From time to time, the Miami Project Faculty teach a course on spinal cord injury. Kim Anderson and I organized the first course. In 2019 I ran it again with Katie Gant. Here is the syllabus.
2/26 Lec 1A Introduction. Dr. Gant
What happens at the time of a spinal cord injury? What are the immediate consequences? What happens at the trauma center? What happens in surgery? What happens in the hospital? What is the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Exam? Why is it needed? What are its strengths and weaknesses? How does it compare to open field assessments in rodents (BBB, BMS)? What goes on during in-patient rehabilitation? What happens in out-patient rehabilitation? What happens after?
2/26 Lec 1B Spinal Cord Anatomy: Dr. Lee & Dr. Lemmon
Diverse sensory and motor pathways are disrupted during spinal cord injuries. Specific pathways can have several different components that vary across species. How these pathways are injured affects outcomes and recovery in humans and animals. How do injury sites evolve over time? How do they vary across species?
3/5 Lec 2A Animal Models: Dr. A. Haggerty
Which models do we have available for basic and translational SCI research? How well do these models model SCI in humans? How do we, and how should we, interpret data obtained with these models? How do we translate data from translational studies into human studies?
3/5 Lec 2B Imaging of SCI: Dr. Lee and Dr. Lemmon
What are standard approaches to analyzing the spinal cords in animal models of SCI? What are their strengths and weaknesses and what are best practices? What do people argue about and why? How do these approaches compare to imaging of humans with SCI?
3/12 Spring Break
3/19 Lec 3A SCI clinical trials: The Mother of Difficulty. Dr. James Guest
Why are SCI clinical trials so difficult?
3/19 Lec 3B Rehabilitation Research and SCI: Dr. Monica Perez
What are standard rehabilitation strategies for SCI? What are cutting edge rehabilitation areas and how can they become the standard of care?
3/26 Lec 4A Electrophysiology of SCI: Dr. B. Noga
What electrophysiological techniques are available to evaluate the functional changes that occur following SCI? How can such techniques be used to do improve function, rather than just evaluate it? Particular focus will be placed on the use of electrophysiological techniques to counteract paralysis and improve locomotion following SCI.
3/26 Lec 4B Pain and Sci: Dr. E. Widerstrom-Noga
Persistent pain of different origins is both a common and devastating consequence of SCI. How is pain measured? Why is it so difficult to develop effective treatments for this complication of SCI?
4/2 Lec 5A Behavioral models for SCI: Dr. Kar Men Mah
What are common and cutting edge animal models to study recovery of function? How do models in different species relate to each other and to human studies?
4/2 Lec 5B pushed back.
4/9 Lec 6A Cardieondocrine Secondary Medical Complications after SCI: Causes and Countermeasures: Dr. Mark Nash
Individuals with SCI experience substantial muscle loss yet typically gain weight. This has consequences for normal physiology. How do various organs respond and what can be done to mitigate pathological changes?
4/9 Lec 6B SCI and Fertility: Dr. Nancy Brackett
Men with SCI experience a drop in fertility that affects quality of life. What causes this and what treatments are available to address this problem?
4/16 Lec 7A. The Brain Machine Interface. Dr. Abhisjek Prasad
Vance’s prediction for years has been that engineers are going to beat molecular biologists and pharmacologists to useful SCI treatments by decades. Find out why
4/16 Lec 7B. Inflammation and SCI: Dr. Roberta Brambilla
Inflammation is a feature of all neurodegenerative disorders. What is the contribution of inflammation to SCI pathophysiology? What is the role of resident CNS cells and infiltrating peripheral immune cells in SCI inflammation? Is inflammation good or bad? What is myelin? How is myelin lost or compromised following SCI? How can myelin be protected and/or restored after SCI?
4/23 Lec 8A Autonomics: the hidden nervous system. Matthias Walter, M.D. and Rahul Sachdeva, PhD, International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), University of British Columbia
SCI patients have autonomic system dysfunction. What are typical problems? How can these be studied in humans and in animal models?
4/23 Lec 8B Rehab – low hanging fruit! Monica Perez
What are standard rehabilitation strategies for SCI? What are cutting edge rehabilitation areas and how can they become the standard of care?
4/30 Lec 9A. Vance Lemmon: Rigor and Reproducibility in SCI
4/30 Lec 9B. Where is the SCI field headed? Drs. Gant & Lemmon
Discussion based on the SCI 2020 meeting in Bethesda in February 2019
What happens at the time of a spinal cord injury? What are the immediate consequences? What happens at the trauma center? What happens in surgery? What happens in the hospital? What is the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Exam? Why is it needed? What are its strengths and weaknesses? How does it compare to open field assessments in rodents (BBB, BMS)? What goes on during in-patient rehabilitation? What happens in out-patient rehabilitation? What happens after?
2/26 Lec 1B Spinal Cord Anatomy: Dr. Lee & Dr. Lemmon
Diverse sensory and motor pathways are disrupted during spinal cord injuries. Specific pathways can have several different components that vary across species. How these pathways are injured affects outcomes and recovery in humans and animals. How do injury sites evolve over time? How do they vary across species?
3/5 Lec 2A Animal Models: Dr. A. Haggerty
Which models do we have available for basic and translational SCI research? How well do these models model SCI in humans? How do we, and how should we, interpret data obtained with these models? How do we translate data from translational studies into human studies?
3/5 Lec 2B Imaging of SCI: Dr. Lee and Dr. Lemmon
What are standard approaches to analyzing the spinal cords in animal models of SCI? What are their strengths and weaknesses and what are best practices? What do people argue about and why? How do these approaches compare to imaging of humans with SCI?
3/12 Spring Break
3/19 Lec 3A SCI clinical trials: The Mother of Difficulty. Dr. James Guest
Why are SCI clinical trials so difficult?
3/19 Lec 3B Rehabilitation Research and SCI: Dr. Monica Perez
What are standard rehabilitation strategies for SCI? What are cutting edge rehabilitation areas and how can they become the standard of care?
3/26 Lec 4A Electrophysiology of SCI: Dr. B. Noga
What electrophysiological techniques are available to evaluate the functional changes that occur following SCI? How can such techniques be used to do improve function, rather than just evaluate it? Particular focus will be placed on the use of electrophysiological techniques to counteract paralysis and improve locomotion following SCI.
3/26 Lec 4B Pain and Sci: Dr. E. Widerstrom-Noga
Persistent pain of different origins is both a common and devastating consequence of SCI. How is pain measured? Why is it so difficult to develop effective treatments for this complication of SCI?
4/2 Lec 5A Behavioral models for SCI: Dr. Kar Men Mah
What are common and cutting edge animal models to study recovery of function? How do models in different species relate to each other and to human studies?
4/2 Lec 5B pushed back.
4/9 Lec 6A Cardieondocrine Secondary Medical Complications after SCI: Causes and Countermeasures: Dr. Mark Nash
Individuals with SCI experience substantial muscle loss yet typically gain weight. This has consequences for normal physiology. How do various organs respond and what can be done to mitigate pathological changes?
4/9 Lec 6B SCI and Fertility: Dr. Nancy Brackett
Men with SCI experience a drop in fertility that affects quality of life. What causes this and what treatments are available to address this problem?
4/16 Lec 7A. The Brain Machine Interface. Dr. Abhisjek Prasad
Vance’s prediction for years has been that engineers are going to beat molecular biologists and pharmacologists to useful SCI treatments by decades. Find out why
4/16 Lec 7B. Inflammation and SCI: Dr. Roberta Brambilla
Inflammation is a feature of all neurodegenerative disorders. What is the contribution of inflammation to SCI pathophysiology? What is the role of resident CNS cells and infiltrating peripheral immune cells in SCI inflammation? Is inflammation good or bad? What is myelin? How is myelin lost or compromised following SCI? How can myelin be protected and/or restored after SCI?
4/23 Lec 8A Autonomics: the hidden nervous system. Matthias Walter, M.D. and Rahul Sachdeva, PhD, International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), University of British Columbia
SCI patients have autonomic system dysfunction. What are typical problems? How can these be studied in humans and in animal models?
4/23 Lec 8B Rehab – low hanging fruit! Monica Perez
What are standard rehabilitation strategies for SCI? What are cutting edge rehabilitation areas and how can they become the standard of care?
4/30 Lec 9A. Vance Lemmon: Rigor and Reproducibility in SCI
4/30 Lec 9B. Where is the SCI field headed? Drs. Gant & Lemmon
Discussion based on the SCI 2020 meeting in Bethesda in February 2019
