History of the Program

In the mid 1970’s Marion Murray and the late Michael Goldberger moved from the University of Chicago to the Medical College of Pennsylvania (MCP) with the goal of establishing a unique research group, focused on issues of neural plasticity and recovery of function, with an emphasis on spinal cord injury. The Spinal Cord Research Center at Drexel University College of Medicine gradually evolved from this group and even now remains the only center of its kind in Pennsylvania and the Mid Atlantic region. DUCOM recognizes this rich history of development and takes great pride in being one of the first centers dedicated to research in spinal cord injury, maintaining its steadfast commitment to its mission, while adapting to the tremendous changes and progress in the field.

From its inception, the guiding principle has been the realization that the complexities of spinal injury and the difficulties of promoting recovery of useful function would require a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach. It reflects an approach in which new ideas from basic science can be developed and innovative technologies from engineering can be applied. As the goal of achieving effective treatments became closer, we focused increased attention on clinically-relevant strategies and training of physician-scientists. Many of our hiring decisions over the last decade have been motivated by the need to include new approaches in preventing secondary damage of the injury while stimulating regeneration and repair.

For example, twenty years ago Center staff developed methods for transplantation of fetal tissue into the injured spinal cord and demonstrated that these procedures promoted anatomical plasticity and led to partial recovery of locomotor function. These advances led to the development of better methods of functional assessment for both repair and recovery that are now widely used by the spinal cord injury community. Later we pioneered the transplantation of cells genetically modified to secrete growth factors and the use of neural stem cells. These are now some of the most powerful interventions for delivery of therapeutic factors and cell replacement therapy, respectively. Another approach was to supply exogenous sources of drugs that would stimulate circuits partially disconnected by the injury. Thus pharmacological interventions have become an important component of a combined therapeutic approach.

Behavioral tests that were sufficient to reveal some degree of recovery were not sensitive enough to identify physiological mechanisms and compensatory functions. Therefore, considerable effort was undertaken to develop advanced analyses, which revealed details of coordinated locomotion, weight support and posture. In addition, we routinely include the evaluation of other important parameters of spinal injury, particularly autonomic dysreflexia involving bladder, bowel and sexual function, respiratory deficits, and assessment of neuropathic pain. In recent years, the Center developed a broad repertoire of outcome measures that enables it to study the effects of the therapeutic interventions on a range of motor, autonomic and sensory deficits. To that has been added the strengths of neuro-robotics, use of prosthetic devices, and computer modeling, which provides the potential of novel ways of improving function by bypassing the injury site and harnessing the spinal circuits that remain intact but disconnected by the lesion from voluntary control.

Each of these advances has been achieved through collaboration by Center investigators with scientists and physicians outside Drexel University, as well as by recruitment of expert faculty to this Department. Indeed, it is noteworthy that more than half of the current members of the Spinal Cord Research Center have been recruited over the last 5 years. Moreover, as basic science studies have shown promise for clinical application, strong collaborations have been developed with clinicians, including neurologists, neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, neuro-radiologists, physical therapists, physiatrists and neuro-urologists, who collectively contribute to the goals of translational research. These collaborations have been supported by training grants from the Medical Rehabilitation Service of the National Institute of Child Health and Development, National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke and through other awards designed to train physicians or biomedical engineers in Spinal Cord Injury research. These clinicians spend up to 3 years in Center laboratories, applying their expertise to the animal models in order to identify the most promising approaches.

Center faculty have achieved an impressive measure of success, as attested to by a strong record of publications, a network of collaborative projects, and support of the group by a NIH Program Project grant on Mechanisms of Recovery of Function after Spinal Cord Injury as well as individual grants from NIH, Paralyzed Veteran’s of America (PVA), United Spinal Association (formerly EPVA), International Spinal Research Trust, Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation and other national and international agencies. Despite this success, the funding climate within the United States has become critically unstable (only about 10% of NIH applications are funded) and is likely to remain problematic for the foreseeable future.

Major Research Goals - 2006-2010

• Test the effectiveness of stem cells for cell replacement leading to recovery of function
• Determine which acute interventions are transferable to chronic injury conditions
• Develop strategies to overcome scar tissue and promote regeneration
• Improve quantitative outcome measure for motor, sensory and autonomic functions
• Determine the role of activity on reorganization of spinal cord circuitry
• Expand data base of changes in gene expression after SCI and therapeutic intervention
• Explore clinical relevance of cell delivery by lumbar puncture and graft detection by MRI
• Investigate scaling up of therapeutic treatments from rat to cat with implications for human studies