Bucks for Brains team brings in $4.7 million for spinal cord research

The Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center at UofL has received three federal grants totaling $4.7 million to find therapies for spinal cord injuries, school officials announced Feb. 18.

Meanwhile, KSCIRC also will receive a $300,000 grant from the Kentucky Spinal Cord and Head Injury Research Trust, a state fund established in 1994 to promote the development of new treatments for victims of spinal cord and head injuries.

KSCIRC, part of UofL’s Department of Neurological Surgery, will use the three federal grants — all from the National Institutes of Heath — to examine cell-based and drug-based therapies for spinal-cord damage.

Federal dollars for independent research are becoming increasingly scarce, according to Scott Whittemore, Ph.D., UofL’s Dr. Henry D. Garretson Chair in Spinal Cord and Head Injury Research and KSCIRC scientific director.

“Decreased funding at the NIH means that these grants to independent researchers are more competitive than ever,” Whittemore said. “That’s why we are thrilled to announce three major grants in such a short period of time.”

The NIH funding breaks down as follows:

• A grant of $1.6 million over a five-year period will allow Whittemore to continue research on genetically engineered mouse cells aimed at re-growing myelin. Myelin is the insulation around nerve fibers that allows them to conduct signals between the brain, spinal cord and limbs. Whittemore serves as principal investigator in this research.

• A grant of nearly $1.6 million will fund work by assistant professor Qilin Cao, M.D., Ph.D., to encourage adult stem cells to regenerate myelin-producing cells in rats and fight the formation of scar tissue after spinal-cord injury. His work, along with Whittemore’s, also has potential for treating multiple sclerosis.

• A grant of more than $1.5 million will fund investigation into how drugs based on very small molecules can be used to boost neuron regeneration in the adult brain. In addition to its potential for spinal-cord injury care, this research may help victims of stroke, Huntington’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Theodore Hagg, Ph.D., endowed chair in neurological surgery, received the grant.

Hagg and Whittemore were hired through Kentucky’s Bucks for Brains program, which matches state money with private gifts to recruit leading scientists for positions at state universities.

Whittemore and another Bucks for Brains researcher, Michael Hetman, M.D., Ph.D., received the $300,000 grant from the state research trust.

University President James Ramsey, Ph.D., credited Bucks for Brains with having a tremendous impact on the quantity and quality of leading-edge research now being conducted by faculty members at UofL.

“Thanks in large part to Bucks for Brains, our Department of Neurological Surgery is seventh in the nation in terms of NIH funding,” Ramsey said.

“Over the last six years, $8.6 million from private donors was matched by $6 million from Bucks for Brains, and the return on this investment now tops $47.1 million.”