The Foundation’s Research Consortium on Spinal Cord Injury is an international network of neuroscientists who are pooling their expertise and working collaboratively to address the multi-faceted challenges of repairing the damaged spinal cord.  

	Bunge Lab       Cotman Lab       Edgerton Lab   Click on the photo for more information on that lab.   Mendell Lab       Parada Lab   Schwab Lab   Gage Lab

What is the Research Consortium?

The spinal cord is an extremely complex tissue and repairing it after injury will require multiple approaches and interventions.  These will be dictated by a constellation of factors including when (acute, subacute, chronic) and how the trauma occurred (contusion or compression, or was the cord actually severed), and its spinal cord level (is it for example a T5 or a C3 injury).

It is understood that treating the paralysis and the dysfunctions that result from injury will require a tapestry of interventions and the scientists of the Consortium bring wide-ranging experience and knowledge to the task.  They are experts in neuroprotection, growth inhibition, promotion of axon growth, axon guidance, synapse formation and neurotransmission, cellular replacement and artificial substrates, and rehabilitation strategies.  

The Consortium is also nurturing the next generation of spinal cord investigators by supporting Associates in each laboratory who have the opportunity to learn from and do research under the direction of the Principal Investigators.  These promising young scientists attend all Consortium meetings, travel between laboratories to learn new techniques and assist in the myriad interlaboratory studies that are a hallmark of the Consortium, and engage in workshops to complement and enrich their spinal cord research knowledge and skills.

Research Goals of the Consortium

The strategic plan of the Consortium is to fully understand the molecular and cellular events that follow a spinal cord injury in order to target specific points in the course of injury for therapeutic intervention.  Optimal treatment plans will be two-fold and include acute strategies to limit degeneration and regenerative and reconstructive strategies to promote rebuilding and reconnection of the injured cord.

Clearly, these strategies are related in both their impact on and potential benefits to the injured spinal cord. Limiting degeneration will enhance the probability for greater recovery and stimulating regeneration will build upon the remaining system to restore lost connectivity and perhaps prevent further degeneration.  

A state-of-the-art gene expression laboratory at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA is complementing and enhancing the work of the Consortium scientists, enabling them to screen thousands of genes at a time to identify those that might one day help repair the spinal cord.  A second core at the University of California Irvine is used for animal studies and the training of Associates.  Both insure standardization from study to study and eliminate the need to duplicate expensive equipment and resources at other Consortium laboratories.  

A series of small workshops held in conjunction with Consortium meetings have tapped the expertise of external scientists focused on spinal cord-relevant issues.  In addition to a microarray workshop that resulted in development of the gene expression laboratory at the Salk Institute, Consortium-sponsored workshops have featured the mouse in spinal cord research and moving from the research bench to the patient.  

The Foundation’s Research Consortium is a dynamic intellectual and resource network rooted in the notion that spinal cord repair is beyond the scope of any one individual or laboratory.  It is based on the belief the surest route to development of effective therapies for spinal cord injury is to harness the collective energy of scientists with the interdisciplinary knowledge and willingness to act in concert toward a common goal.