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One gift, many benefits This research is inspired and supported by an individual donor, but it holds potential promise for thousands of others. Spinal cord injury is costly, devastating and, currently, essentially untreatable. About 265,000 people in the United States are living with its effects, with about 12,000 new patients each year. It affects primarily males who average 40 years old. They face reduced life expectancy and immense continuing medical costs. Only a third of patients ever successfully resume employment, with just 11 percent working one year after injury. n anonymous donor has provided $4 million to support the Spinal Cord Injury Repair Program in developing two novel approaches in restoring nerve communication using microelectronics and cellular regeneration. “To be able to stand up would be a major change in quality of life for many patients,” said Randolph J. Nudo, Ph.D., director of the Landon Center on Aging and one of the program’s lead researchers. “We want to go beyond that, but one step at a time.” The donor, a quadriplegic following a spinal cord injury several years ago, approached KU with a desire to fund neuroscience research that might lead to restored function after chronic spinal cord injury. Smith and colleagues identified five potential projects based on expertise in KU’s Institute for Neurological Discoveries (IND) and relevance to the donor. They narrowed the list to the two that provided the best chances for improvement. Peter G. Smith, Ph.D., director of the IND and the Spinal Cord Injury Repair Program, said the project brings researchers from basic science disciplines such as physiology, anatomy and pharmacology together with clinicians in neurosurgery, neurology, rehabilitation medicine and more. “This is not just about KU,” Smith said. “We’ve brought in key collaborators at K-State, Case Western Reserve University, Harvard University and the University of Washington. This is about building the best possible research teams to solve a very complicated problem.” The brain-spinal cord interface approach, led by Nudo, uses microelectronics to provide an artificial communication link from the brain to the spinal cord, a pathway that is severed in spinal cord injury. The regeneration strategy, led by Smith, is to discover a way to place new cells in the spinal cord that can replace damaged pathways. “Together, these short- and long-term fixes provide the greatest hope for individuals with spinal cord injuries,” Smith said. The early phases of the work must be performed in animals in order to perfect techniques and develop rigorous measurements to determine if therapies are working. The challenge now, for Nudo’s team, is mapping brain and spinal cord areas to connect; for Smith’s team, it’s engineering the proper cells to replace injured spinal cord cells. Answers on the head of a pin The next time you curse your cell phone, think twice: The same technology might hold the key to preserving motion after spinal cord injuries. Nudo has previously focused on developing therapies for stroke using neural prosthetics to bypass damaged areas of the brain. This project brings that approach to spinal cord injury. When the neural pathways that connect brain to limbs are severed, several structures remain intact: the parts of the brain creating signals, the neurons below the injury in the spinal cord that relay signals, and the muscles that would receive the signals. Therefore, a patient could retain basic motor function if implanted electrodes could record the brain’s electrical signals and send them past the damaged area, where they could activate an external limb, stimulate a muscle directly or stimulate neurons in the spinal cord. “Our work is trying to put those two things together,” Nudo said, “so someone literally would think about moving a limb, using the same neurons as before, and trigger the movement.” Implantable devices must be very small. Ten years ago, Nudo said, the technologies he’s using would have required an entire rack of computers. With microelectronics advances, his team can borrow from resources like cell phone technology. 10 KU GIVING | SUMMER 2012
“Basically, we’re functionally reconnecting the brain and spinal cord with electronic devices,” he said. “We are designing circuits like a computer on the head of a pin.” A bridge of cells Unlike nerves outside the central nervous system, the nerves in the spinal cord cannot regenerate or repair themselves. Smith’s team is working on a treatment involving new cells with the ability to repair the damage for good. “A more permanent treatment would be reconnecting those wires, which means replacing dead cells,” Smith said. “If we can discover the right kinds of cells and the right technique to move them back into the spinal cord, we can get them to create new pathways and restore function below the lesion.” Top: Peter Smith and Dora Agbas, Ph.D., examine sections of injured spinal cords. Agbas is a research assistant professor of molecular and integrative physiology. Above: Smith’s team took a patient’s skin cells, converted them to stem cells, and induced them to grow into these adult nerve cells. KUENDOWMENT.ORG 11
Page 1 and 2: Summer 2012 The gift of motion KU r
Page 3 and 4: contents | summer 2012 features The
Page 5 and 6: every gift matters Award honors leg
Page 7 and 8: 6 why i give | estate gifts the las
Page 9 and 10: From discovery to cure Fellowships
Page 11: The gift of motion Donor spurs rese
Page 15 and 16: Randolph Nudo works to map areas of
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Page 19 and 20: left: courtesy of janice wilson/rig
Page 21 and 22: greater ku fund Events, reverent an
Page 23 and 24: past and present Decades ago, the A

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