Cohen Veterans Bioscience Inc
Advancing Brain Health
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Globally, 2 billion individuals are directly affected by a brain disorder with a catastrophic personal and societal cost exceeding $2 Trillion USD. The World Health Organization attributes 38% of the total years lost to death and disability to brain disorders. We do not know the causes and mechanisms of most of the 600 disorders that affect the brain including diseases like dementia, depression, trauma-related disorders, substance abuse, and suicide. Complicating things further is the fact that brain research and clinical trials can be inefficient, expensive and have a low likelihood of success. Today, we lack diagnostics and effective precision medicine solutions for most of these conditions including those that disproportionately affect Veterans, such as PTSD & TBI. In an effort to change how we approach brain health, Cohen Veterans Bioscience (CVB) is prioritizing high potential and high impact brain health initiatives that will lead to solutions in years, not decades.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Research Alliance for PTSD/TBI Innovation and Discovery Diagnostics (Rapid- DX)
We have developed a platform for connecting researchers pre-competitively to discover and validate biomarkers to develop objective diagnostics and to help match PTSD patients to the most effective treatment.
Neuroimaging Biomarkers of PTSD: In partnership with Stanford University, we studied clinical biomarkers to identify brain activity patterns in PTSD within a large Veteran population. The results showed that PTSD patients could be stratified into groups moving PTSD diagnosis and treatment away from a symptoms-based approach to a biologically-based approach, to provide the basis for the development of targeted treatments.
Genetics Biomarkers of PTSD: More than 200 researchers, in 12 countries, researching genetic data from more than 200,000 people, we demonstrated that the risk of developing PTSD after experiencing trauma is heritable. Results have implications for advancing our understanding of the pathophysiology of PTSD and in order to develop biologically-based treatments.
BRAIN Commons
The BRAIN Commons is a cloud-based, scaleable data-sharing platform with large, deep phenotype cohorts mapped to a common data model to help advance brain health research and studies.
The BRAIN Commons allows researchers from around the world access to multimodal data on brain related disorders to utilize an interoperable system and participate in a collaborative effort of data sharing and state-of-the art predictive analytics.
www.braincommons.org
Normative Neuroimaging Library (NNL)
Improving the Diagnosis of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Advanced MRI imaging can now detect microscopic changes in brain structure and/or function caused by trauma or disease. By performing standardized MRI scans on 3,000 adult volunteers who have not been affected by brain trauma or disease, we are forming a library that documents normal population variation. This imaging library would allow physicians to accurately and efficiently diagnose conditions resulting from subtle and early changes in brain structure.
TBI Action Alliance / Brain Trauma Blueprint
CVB is leading a collaborative roadmap, Brain Trauma Blueprint, to reflect the State of the Science in brain trauma, reflecting the thinking of 100+ leaders from academia, foundations, government and industry, to identify translational gaps in research, recommendations for future studies and through the coordination and advocacy of the TBI Action Alliance, accelerate a first generation of diagnostics and treatments for Traumatic Brain Injury.
The TBI Action Alliance will
1. Raise awareness and advocate for TBI Research to policymakers and funders.
2. Establish a TBI National Research Agenda to support scientific, regulatory and government policies placing TBI research at the top of the national agenda and ensure adequate funding to execute it.
3. Put Patients at the Center of Research Endeavors
4. Spark a New Era of Innovation for TBI Solutions
5. Chart Progress against roadmap milestones and report out to the Alliance membership progress of collective efforts.
Policy and Advocacy
Our policy and advocacy programs focus on four fundamental policy platforms: increased Federal funding for brain health research, improved data sharing and interoperability, clinical trial process reform, and enhanced reproducibility of Federally-funded research. To achieve our policy goals, we are partnering with organizations for a collective voice for change. These partnerships include:
National Association of Veterans Research Education Foundation’s (NAVREF) Partnered Research Program (PRP)
Co-founding the Coalition to Health Invisible Wounds to advance a comprehensive research-focused advocacy agenda to address the invisible wounds of war known to dramatically increase the risk of suicide among Veterans and servicemembers
Established the Veterans Advisory Council (VAC) to advocate, represent and support Veteran’s interests to CVB, to partners, to policy leaders and to the broader community engaged in the support, research, prevention, and treatment of brain health conditions.
Early Signal - digital health platform
Early Signal is our digital health platform for recording and analyzing a range of information, reported from wearables and other sensors, directly related to the well-being of patients living with brain disorders. These behavioral, cognitive, physiological and contextual data can be used to quantify brain health, improving the ability of clinicians to diagnosis a wide range of brain disorders and to treat them using precision medicine approaches.
Our Mobile Health Platform includes wearables and sensors for real-time, individualized monitoring of behavioral, cognitive, physiological and contextual data to enable disease prevention and promote health.
Developing digital health solutions for insomnia: Sleep disruptions are one of the most debilitating symptoms of PTSD and TBI, and are a risk factor for suicide. We’re developing digital health solutions to validate and analyze data collected from wearables and improve methods of measuring sleep to develop effective therapeutics.
Where we work
External reviews
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of new research partnerships
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of presentations to biomedical research conferences
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) research roadmaps published
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of computational disease models built in support of the brain research community
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of grants and research funding awarded to the institution
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
TBI Action Alliance / Brain Trauma Blueprint
Type of Metric
Other - describing something else
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We have received grant funding from government agencies and private foundations for research projects we are driving as well as to collaborate on projects that advance partner organization research.
Number of research studies conducted
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Over the past 8 years we have launched 7 studies that span projects in key areas identified in our roadmap to address gaps in translational science through a team science approach.
Number of groups brought together in a coalition/alliance/partnership
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
TBI Action Alliance / Brain Trauma Blueprint
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Through our workshops and Brain Trauma Blueprint events, we convene organizations from biopharma industry, academic researchers, government leaders and patient advocacy groups to further our mission.
Number of new advocates recruited
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
TBI Action Alliance / Brain Trauma Blueprint
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Launch of TBI Action Alliance
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Solutions are urgently needed to ensure personalized medicine strategies for the billions of people who are suffering the devastating effects of brain disorders. Owing to its complexity, the human brain remains one of the last frontiers of revolutionary discovery. Historically, progress in the field has been challenged by the lack of available tools and understanding of the brain’s basic biological processes. Currently individuals are diagnosed and treated based on their self report of their symptoms not with an objective measure. This can lead to individuals receiving a trial and error approach to diagnosis and treatments which can leave patients and their families feeling frustrated with the process, desperate for improvement and often unlikely to stay the course of treatment.
CVB's goal is to drive a change in the way we predict disease onset, objectively diagnose patients, identify specific targets for effective therapeutic intervention allowing clinicians to deliver optimized care and lives to be improved.
We are embracing the complexity of brain disease and rethinking how we define it, how we study it, how we identify new targets, and how we advance precision therapeutic approaches.
We are dedicated to creating best-practices in research through a team science approach to fast-track Brain Health Solutions to reduce the silos of research, facilitating research that is well-validated and will fast-track solutions for the protection, maintenance and restoration of brain health.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We are focused on brain trauma and leading the way to cure “invisible wounds” for the millions of veterans, service members, first responders, and civilians who suffer from trauma-related conditions.
In order to fast-track precision diagnostics and therapeutics for brain trauma, we are:
• Committed to acquiring diverse brain trauma biomarker data through our own research and through partnerships with other organizations, and on analyzing the data in order to stratify patients so we know who to treat, and to create disease models that will inform how to treat;
• Building world-class capabilities in clinical development, technology, data science and partnering, so we can get access to the optimal data sets, focus on the most relevant clinical questions, and can acquire, store and analyze the data sets that will lead to patient stratification and creating of disease models
• Shaping the research ecosystem as needed to support research in brain trauma and to force multiply our own efforts through convening expertise and coordinating research, leading and participating in advocacy, and communicating our learnings and best practices
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
CVB is proud to have cultivated a team of best-in-class scientists, engineers and data specialist who embrace the complexity of brain diseases and focus on challenging practices that stymie progress. CVB has also built a partnerships with thought leaders spanning the advocacy, industry, academic, non-profit and government spaces. Each of these partner organizations contribute complementary capabilities, data and expertise to support a common roadmap for identifying diagnostic biomarkers, building predictive disease models, and developing personalized treatments. Our partner organizations include such leaders as the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute (MIT & Harvard), the Psychiatrics Genomics Consortium for PTSD, the Michael J. Fox Foundation and the Wounded Warrior Project.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
CVB has successfully laid the foundation upon which to advance discoveries and fast track diagnostics and treatments through proof of concept projects in brain trauma while simultaneously developing cross-cutting platforms and best practice methods that can be utilized across brain health. Our approach to research has already made a clear shift from theory to proof.
1. We co-sponsored, with the Psychiatric Genetics Consortium and Broad Institute, the largest genome-wide association study meta-analysis of PTSD to date. Using a multi-ethnic cohort that includes over 30,000 PTSD cases, 170,000 controls and is over ten times the size of any previous analysis, we discovered six genetic markers for PTSD risk. CVB’s investment to drive the global coordination of this meta-analysis led to the discovery of genetic markers not previously associated with PTSD and confirmation there is a substantial genetic component to PTSD. Results from this study have significant implications for advancing our understanding of the pathophysiology of this debilitating syndrome and is critical to developing biologically-based treatment.
2. We funded Stanford University to conduct the Biomarker Establishment for Superior Treatment (BEST) PTSD study, which uses resting-state MRI & electroencephalography (EEG) to identify clinical biomarkers and brain activity patterns – or neural signatures – in PTSD. This study uses neuroimaging and behavioral signatures to stratify PTSD patients into distinct subgroups based solely on the biological signature, or biotype. The analysis revealed that patients with a particular biotype may not respond to firstline PTSD treatments and behavioral therapy. These findings set the stage for future noninvasive brain stimulation approaches that will more quickly identify patients susceptible to developing PTSD and for treating patients with PTSD who are refractory to psychotherapy or first-line pharmacotherapy.
3. CVB spearheaded the conception and design of an innovative, well-powered, adaptive platform trial (APT) protocol to both identify safe and effective PTSD treatments and future discovery of PTSD biomarkers through an award from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (MRMC). In a Team Science approach, CVB, industry, academia, VA, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, FDA, Defense Health Agency’s Psychological Health Center of Excellence, and Department of Defense partnered on the development Information learned in this clinical trial will be used to advance treatments through the drug approval process required for FDA approval and/or inform Clinical Practice Guidelines.
4. CVB launched a TBI Action Alliance to convene organizations to speed development of new diagnostics and treatments for millions of people who have suffered from a traumatic brain injury and to raise awareness and education of TBI to help drive government funding and identify barriers to clinical adoption.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To further target our research efforts
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Cohen Veterans Bioscience Inc
Board of directorsas of 01/30/2024
Dr. Magali Haas
Michael Sullivan
David Biondi
Dave DeMarco
Frank Larkin
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 01/30/2024GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.