May Meeting and More

Hello all,

We will be meeting again on Saturday, March 6. Please email an RSVP and come on out for some free pizza and good company.

Gelsosomo's Pizzeria

1pm-?
2605 Laporte Avenue
Valparaiso, IN 46383
map | driving directions


Hope to see you there.

May's meeting will be Sunday, May 2nd... location TBA.

The following information was sent to me regarding current Spinal Cord Injury Research. Contact nwiscig@gmail for flyer attachments that can be printed as well.


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This is a SCI science summary prepared by Chris Connolly, Dennis Connolly, and Jon O'Connor.

Please see the attached SCI research information which updates the progress of the best researchers and independant publicly-held companies.

#1: CDRF history of spinal cord research (then & now). See ThenAndNow_newsletter1.pdf

#2: Reeve Irvine Center of primate research with Dr. Zhigang. This published and peer-reviewed nerve regeneration study is the first of its kind. The fact this is being done in a primate model is a big step from working with rats since the primate nervous system is complex and similar to ours. See ReeveIrvinePublication_newsletter1.pdf

#3: Dr. Tuszynski of UCSD who is working with chronically injured primates utilizing a combination treatment of bone marrow stem cell and growth-promoting proteins. See Tuszynski_newsletter1.pdf and Sci Res&Bioeng_newsletter1.pdf

#4: Dr. Karimi
Dr. Karimiof Toronto Canada is working on a combinational strategy for neural repair after chronic SCI. See Karimi_newsletter1.pdf

#5: Dr. Wise Young

Dr. Young is currently conducting clinical trials in China investigating the efficacy of umbilical cord blood transplants in the treatment of spinal cord injury.

Dr. Young has also been working with other leading neurosurgeons and directors of rehabilitation from across the US as well as two US companies to develop protocols for US-based human clinical trials. Preparations are being made for US Phase II trials to be initiated which will be the first human clinical trials for people with chronic injuries. These trials will help to asses the safety, feasibility and efficacy.

#6: Dr. Stephen Davies

Dr. Davies has been researching intensely for the last year plus and is currently peer-reviewing some new findings before making them public.

Dr. Davies' research focuses specifically on "1). Overcoming the effects of axon growth inhibitors found at sites of injury and throughout the environment of the injured adult central nervous system, 2) Development of glial restricted precursor derived astrocyte (GDA) technologies to generate specific types of astrocyte glia that are suitable for repairing the injured or diseased spinal cord and brain."

#7 Dr. Kerr

Dr. Kerr is currently working at Biogen, which is in Cambridge. He is also at Harvard. He has recently left John Hopkins.

Publicly held companies to keep an eye on include:

#1: Geron - out of Irvine, CA; this company has a scheduled Phase 1 human trial for the third quarter of 2010 utilizing stem cells. Hopefully this will move forward; the FDA cancelled their last scheduled trial.

www.geron.com

#2: Acorda Therapeutics - Acorda is a company based out of New York. Acorda focuses on SCI and MS predominantly. While they have some commercial stage therapies currently available for MS they are in the R&D and pre-clinical stage with a couple of therapies targeted at SCI.

www.acorda.com

#3: In Vivo Therapeutics; this company is based out of Boston and is currently petitioning the FDA for an acute human SCI trial for late 2010 or early 2011. Keep an eye on this one, very strong team.

www.Invivotherapeutics.com