Veteran Health

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about evaluate the safety, tolerability, and feasibility of MRI-guided LIFU targeting the sgACC in Veterans with post-traumatic brain injury depression. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. the safety, tolerability, and feasibility of MRI-guided LIFU. 2. Evaluate preliminary antidepressant efficacy. 3. Characterize target engagement using multimodal neuroimaging and electrophysiology. 4. Identify imaging and electrophysiological biomarkers that predict treatment response. 5. Generate preliminary effect size estimates to support future multicenter clinical trials.

Project PHOENIX is an observational clinical research study designed to characterize molecular, genomic, cellular, and functional features in blood specimens from former U.S. Service Members with prior burn pit exposure and from matched unexposed controls. Participants will complete screening, informed consent, health and exposure questionnaires, and a one-time blood collection. Blood-derived specimens may undergo genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic, immunophenotyping, and cellular functional analyses. Participants may also agree to optional future re-contact for health updates and possible repeat blood collection. The goal is to identify biologic signatures associated with prior deployment-related burn pit exposure and to support future biomarker discovery and translational research in veteran health.