CTE study seeks current, former NFL players

Current and former NFL players have another chance Friday to help researchers one day diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the living, not just at autopsy.

The study’s fourth “collection date” is scheduled for Friday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), 445 N. 5th Street, in Phoenix. Walk-ins are accepted or players seeking more information and appointments can contact the study coordinator at CTE@tgen.org or 602-343-8653.

Exosome Sciences, a subsidiary of Aethlon Medical, Inc. in San Diego, and TGen are collaborating on the project. They hope to convince 200 past and present football players, mostly with NFL ties, to participate in the hopes of helping those who have CTE now or might in the future.

Volunteers provide small samples of blood, urine and saliva, and fill out a questionnaire regarding their health and athletic history. The entire process takes no more than an hour.

It’s a blind study and the information collected is kept private, said former NFL player and broadcaster, Solomon Wilcots, who leads Exosome Sciences players council.

“Our goal is to get 50 guys here in the Phoenix area,” said Wilcots, who added that about half that many have participated already.

Another collection is scheduled for Sept. 7 in Phoenix. Eventually, collection dates will be scheduled in other cities.

“We’re going to learn a lot from this one (in Phoenix),” Wilcots said.