Health Discoveries in General Health News
Federal grant will expand research on spinal cord injuries
August 18, 2010
The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation has been awarded $5.4 million to expand research into spinal cord injuries and treatment for military personnel who live with such injuries.
The research done with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) grant will be conducted through the foundation's North American Clinical Trials Network (NACTN), an international network of hospitals.
"Our goal is to bring effective treatments from the lab to the servicemen and women on our frontlines," said Dr. Robert Grossman, NACTN's primary investigator and chairman of neurosurgery at the Methodist Neurological Institute in Houston. "With the DoD's and the Reeve Foundation's support, our network can conduct more high quality trials that we hope will result in viable therapies for spinal cord injury patients."
NACTN's first clinical trial, a safety study of the neuroprotective drug Riluzole, enrolled its first patient in April.
A clinical trial under way within the North Shore-LIJ Health System is focusing on a substance present in the blood after a spinal injury occurs. Reseachers are looking at the protein macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), which affects how cells interact and is known to increase inflammation, to determine if MIF levels are higher after a spinal cord injury.
The research done with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) grant will be conducted through the foundation's North American Clinical Trials Network (NACTN), an international network of hospitals.
"Our goal is to bring effective treatments from the lab to the servicemen and women on our frontlines," said Dr. Robert Grossman, NACTN's primary investigator and chairman of neurosurgery at the Methodist Neurological Institute in Houston. "With the DoD's and the Reeve Foundation's support, our network can conduct more high quality trials that we hope will result in viable therapies for spinal cord injury patients."
NACTN's first clinical trial, a safety study of the neuroprotective drug Riluzole, enrolled its first patient in April.
A clinical trial under way within the North Shore-LIJ Health System is focusing on a substance present in the blood after a spinal injury occurs. Reseachers are looking at the protein macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), which affects how cells interact and is known to increase inflammation, to determine if MIF levels are higher after a spinal cord injury.