Grant: Emerging Team Grant: Regenerative Medicine and Nanomedicine

Spinal cord injuries (SCI) after car accidents or others as well as stroke can have devastating effects on the lives of the individuals because the damages of the brain or spinal cord destroy parts of the central nervous system (CNS) essential to the control of movements such as walking. The costs to the individuals are enormous, physically, economically and psychologically and the costs to society are staggering especially when affecting young individuals with a normal life time expectancy, very often the case for SCI Any improvement in function (such as being able to cross a street in due time, in moving around in the house) should be seen as a gain for the individual and a reduction in the cost of Health Care. Is this possible? There are several evidence now (to which we have significantly contributed) showing that the nervous system has tremendous capabilities to adapt to lesions and can optimize the function of remaining intact CNS areas to regain function. But what should be done to rehabilitate these patients and on what scientific basis? The general goal of the Neurological SensoriMotor Rehabilitation team (NSMR) team is to focus specifically on this question. We form a multidisciplinary team of experts (juniors and seniors) who already have a recent history of productive interactions. Using cutting-edge approaches (force enhancement, sensory enhancement, magnetic resonance imaging), we will investigate sensorimotor mechanisms leading to functional recovery following CNS lesions in humans (spinal cord injury (SCI) and stroke) and in relevant animal models to understand the basic biological principles of plasticity. Thus we will provide a structured forum of interactions between clinicians and basic scientists working on complementary problems in patients and animal models leading de facto to concrete knowledge transfer to the benefit of scientists, therapists and patients.