Grant: Team Grant: External Insults to the Nervous System

After spinal cord injury (SCI), the connections between nerve cells in the brain and those in the spinal cord are lost and fail to grow back. In patients with a SCI this results in permanent disability, including paralysis below the level of the injury, and loss of sensory, bladder and sexual function. There are two major obstacles to the regeneration of nerve fibers (usually referred to as axons) of central nervous system (CNS) neurons. First, nerve cells in the CNS do not switch on the necessary machinery for vigorous regrowth of the nerve fibres. Second, a nerve cell has to deliver the necessary components for growth to tip of the nerve fibre, which may be quite far as the axon can extend a long way from the cell body. Many CNS nerve cells fail to transport growth proteins into their axons after injury. We aim to promote axon regeneration in the spinal cord by 1. Activating the gene program required for nerve fiber extension, and by 2. Overcoming the transport block of growth-promoting proteins into injured axons.