Spinal cord research center opens
Vice President for Health Affairs Joel Kaplan, M.D., speaks at the center's dedication ceremony.
The University of Louisville and Norton Healthcare celebrated the grand opening of the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center's new state-of-the-art facility Sept. 25.
Already conducting nationally renowned research in spinal cord regeneration, the center houses six principal scientists and more than three dozen staff members in 10,000 square feet of newly renovated research space.
These facilities will enable the scientific team to make strides toward developing successful spinal cord repair strategies that can be converted into patient care in a timely and responsible manner.
Ongoing research in the center includes neuroprotection in spinal cord injury, stem cell research, gene therapy, spinal cord transplantation and computer simulation.
Located in the Medical-Dental Research Building on UofL's Health Sciences campus, the center is directed by Scott R. Whittemore, Ph.D., and Christopher B. Shields, M.D.
Two leading investigators who recently joined the staff, Xiao Ming Xu, Ph.D., and Theo Hagg, Ph.D., hold endowed chairs funded by Norton Healthcare and the state's Research Challenge Trust Fund, more commonly called "Bucks for Brains." The National Institutes of Health, the Kentucky Spinal Cord and Head Injury Research Trust and Norton Healthcare fund much of their research, as well as that of the center's two other principal investigators, David S. K. Magnuson, Ph.D., and Stephen M. Onifer, Ph.D.
The center's opening is a milestone for the fast-growing research group, which has generated $12.5 million in research funding following the 1998-2000 investment of $3 million from Bucks for Brains.
The Sept. 25 opening marks the one-year anniversary of the initial announcement of the center's inception -- supported by an $8.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence program.
