Grant: Project Grant

Traumatic injury in the central nervous system including spinal cord and stroke leads to persistent clinical deficits because communication between the brain and its target organs is disrupted. Communication in the central nervous system is mediated by neurons; cells that wire together to transmit information and which are often broken following injury. We have discovered that a class of proteins called 14-3-3 adaptor proteins are important for the repair of injured neurons. We find that activation of these proteins with a small molecule can enhance the repair of injured neurons. In this grant we propose to study molecular and pharmacological strategies that can activate 14-3-3 proteins to more fully promote repair following CNS injury.