Cameron R. 'Dale' Bass

Image of Cameron R. 'Dale' Bass

Associate Research Professor

Cameron R. 'Dale' Bass is an Associate Research Professor with Duke's Department of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Injury and Othopaedic Biomechanics Laboratory.

A major research focus of Dr. Bass is the study of blast-related brain injury and injury mechanisms. Past research has concentrated air containing organs, such as the lungs and bowel. Results from the limited evidence of over 80 years of experimentation suggested that the brain tolerance for blast was much greater than the pulmonary tolerance for blast. However, recent anecdotal evidence suggests that many soldiers returning from combat have symptoms that are consistent with underlying brain injuries. The etiology for these injuries is unclear and may include a spectrum of sources from blunt impact injuries to post traumatic stress disorder to primary blast injuries.

The primary goals of this research are to:

  • determine injury thresholds for blast brain injury
  • identify injury mechanisms underlying blast brain injury

This research may help reduce the frequency of brain injury caused by blast events, help identify treatments for such injury, and provide the knowledge to develop better protective equipment to protect against such injuries. Many projects involve multi-disciplinary collaborations between BME, Duke University Medical Center, Durham Veterans Affairs, and other major research institutions.

Contact Information:
Education:

PhDUniversity of Virginia1994

Research Interests:

Dr. Bass's research interests include the biomechanics of blast, blunt and ballistic trauma and pediatric trauma. His research focuses on injury risk from microscale to macroscale for the head, neck, thorax and extremities.

Representative Publications: (More Publications)
    • R. S. Salzar and C. R. Bass and D. Lessley and J. R. Crandall and R. W. Kent and J. R. Bolton, Viscoelastic Response of the Thorax under Dynamic Belt Loading, Traffic Injury Prevention, vol 10 no. 3 (2009), pp. 290 -- 296 [abs].
    • R. S. Salzar and D. Genovese and C. R. Bass and J. R. Bolton and H. Guillemot and A. M. Damon and J. R. Crandall, Load path distribution within the pelvic structure under lateral loading, International Journal Of Crashworthiness, vol 14 no. 1 (2009), pp. 99 -- 110 [abs].
    • C. R. Bass and K. A. Rafaels and R. S. Salzar, Pulmonary injury risk assessment for short-duration blasts, Journal Of Trauma-injury Infection And Critical Care, vol 65 no. 3 (2008), pp. 604 -- 615 [abs].
    • S. R. Lucas and C. R. Bass and R. S. Salzar and M. L. Oyen and C. Planchak and A. Ziemba and B. S. Shender and G. Paskoff, Viscoelastic properties of the cervical spinal ligaments under fast strain-rate deformations, Acta Biomaterialia, vol 4 no. 1 (2008), pp. 117 -- 125 [abs].
    • C. R. Bass and C. J. Planchak and R. S. Salzar and S. R. Lucas and K. A. Rafaels and B. S. Shender and G. Paskoff, The temperature-dependent viscoelasticity of porcine lumbar spine ligaments, Spine, vol 32 no. 16 (2007), pp. E436 -- E442 [abs].