The State of Spinal Cord Injury Grand Rounds Hosted by the Northern New Jersey Spinal Cord Injury System and Rutgers University
WEST ORANGE, N.J.—The State of Spinal Cord Injury: Latest News on Clinical Trials of Interventions to Promote Neurological Recovery will be held on Wednesday, April 17, 2013, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., at Kessler Conference Center—1199 Pleasant Valley Way, West Orange, N.J. This special Grand Rounds is presented by the Northern New Jersey Spinal Cord Injury System (NNJSCIS) and the Spinal Cord Injury Project of the W. M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. The NNJSCIS is a collaborative effort between Kessler Foundation, Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ).
Speakers Steven Kirshblum, M.D., of Kessler Institute, and Wise Young, M.D., Ph.D., of the Keck Center, will discuss recent and ongoing clinical trials to improve recovery and quality of life in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI).
Dr. Kirshblum is Medical Director and Director of SCI Services at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation and Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School (NJMS). He also serves as Program Director for the Spinal Cord Medicine Fellowship, and Co-Project Director of the NNJSCIS. Internationally recognized as an expert in SCI, he has delivered 400 national and international presentations, written and co-authored more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed publications and has completed over 25 book chapters, 60 abstracts and monographs on his research interests and education issues related to SCI. Dr. Kirshblum is also the editor of the textbook, Spinal Cord Medicine.
Dr. Young is the Founding Director of the Keck Center, Richard H. Shindell Chair in Neuroscience and Professor II in the Department of Cell Biology & Neuroscience at Rutgers University. He developed the first standardized rat SCI model used worldwide for testing therapies, formed the first consortium funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to test promising therapies and helped establish several widely accepted clinical outcome measures in SCI research. He led the formation of clinical trial networks in China, India, Norway and the United States. Dr. Young founded and was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neurotrauma. He also founded the National and International Societies of Neurotrauma. Dr. Young was named by TIME magazine as “America’s Best” in spinal cord research.
For more information, contact Jeanne Zanca, Ph.D., M.P.T., Senior Research Scientist, Spinal Cord Injury Laboratory at Kessler Foundation, at 973-324-3558 or [email protected].
About the NNJSCIS
NNJSCIS is federally funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research from the U.S. Department of Education (Grant #H133N110020). A comprehensive system of care, research, education and dissemination aimed at improving quality of life for people with SCI, NNJSCIS collects patient data from the time of injury through long-term follow-up. NNJSCIS is one of 14 SCI Model Systems in the nation. Trevor Dyson-Hudson, M.D., Director of SCI Research at Kessler Foundation, co-directs NNJSCIS with Dr. Kirshblum. Kessler Foundation is one of eight centers in the U.S. with dual Model Systems in SCI and traumatic brain injury.
About the Keck Center
The W. M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey is dedicated to multidisciplinary, collaborative research and to accelerating the translation of scientific discoveries into effective human therapies. The focus of the Center’s work is SCI with findings also applicable to persons with brain injuries, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, transverse myelitis and other problems of the central nervous system. For more information, visit Keck.Rutgers.edu.
About Kessler Foundation
Kessler Foundation, a major nonprofit organization in the field of disability, is a global leader in rehabilitation research that seeks to improve cognition, mobility and long-term outcomes, including employment, for people with neurological disabilities caused by diseases and injuries of the brain and spinal cord. Kessler Foundation leads the nation in funding innovative programs that expand opportunities for employment for people with disabilities. For more information, visit KesslerFoundation.org.
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Contacts:
Lauren Scrivo, 973.324.8384, 973.768.6583, [email protected]
Carolann Murphy, 973.324.8382, [email protected]
