second round of fellowship funding, Amy emerged as an outstanding early career researcher working in an under-researched area that has the potential to deliver significant and widely applicable results.
Around 335,000 people are admitted to hospital every year in the UK with an acquired brain injury, and many more suffer ‘mild’ head injuries that may not require hospital admission. However, the day-to-day impact of such injuries varies enormously from person to person, depending on the frequency, nature, severity and location of the injury, as well as the treatment undertaken.
The range of problems experienced by patients is equally huge, including impaired movement and cognition, communication difficulties, emotional issues, fatigue, headaches and pain.
Greater understanding of the causes, consequences and treatment of head injury is urgently needed.
More about acquired brain and spinal cord injury
Much of the existing research into repeated head injury (RHI) has focused on the brain itself. However, Amy’s project will look beyond the brain, at its protective borders. The meninges are a three-layered structure that are positioned between the brain and the skull. They provide cushioning to the brain and act as a physical border between the body and the fluid surrounding the brain. Amy and her colleagues think that, with RHI, the meninges undergo stress, and that this stress may lead to a breakdown of the barrier between the body and the brain, allowing substances not usually seen in the brain to access the brain, potentially driving long-term disease.
To address these research questions, Amy will use a new way of looking at repeated head injury. She will build a timeline of the damage repeated head injury causes to the protective barriers that surround the brain, which will tell her when might be a good time to use drugs to prevent further damage.
She will then use already established drugs to investigate what causes the barrier to break down after repeated head injury and what could stop the processes involved.
Finally, she will use sophisticated testing of mouse behaviour to assess the effect of drug treatment on the outcome of injury alongside looking at microscopic changes in brain structure using advanced imaging.
Amy was awarded her PhD by the University of Cambridge in 2025, during which she became interested in the field of traumatic brain injury (TBI). She is already a co-author on several significant publications and is a named inventor on a patent application.
After her PhD, Amy began a post-doctoral position in the laboratory of Dr. Andy Greenhalgh, who will be her mentor for this fellowship. Amy has driven the laboratory’s research programme on the immunology of repeated head injury, is now expert in meningeal biology and modelling repeated head injury.
Amy is passionate about fostering new collaborations and making her research accessible to the scientific community and beyond, and is committed to continuing both scientific and public outreach to help disseminate and increase the impact of her research.
Repeated head injury (RHI) affects many different people including those involved in sport, the armed forces and domestic abuse survivors, and can lead to long-term problems with memory, mood and thinking. Many people experience these symptoms even though standard brain scans appear normal, leaving them without clear answers or treatments.
This research will use a new, clinically relevant model to understand how RHI damages protective barriers around the brain. By identifying early biological changes that drive long-term symptoms, this work aims to support earlier diagnosis and development of new treatments, helping to improve patient quality of life.
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