Grant: CIHR Fellowship

The central nervous system (CNS) is comprised of the brain and spinal cord. When damaged, the CNS has a very limited capacity to repair itself, and currently, there are no therapies available to patients today that are able to promote repair, which robs quality of life from individuals suffering from neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, or spinal cord injury. In this regard, a main contributing factor is the poor regeneration of axons, which are essential connections between nerve cells in the CNS. A fundamental property of nerve cells is that they are electrically excitable. This property is the basis of nerve cell activity: the communication between these cells and their targets that underlies all brain and spinal cord function. Despite this, how nerve cell activity influences axon regeneration is unclear. Some work suggests that exciting nerve cells can promote regeneration, whereas other research suggests that silencing nerve cells is necessary to signal axon regeneration to start. Using new tools, it is possible for the first time to excite or silence nerve cells both precisely and for long durations of time. Using these tools, I will explore how nerve cell activity influences their regeneration and their capacity to form new connections underlying recovery following injury. Given that these tools may be clinically translatable, the hope is that this research will lead to new strategies to promote recovery following spinal cord injury and other neurological disorders.