Dr. VandeVord has a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering and is an Assistant Professor at Wayne State University. Her research interest in traumatic brain injury focuses on the mechanism of injury due to blast overpressure. She is studying the fundamental questions concerning the mode of blast energy transfer to the brain as well as the consequent damage or disruptive mechanisms at the cellular level. The research is innovative because it integrates the fields of biomechanics and neuroscience, which is necessary to understand the mechanism behind blast related neurotrauma. Dr. VandeVord investigates the cellular (neurons, microglia and astrocytes) response to overpressure with a unique in vitro system. This year, Dr. VandeVord received a Career Development Award from the Veterans Administration for her work in this area. Additionally, Dr. VandeVord utilizes a shock tube to correlate the pressure effects seen at the cellular level with work at the tissue level. Dr. VandeVord's research hopes to distinguish levels of blast overpressure with injury severity.