WWE Funds Research of Chronic Brain Trauma

World Wrestling Entertainment has agreed to make a $1.2 million gift over three years to the Sports Legacy Institute aimed at developing a treatment for chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

The gift was announced Friday. The non-profit institute is a founding partner of the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy. The center is studying how to diagnose CTE in living people, a critical step toward clinical trials in humans.

The WWE gift will fund a new investigation to screen potential CTE treatments.

CTE has been diagnosed in patients exposed to repeated brain trauma, including athletes who participate in contact sports, as well as military veterans and victims of abuse.