CONFERENCE-- Spinal Cord Injury Research Scientific Conference will be held on March 22, 2013 at the Bioengineering Building, Conference Room 110 from 9am to 12pm. Free Admission. Event is sponsored by South Carolina Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund. --FLYER--

NEW REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS-- Boards of Directors approves new request for proposals for pilot grants.  Submission opened on March 29, 2012. --INFO--

LOCOMOTOR REHABILITATION LABORATORY-- Drs. Bowden and Gregory describe the laboratory, emphasize their goals, and gives an update of their progress.  For more detailed information click --HERE--

GRAND ROUNDS-- Internationally known guest speaker, Michael J. DeVivo, professor of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UAB, will present on "Life expectancy trends & cause of death following spinal cord injury".The presentation will take place Tuesday, May 1, 2012 from 12-1pm at the Gazes Auditorium. --INFO--

NEWLY FUNDED PROPOSALS--The SCSCIRF Board of Directors, Scientific Directors, and Administrators met in Columbia on Friday, February 18, 2011 to discuss recent grant submissions, the progress of the fund, and the future direction of SCSCIRF. Read more about the 3 accepted proposals  --HERE--

Read More ARCHIVES from the SCSCIRF...

BIENNIAL REPORT-- View the 2007-2009 SCSCIRF Biennial Report --HERE--

SCI RESEARCH FUND GRANTEE RECEIVES NATIONAL AWARD--Dr. Mark Bowden of the College of Health Professions at the Medical University of South Carolina is the recipient of the American Physical Therapy Association's Eugene Michels New Investigator Award (http://www.apta.org/HonorsAwards/Awards/NewInvestigator/).  Dr. Bowden holds a seed grant from the South Carolina Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund entitled "Propulsive Training in Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury".  The overall purposes are to 1) assist in the development of an infrastructure necessary to adequately assess walking performance and underlying impairments of those with SCI; and 2) provide a platform by which laboratory findings may be translated to clinical research interventions.

FORMER GRANTEE RECEIVES VA AWARD--Former SCSCIRF grantee, Steve Tomlinson, PhD. recently received a prestigious 4-year VA award for his proposal of "The Complement System and Spinal Cord Injury". The working hypothesis is that complement plays a key role in spinal cord injury (SCI) and that understanding complement-dependent mechanisms involved in secondary inflammation and neuroregeneration after traumatic injury will allow the development of an effective and safe therapeutic strategy based on complement inhibition. Aim 1. To characterize neoepitope expression following SCI, and the role of self-reactive naturally occurring IgM antibodies in complement activation and secondary damage. Aim 2. To determine complement effector mechanisms involved in secondary injury and develop a novel therapeutic strategy based on targeting complement inhibitors to neoepitopes exposed after SCI.