Researchers at several leading universities and research institutes on Tuesday were awarded almost $16 million to find a way to diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head hits in contact sports, in living patients.
The National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke issued the seven-year grant as part of a long-term study of former N.F.L. and college football players, and a control group of people who did not play contact sports or suffer a brain injury.
“There are so many critical unanswered questions about C.