The Race Has Just Begun…
Much like a baby, in research we must crawl before we can walk, and eventually run. However, there are societal pressures that assume every research will produce a cure of some kind. In actuality, that is not true. A cure would be synonymous to winning a gold
medal in the Olympics, and most of us are still in our training phases. It is very rare to develop a cure for a disease, and our goal as researchers is to contribute to knowledge that will improve treatments.
While under this pressure from society, we are questioned with how we do our research, how close we are to a “cure” for spinal cord injury, and who actually benefits. Today I will do my best to answer these two questions and show you that although we are in our training phases, we have won some small races along the way and are progressing fast.
There is So Much to Explore
We conduct spinal cord research because so much about the spinal cord is unknown. Compared to other fields of research, neuroscience is a relatively new field. For spinal cord biology, the field is fast growing due to the constant advancements in neuroscience technology and methods.
For many decades, the field of neuroscience moved slowly as we did not have the tools to fully understand the structure and function of the nervous system. Thankfully, as technology has progressed, so has our research and now we are able to ask questions never before thought possible.
Spinal cord injury research is a young field. To put it into perspective, many of the pioneers
of spinal cord injury research are still alive and conducting research. Currently, we are collaborating with another lab to see how well a new machine learning technique can measure behavioral recovery. The pioneers of genetics (Gregor Mendel) or physics (Copernicus, Einstein) lived long ago. To this day, there are still major unanswered questions in those fields – researchers have a lot more exploring to do and find new things everyday.
However, spinal cord research does not have the same level of background as other fields have. Although we may not have found a cure, we have conducted experiments to work towards such a goal. All experiments, successful or failed, guide us to our next steps in research. Each step opens an avenue for more research and exploration.
When researching the spinal cord, it can be similar to driving to an unknown location without directions. We would not drive aimlessly into the distance and hope to arrive at our destination safely and without interruption. Researchers within the field of spinal cord injury try different directions to try to arrive at destinations that bring us closer to a cure. We are the map makers who help others understand the environment within the spinal cord, and which different treatments might possibly be effective.
We must be able to understand the environment of the spinal cord and effectively make efforts to aid regeneration of the spinal cord after injury. Both are very complex topics of study that we hope we can one day soon have the answer to both. This is why we do our research.
From Veterans to Everyday People
Many different types of people might benefit from our research. Spinal cord injury is not restricted to just one demographic of people and many do not know they will suffer from such an injury in the future. Our efforts to help find therapeutic techniques, give people living with spinal cord injury hope that one day we can find a cure. Hope is something irreplaceable to the mental wellbeing of many and hope can be the factor that helps somebody keep moving forwards.
As far as specific groups that we aim to help are our veterans who suffer from spinal cord
injury. A specific organization we are sponsored by is PVA or also known as Paralyzed Veterans of America.This organization is a non profit organization that collects donations to allocate the funds to causes that work towards helping our paralyzed veterans. Another organization is Wings For Life which is a spinal cord injury research foundation that helps financially aid labs that are making effective contributions to the field.
Another example of people that we hope to help with our research is the everyday citizen who was in a car accident. The car accident could have resulted in a contusion of the spinal cord and a loss or lessening of function. Here in our lab, we actually conduct experiments focused on contusions of the spinal cord and the viability of stem cells within this environment to hopefully regain function.
Spinal cord research is very prevalent to our society. We not only do our research for specific demographics, but for everyone. Spinal cord injury is life altering and can be debilitating. We research to help these individuals hopefully return to a sustainable way of living.
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