U2FP CureCast

Check out Episode 33 of CureCast. We (Kate Willette, Jason Stoffer and Matthew Rodreick) talk with Dr. Mohamad Bydon from the Mayo Clinic. You may have seen the Good Morning America piece focused on 'super responder' patient one in the Phase 1 Clinical Trial using Adipose Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells. We wanted to understand more about the study, how to go beyond the media hype and get an understanding of where Dr. Bydon sees this research going. Take a listen and drop us a note at [email protected].

Kate, Matthew and Jason Stoffer (our new podcast host) have a conversation with Dr. Stephen Strittmatter, The Vincent Coates Professor of Neurology and Professor of Neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine. His discoveries over the last two decades of research led to the founding of ReNetX, who are applying that technology to discover if neurons can regrow in the chronic injury (in humans) by eliminating inhibitory growth factors. We discuss the pre-clinical research, the mechanistic activity and the challenges of translating a discovery to clinical relevance. Here are a few links to give you some background: Background and clinical trial info: https://www.renetx.com/technology.html Publications: https://www.renetx.com/publications.html Recent blog post from our Scientific Advisory Board Director, Sam Maddox: https://u2fp.org/get-educated/our-voice.html/article/2019/10/29/clinical-trial-enrolling-chronic-sci-renetx Let us know what you think at [email protected] If you want to help us feed the movement we need to cure paralysis from SCI you can donate to u2fp here. Thanks for listening.

Matthew and Kate talk with Kathy Allen and Sandra Mulder, the first two participants in the EStand Trial in Minnesota. Kathy and Sandra (as well as Jered Chinook who participated in the Mayo Clinic’s Epidural Stimulation study) were invited to attend the American Spinal Injury Association Conference in April to share their personal experiences as part of a conversation facilitated by U2FP’s Executive Director, Matthew Rodreick. We thought it would be helpful to hear from them directly on the podcast. We talk about their early experiences in the trial, where they are now, and what they continue to experience. It’s a nice follow up to the Epsiode #30 interview with Dr. David Darrow, the principal investigator of the EStand trial. If you haven’t listened to that one, check it out to fill in all the information.

We talk with David about the EStand Trial using Epidural Stimulation for spinal cord injury, the trial design, progress, next steps, and its connection the Cure Advocacy Network. The informal title of this episode is ‘The Transformation of Suffering’, which is David’s eloquent and personal description of why he’s doing what he does and what he is hoping to accomplish with the trial and treatment of SCI.

Matthew and Kate have a conversation with Dr. Lyn Jakeman, Director in the Division of Neuroscience at the National Institutes of Health. We spoke with Lyn a week ahead of NIH's SCI 2020: A Decade of Disruption. We discuss what led to the conference, why now and what they hope to accomplish from it. We also talk about why they chose the title, 'Decade of Disruption', and how that informed the planning process. As to the 'disruption' reference, we also discuss endparalysis foundation's open letter to Dr. Jakeman, and hear a surprising and somewhat encouraging answer. Take a listen and let us know what you think at [email protected].

Matthew and Kate talk with Dr. David Magnuson (University of Louisville) and Dr. Karim Fouad (University of Alberta) about how discoveries are translated, funded, published....and what are some of the problems inherent to getting science to work for us. Links discussed: SCI 2020: https://meetings.ninds.nih.gov/Home/Index/21041 and check back for links to follow up on Kentucky's SCI research funding. Here are the links to follow up with Kentucky's battle to retain funding for SCI research: to KSCIRC: http://louisville.edu/kscirc/ and to Scobirc: http://scobirc.med.uky.edu and to KSCHIRT: https://chfs.ky.gov/agencies/dph/dpqi/hcab/Pages/kschirb.aspx and to the Michael Brent Resource Center: https://www.spinalcordmedicineresources.com

Matthew and Kate interview Dr. Dennis Bourbeau from the Cleveland FES Center (http://fescenter.org/about-fes-center/who-we-are/investigators/dennis-bourbeau-phd/) about his strategies and collaborations to restore bladder function using stimulation. We discuss a number of studies he's involved in as preparation for his presentation at Working 2 Walk Science and Advocacy Symposium...and hope to open up the conversation to all there re: Bowel, Bladder, Sexual Function.

A stimulating conversation with Dr. Andrei Krossioukov from the University of British Columbia and Icord. Kate and Matthew talk with him about spinal stimulation to seek recovery of autonomic functions for chronic spinal cord injury: bowel, bladder, seal function, blood pressure regulation.

Dr. Karim Fouad is a Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta and Canada Research Chair for Spinal Cord Injury. Kate and Matthew talk with Karim about how he ended up in this field and the more recent research that he has been involved with: the discovery of pericytes and their role in inhibiting blood flow after injury and what might be done about that; the potential for inciting a controlled inflammatory response to open a window for recovery after injury; and Karim's ideas for improving the translation of science to clinical relevance. Check it Out. As always, please write to us with your questions, suggestions and critiques at [email protected]

Check out this great discussion Kate and Matthew have with Dr. Nicholas Jeffery from Texas A & M. We talked with Dr. Jeffery about the recent clinical trial for paralyzed dogs using chondroitinase along with his future work. After you listen to our interview, go take a look at his presentation from Working 2 Walk 2015.