A couple of months ago, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study that had looked at the brains of 111 deceased National Football League players.

One hundred ten of those brains were found to have Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative disease. Learning more about the damage to brains of people who have died has helped in making significant advances in related research.

But this week, a study by Boston University was published that researchers hope could lead to massive, rapid progress. They believe they’ve made a discovery that can lead to CTE being diagnosed in living patients.

We spoke with Jonathan Cherry, a Boston University School of Medicine postdoctoral fellow who co-wrote the study.