Boston, MA (February 9, 2012) – Travis Roy, Founder of the Travis Roy Foundation (TRF), announced earlier this month the distribution of a $150,000 research grant, each year for the next three years, to Dr. Jeffrey Macklis, Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School Center for Nervous System Repair whose work is entitled Development and Growth of Corticospinal Motor Neurons for Spinal Cord Repair. The TRF is a Boston-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which distributes grants on a quarterly basis to spinal cord injury survivors for adaptive equipment and to research facilities and experts investigating potential treatment and cures for spinal cord paralysis.
Dr. Macklis, who is also a Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Neurosurgery at MGH-HMS, and his lab, are primarily interested in the Corticospinal System (which involves the brain cells and neurons that connect the motor area of the cerebral cortex from the brain down through the brain stem, continuing down the spinal cord) and how such neurons develop. Researching the corticospinal motor neurons, which get crushed, compressed, or severed during a spinal cord injury, will play a vital role in finding a cure for paralysis as it is the injury of their axons which leads to the loss of voluntary motor activity anywhere below the level of injury. Dr. Macklis’ lab wants to know how to get those neurons to be rebuilt, regenerated, and repaired.
He also believes that a cure is within rational, reasonable, logical reach and that the grant that he has received from the TRF is special because it enables him and his team of researchers to lead the most ambitious part of their work.
There are three stages of Dr. Macklis’ research that the TRF grant is used towards: (1) Identifying and projecting the molecules and genes to make the corticospinal neurons go long (instead of simply stopping in the neck), all the way down to the lumbar area of the spine that controls the leg functions, and even further to the part that controls bowel and bladder function. (2) Using genes to find specialized stem cells or pro-generators that are poised to make new corticospinal motor neurons. (3) Utilizing mice in the labs that have human equivalent spinal cord injuries to test and work on.
It is the hope of these stages, once combined and mastered, to contribute to the enhanced future treatment of spinal cord injuries and to one day soon find a cure. For more information on Professor Jeffrey Macklis and to view a video about his most up-to-date research and relationship with the TRF, please click here. To learn more about the TRF and their spinal cord injury research information, browse through the articles on our SCI Research page.
###
Dr. Jeffrey D. Macklis, MD, D.HST – A professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard and professor of neuroscience, neurology and neurosurgery at HMS, Macklis is credited with starting a new field of biology. The goal of his research is to achieve the cellular repair of the brain and/or spinal cord circuits damaged by diseases such as ALS, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and spinal cord injuries.
Since 2002, Dr. Macklis has been Director of the newly established Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School Center for Nervous System Repair (MGH-HMS CNSR). He is also Program Head, Neuroscience, Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Co-Director for the Regeneration and Repair Program of the Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair. He attended MIT, HMS, and graduate school at MIT within the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. He was a postdoctoral fellow in developmental neuroscience with Richard Sidman at HMS. He trained clinically in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and adult neurology in the Harvard-Longwood Neurological Training Program. Until moving to MGH in 2003 to establish the new MGH-HMS CNSR, he was in the Division of Neuroscience at Children’s Hospital, and was Co-Director of the Parkinson’s Disease and Related Disorders Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
###
TRAVIS ROY FOUNDATION: Founded in 1997, the Boston based 501 (c) 3 Travis Roy Foundation distributes grants to spinal cord injury survivors in financial need and to research projects and rehabilitation institutions across North America. The Travis Roy Foundation is uniquely positioned to touch individual lives with its focus on providing adaptive equipment and sponsoring research. In the US alone, there are approximately 1,275,000 people currently living with a spinal cord injury and 13,000 new injuries each year.
