NEWS

October 19, 2011
HEARTFELT MESSAGE ON THE PASSING OF INDIANAPOLIS 500 CHAMPION DAN WHELDON

Fatal racing accident at Las Vegas Speedway on Sunday, October 16
  The Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation board of directors extends our condolences to the family of Dan Wheldon.

October 15, 2011
MAKING A STAND FOR SSPF....

...A Lemonade Stand, that is
  Meet our newest Hero for Hope, Alexis (“Lexi”) Lewis.  An enterprising young lady from Indianapolis, Lexi set up a lemonade stand this summer to raise money for the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation.

October 14, 2011
RESEARCH REPORT: 2011 SAM SCHMIDT SELL FUND AWARD RECIPIENT

James Crew, M.D. of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
  The Sam Schmidt Sell Fund Award is the result of a productive partnership between the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation, a respected foundation dedicated to the lives of individuals with spinal cord injury, and the American Spinal injury Association (ASIA), which has provided professional support to researchers and clinicians in the field of spinal cord medicine for nearly 40 years.


EXAMPLES OF RECENT RESEARCH GRANTS

  2011 Sam Schmidt Sell Fund Award Recipient

The Sam Schmidt Sell Fund Award is the result of a productive partnership between the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation, a respected foundation dedicated to the lives of individuals with spinal cord injury, and the American Spinal injury Association (ASIA), which has provided professional support to researchers and clinicians in the field of spinal cord medicine for nearly 40 years.

Established in 2009, the award is designed to encourage the research of early career investigators.

The 2011 recipient is James Crew, M.D. of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.  Dr. Crew is a graduate of the Creighton University in Omaha, did his internship and residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation, and was clinical fellow in spinal cord injury medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Dr. Crew is currently Associate Chief, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose, California; and Clinical Instructor, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, at Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California.

Dr. Crew’s research proposal is entitled, “Vitamin D Deficiency in Persons with Spinal Cord Injury.”  He will be invited to present his findings at a future ASIA meeting.

Soleila Karimi  Research Grant to Soleila Karimi, PhD, Toronto Western Hospital Research Institute: The Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation recently provided a grant to further a stem cell research study focused on a combinatorial strategy to optimize neural repair and plasticity after chronic spinal cord injury.

Most of the search for treatments to repair the damaged spinal cord and restore lost function has focused on new injuries.  But the discovery that neural stem cells persist in adult central nervous syste4m offers tremendous hope for those who are living with older spinal cord injuries because these primitive cells could, in theory, be recruited to reassemble broken nerve circuits.  However, in animal experiments in which scientists tried to use neural stem cells to repair older spinal cord injuries, the results were disappointing because scar tissue surrounding the lesion site stops new axons from bridging the gap in the spinal cord.  In this project on rat models of older spinal cord injuries, Dr. Karimi will use a combination of strategies that she hopes will maximize the potential of neural stem calls.

This multi-state approach will include (1) transplanting adult neural stem cells to replace lost cells, (2) administering a growth factor cocktail known to promote the survival of the transplanted cells and prod them to spin off oligodendrocytes, the cells that produce a vital coat of myelin insulation for axons, 3) testing therapies to overcome the growth-inhibiting components of the scar, and (4) providing intensive rehabilitation therapy that can stimulate the repair of spinal cord circuits.  If these experiments succeed, they would represent a major advance in the quest for regenerative treatments for patients with older spinal cord injuries.  Dr. Karimi’s four-part treatment might also offer hope to people with other paralyzing conditions such as injuries or abnormalities of the blood vessels, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord tumors and spinal bifida, a birth defect that leaves the spinal cord malformed.
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Ida Cahill, Susie Harkema, Tom Villardi   Research Grant to Susan Harkema, Frazier Rehabilitation Institute: The Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation recently provided a grant to further the Locomotor Training Program at Frazier Rehabilitation Institute in Louisville, KY, under the direction of Susan Harkema, Ph.D., a researcher at the frontier of medical innovation giving people with spinal cord injuries new hope for the future.  The funds provided by SSPF are being used to conduct pilot studies that combine drug interventions with locomotor training therapy.  (SSPF President Ida Cahill and Board member Tom Villardi are shown with Dr. Harkema in photo above.)

As background, animal studies have shown significant success in retraining injured rats to walk again with a combination of spinal cord stimulation, drug therapy and locomotor training.

The group has started a spinal cord stimulation and locomotor training trial on humans following spinal cord injury, to assess the ability of these drugs to enhance function.  A grant given to the group by SSPF the previous year was used for equipment purchase related to these spinal cord stimulation trials.
Frazier’s Spinal Cord Medicine Program is one of the nation’s leading acute rehabilitation programs providing comprehensive treatment utilizing state-of-the-art technologies designed to maximize functional recovery.  Their multi-disciplinary, patient-centered approach to care provides individualized treatment and support to patients and their families beginning in the acute hospital setting and continuing throughout the lifespan.
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Dr. Ghosh and Ida Cahill  SSPF/ASIA Sell Fund Research Grant Received by Mousumi Ghosh, Ph.D: For the first time in 2009, The Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation has teamed with the ASIA Sell Research Fund to create a $15,000 young investigator award.  The award is designed to provide funding to a post doctoral researcher whose work has contributed substantially to the field of spinal cord injury medicine.  The inaugural recipient of the Schmidt/Sell Research Grant is Mousumi Ghosh, Ph.D. of the University of Miami.  Her one year project is entitled:  “Addressing the Technical Limitations of Studying Axonal Regeneration in a Clinical-Relevant Contusive Spinal Cord Injury Model  Through Ex Vivo 3D Ultramicroscopy.”

A native of India, Dr. Ghosh received her undergraduate and graduate education from the University of Poona and the University of Calcutta, respectively.  Between 1995 and the present, she was a research associate in biochemistry at the University of Georgia, a postdoctoral fellow in biochemistry at West Virginia University, a postdoctoral fellow in pharmacology and physiology at the University of Rochester, and is current a postdoctoral associate at the University of Miami.

The Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation has committed itself to support this award for a minimum of five years.  The funding provided  by the foundation is being matched by the Sell Research Fund of the American Spinal Injury Association.  Nominations are accepted from  ASIA members only, to insure that the mission of the association is reflected in the work of the nominees.  Dr. Ghosh was nominated by Dr. Damien Pearse, her mentor at the University of Miami.