U2FP CureCast

Welcome back to our final episode in this three-part series about the barriers to progress and the treatment of spinal cord injuries. We’re once again joined by neurosurgeon, researcher and lived experience advocate, Dr. Kent New. In this episode, we finish up our discussion of the many barriers to developing treatments, focusing primarily on regulatory agencies. We then move on to consider potent...

This is our version of a special bulletin. And we are interrupting our regularly scheduled programming with this update on a major setback for SCI research. On March 15th, Congress passed a bill which eliminated arguably the most effective Spinal Cord Injury Research program in the world... More info: https://u2fp.org/get-educated/curecast/episode-119.html

Welcome back to our second episode in this three-part series about the barriers to progress in the treatment of spinal cord injuries. We’re once again joined by neurosurgeon, researcher and lived-experience advocate, Dr. Kent New. In this episode, we discuss the problems associated with preclinical, as well as early- and late-stage clinical trials. If you missed it, you can ... More info: https://...

Today’s conversation is the first in a three part series with Dr. Kent New on the barriers to progress for SCI treatments. Kent is a neurosurgeon and researcher who was educated at Georgetown and Duke Universities. His career led him to brain tumor research and clinical practice at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida and then to overseeing clinical research at Ascension St. Vincent’s Hospital...

Today I’m talking with Jason Biundo. Jason is a lived-experience graduate student at Harvard Medical School. He earned a dual degree in Neuroscience and Biology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. It's worth noting that some of that degree was earned from a hospital bed while recovering from his spinal cord injury at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. Beyond this, Jason is a personal fr...

Today we’re talking with Dr. Jacob Goldsmith. Jacob is a research scientist at the James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Our conversation will explore the interesting relationship between Testosterone and Spinal Cord Injury. More info: https://u2fp.org/get-educated/curecast/episode-1...

In Chapter 8 of Kate Willette’s advocacy bible, “Don’t Call it a Miracle,” she tells us the story of a human cell with special, regenerative characteristics. A cell that, although not a stem cell, perpetually repairs and replaces neural tissue throughout our life. It's called an olfactory ensheathing cell (OEC) or glia (OEG). Parts of the story seemed like the wild west with questionable scientist...

We’re back with round two of stem cells and their application to Spinal Cord Injury, with our tour guide, Alina Garbuzov. In this episode, we wrap up our overview of stem cell types, sources and potential uses in spinal cord injury. We also field some listener questions from part 1 and talk about the work that Alina is doing at the Mark Tuszynski Lab at UCSD. We realized after the fact that these...

This is the first in a two-part series covering the role of stem cells in spinal cord injury with Dr. Alina Garbuzov. Along with the experience she brings as a person living with an SCI, Alina is a researcher, working in the Mark Tuszynski Lab at the Center for Neural Repair at the University of California, San Diego. Today's conversation is part one, where we introduce Alina and learn about her.....

Today we’re talking with Dr. Jen Dulin from Texas A&M University. Dr. Dulin is a spinal cord injury researcher, but this discussion is a little different as it's not about the active research she’s doing in her lab. Instead, we discuss a project that U2FP pitched to Jen a couple years ago: could we do an analysis on the last 15 years of spinal cord injury research funding trends, themes, and categ...

Today we are talking to Arash Bayatmakou and Dale Hull, the organizational heads of NorCal SCI and Neuroworx, respectively. NorCal SCI is a resource non-profit serving the SCI community of northern California. Neroworx is an outpatient rehabilitation center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The main focus of our discussion is the lack of access to outpatient rehabilitation after SCI and the creative collab...

Today we are talking about Brain-Computer Interfaces (or BCI) with Luke Bashford and Daniel Kramer. Daniel is a neurosurgeon and faculty member at the University of Colorado, Anschutz. He is also the co-founder of the Neural Engineering Research and Design of Colorado (or NERDco). Luke is a researcher in neuroscience and neurotechnology. He is co-affiliated with the University of Colorado and Newc...

Today’s guest is Dr. Gordon Mitchell, a professor of neuroscience at The University of Florida. He’s also the founder and director of the University’s Center for Breathing Research and Therapeutics. In this episode, we discuss the role of intermittent hypoxia and its effect on neuroplasticity and recovery of respiratory and motor function. more info: https://u2fp.org/get-educated/curecast/episode-...

Today's guest is Dr. Elizabeth Bottorff, a postdoctoral researcher in the biomedical engineering department at the University of Minnesota who is studying sexuality after spinal cord injury. More info: https://u2fp.org/get-educated/curecast/episode-107.html

Today’s episode is a brief primer on how this podcast got started and the kind of conversations you can expect here. You’ll learn about our hosts - Matthew Rodreick and Jason Stoffer – their relationship to SCI, why they do this work, what they hope this podcast can achieve and how this work is an extension of the broader mission of U2FP? Yes, it’s a great place to start for new listeners. But reg...

Today's episode is my conversation with Dave Marver, the CEO of ONWARD. No doubt you've heard of ONWARD. We discuss the recent news about their transcutaneous stimulation device and their effort to gain regulatory approval, along with the results from their Uplift TRIAL. You'll find links to the trial and related articles on our website to help understand what that is. More info: https://u2fp.org/...

This week we are talking with Jake Beckstrom, who is U2FP’s Co-Manager of the Cure Advocacy Network along with our Wisconsin advocate Michael Mohr. It's a great conversation where we talk about the drama that took place this year with our legislative work in Wisconsin, where we past our $3M SCI Research in the Wisconsin Assembly, but were unable to then pass it in the Senate. It was a nailbiter th...

Our guest today is Leann Rees. Leanne is a physical therapist with a PhD from Melbourne, Australia. She’s been in the business of rehab and reintegration for 30 years, 20 of which were spent in spinal cord injury. Leanne’s doctoral thesis examined many aspects and consequences of the media portrayal of spinal cord injury and that is what we’re talking today. This is a fascinating discussion about...

Today we’re talking with Dennis Bourbeau. Dennis is a highly regarded clinical and academic researcher in the area of bowel/bladder/and sexual function. He works for the Louis Stokes Veterans Administration Hospital and the Metro Health County Hospital in Cleveland, OH. He’s also a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University. Dennis has graciously agreed to come back to chat with us a second...

Today we are talking to V. Reggie Edgerton, a Professor Emeritus of Nuerobiology at UCLA and co-founder of the spinal stimulation company, SpineX. Reggie Edgerton is a giant in the field of neuromodulation. Some have called him the father of spinal stimulation, and his influence can be found in... More info: https://u2fp.org/get-educated/curecast/episode-101.html

Today we are celebrating our 100th episode of U2FP’s CureCast podcast! No guest would be more appropriate for that celebration than Kate Willette. Kate and Mathew started the podcast 6 years ago and she co-hosted the first 34 episodes. Kate also wrote the book “Don’t Call it a Miracle” which is required reading for anyone with a spinal cord injury. Kate was dragged into the world of advocacy when...

Today we are bringing you part 1 of the “Your Voice Here” series. This collection of interviews was recorded during U2FP’s 2023 Science and Advocacy Symposium in Minneapolis. In this episode, you’ll hear from Physical Therapist, PhD and Researcher, Leanne Rees; Neuroscience student Jason Biundo; and Motivational speaker and Onward Marketing Consultant, Scott Chesney. We cover a variety of topics i...

You might be wondering why we are interviewing the founder of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, Fran Visco. Well, it turns out that she is the person primarily responsible for the formation of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) out of the Defense Department. One of their many programs is SCIRP - the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program. Fran was the first peer reviewe...

Today we are talking with Jordan Squair and Mark Anderson about their September 2023 paper published in the journal Science: “Recovery of walking after paralysis by regenerating characterized neurons to their natural target region”. The work is akin to the first gardeners figuring out how to make plants grow. But instead of plants, it's injured neurons. Squair and Anderson are both highly accompli...

Today we’re talking with Dr. Kajana Satkunendrarajah. Kajana is an associate professor and researcher at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She is also an ally of our legislative efforts in Wisconsin to pass an SCI Research Grant bill there. We discuss Dr. Satkunendrarajah’s NIH R01 grant submission to study her lab's recent discovery of cervical level neurons connected to respiratory function. Thi...