Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, is associated with repeated head trauma and it has been found in many football players' brains. Most recently, that of deceased Patriots player Aaron Hernandez.
The association with America’s favorite sport has turned this mouthful of biomedical jargon into a household phrase, but we still don’t have a way to diagnose the disease until after death.
That could change.
Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine and the Veterans Administration Boston Healthcare System announced this past week that they’ve found an indicator of CTE that might be useful in diagnosing the disease during life.
For more we talk to Jonathon Cherry, a postdoctoral fellow at the Boston University School of Medicine. He’s the lead author on the new study.