Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center

KSCIRC has been designated a National Center for Research Resources (NRCC) Center for Biomedical Excellence (COBRE), one of three in the state of Kentucky.

COBRE Directors

Scott R. Whittemore, Ph.D.

• COBRE Program Director

Theo Hagg, Ph.D.

• COBRE Program Co-Director

COBRE Projects

Project 1: Role of estrogen and progesterone in SCI pain

Charles H. Hubscher, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Anatomical Sciences & Neurobiology

Project 2: Heat shock proteins in spinal cord neuroal survival

Evelyne Gozal, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics

Project 3: GSK3beta as a target for the pro-survival signaling in CNS neurons

Michal Hetman Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Neurological Surgery and Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology

Project 4: Remyelination as a mechanism for spinal cord repair

 Richard L. Benton, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomical Sciences & Neurobiology

Project 5: Mechanisms of plasticity and repair after SCI

 Jeff Petruska, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomical Sciences & Neurobiology

COBRE Core Facilities & Personnel

Core A: Administration & Research Support

Ruth O'Bryan

Core B: Cell Culture & Molecular Biology

Russell Howard, M.S., MBA

Core C: Surgery & Animal Care

Christine Nunn

Kim Fentress

Core D: Electrophysiology and Behavioral Assessment

Darlene Burke, M.A.

Johnny Morehouse

Core E: Microscopy

Jason Beare, M.S.

Core Administrators

• David S. K. Magnuson, Ph.D.

• Scott R. Whittemore, Ph.D.

Publications

Cao Q, Onifer SM, *Whittemore SR. Labeling stem cells in vitro for identification of their differentiated phenotypes after grafting into the CNS. In: Neuroal Stem Cells - Methods in Molecular Biology, LP Weiner (ed), Humana Press, Totowa, NJ (In press)

Hagg T, Neurotrophins and CNTF variably protect and induce sprouting of transected basal forebrain cholinergic axons. Int J Neuroprotection Neuroregeneration (In Press)

Whittemore SR, Zhang YP, Shields CB, Magnuson DSK. Optimizing stem cell grafting into the CNS. In: Neuroal Stem Cells - Methods in Molecular Biology, LP Weiner (ed), Humana Press, Totowa, NJ (In Press)

Burke DA, Magnuson DSK, Nunn CD, Fentress KG, Wilson ML, Shum-Siu AH, Moore M, Turner L, King WW, Onifer SM. Use of environmentally enriched housing for rats with spinal cord injury: The need for standardization. J Am Assoc Lab Animal Sci. (2007 In Press)

Klejman A, Wegrzynowicz M, Szatmari E, Mioduszewska B, Hetman M. Albrecht Mechanisms of ammonia-induced cell death in rat cortical neurons: roles of NMDA receptors and glutathione. Neurochemistry International 2004 (In Press)

Massey, JM, Hubscher CH, Wagoner M, Decker J, Amps J, Silver J, Onifer SM, Chondroitinase ABC digestion of the perineuronal net promotes functional collateral sprouting in the cuneate nucleus following cervical spinal cord injury. J. Neurosci (2006) (In press)

Othman M, Klueber K, Lu C, Winstead W, Roisen FJ. Immunomagnetic separation of adult human olfactory neural progenitors. Biotechnic & Histochemistry. (2006) (In Press)

Vega C, Sachleben Jr LR, Gozal D, Gozal E. Differential metabolic adaptation to acute and long term hypoxia in rat primary cortical astrocytes. J. Neurochem. (In Press) (2005)

Yang P, Dankowski A, Hagg T. Protein tyrosine phosphatase inhibition reduces degeneration of dopaminergic substantia nigra neurons and projections in 6-OHDA treated adult rats. Eur J Neurosci (In Press)

Zhang X, Klueber KM, Guo Z, Cai J, Lu C, Winstead WI, Qiu M, Roisen FJ. Induction of neuronal differentiation of adult human olfactory neuroepithelial-derived progenitors. Brain Research, Electronic Version available January 2006 (In Press)