RESEARCHERS
SUSPECT THIN AIR THERAPY COULD HELP SPINAL CORD PATIENTS
Shawn
Doherty | The Capital Times
July 11, 2010
Sometimes
medical research is a slog toward predictable or inconsequential
results. Other times it’s an adventure that leads to unexpected
breakthroughs.
Gordon Mitchell,
a professor of neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin School
of Veterinary Medicine, thinks he and a team of fellow scientists
may have made a discovery that falls into the breakthrough category,
one that offers new hope for people paralyzed by spinal cord
injuries.
Mitchell
started out studying sleep apnea. But over the years he and
scientists he asked to join him from the University of Saskatchewan,
The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and the Emory School
of Medicine discovered that the short periods of oxygen deprivation
so worrisome for patients with sleep disorders might actually
help people who are paralyzed because the sessions stimulate
what scientists call “plasticity” in injured spinal
cords. Plasticity is the ability of various systems in the body
to adapt to changing circumstances and assume new functions.
[read more]
NEW
HOPE FOR VICTIMS OF SPINAL CORD INJURY
March
6, 2008
MADISON
– Victims of spinal cord injury who’ve been forced
to rely on mechanical assistance to breathe may “breathe
easier,” so to speak, if progress continues on development
of drugs that encourage their body to compensate and minimize
the extent of paralysis.
For
years, Dr. Gordon Mitchell, a professor of comparative biosciences
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary
Medicine, has studied respiratory plasticity, or the body’s
ability to adapt breathing so that it remains adequate despite
challenges throughout life. Now, his laboratory’s
latest development holds promise for individuals whose breathing
control is impaired. [read
more]
$7.2
MILLION GRANT TO AID SEARCH FOR ALS STEM CELL THERAPY
Sept.
20, 2007
MADISON
- With
the help of a $7.2 million grant from the National Institutes
of Health (NIH),
a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers will explore
the potential of stem cells and natural growth factors to treat
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's
disease.
The grant,
to be awarded over five years, will fund research aimed at finding
novel therapies for treating a debilitating and nearly always
fatal condition caused by the withering of motor neurons, the
brain cells that control the body's muscles.
"This is
a great opportunity," says Clive Svendsen, who
will direct the project along with UW-Madison neuroscientists
Su-Chun Zhang and Gordon S. Mitchell.
"There is a lot of synergy between our groups which provide
for a lot of overlap that we think will help us get at some
of the key issues of ALS." [read
more]
RESEARCHERS IDENTIFY
KEY PLAYER IN RESPIRATORY MEMORY
MADISON
- By studying the "memory" of the respiratory system,
a group of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
has identified a key player - a protein called BDNF that's involved
in learning - responsible for the body's ability to keep breathing
properly, despite the challenges it may face.
The
findings, published Dec. 14 in the online edition of Nature
Neuroscience, could provide ideas of new drug targets, which
could lead to new treatments for or ways to prevent a number
of potentially fatal breathing disorders, including sleep apnea,
sudden infant death syndrome and some related to spinal cord
injuries, according to the researchers.
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SVM
GARNERS CHRISTOPHER REEVE PARALYSIS FOUNDATION GRANT
MADISON
- Two researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School
of Veterinary Medicine have picked up nearly one-half million
dollars in research funding from the Christopher Reeve Paralysis
Foundation (CRPF).
David
D. Fuller and Francis John Golder are two of only 15 neuroscientists
nationally to receive funding from the CRPF for the 2003 grant
cycle. They are studying spinal cord injury in the laboratory
of Gordon S. Mitchell, professor and chair in the Department
of Comparative Biosciences.
[printer-friendly
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ADULT
BREATHING PROBLEMS MAY HAVE CHILDHOOD CAUSE
MADISON
- According to the National Institutes of Health, as many as
18 million Americans stop breathing for 10 seconds or more during
the night. Sensors in the blood, known as carotid body chemoreceptors,
react to the lack of oxygen by rousing the body to breathe.
But what happens if the sensors stop working?
Professor
Gordon Mitchell and Postdoctoral Fellow Ryan Bavis at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine believe defective
carotid body chemoreceptors may help to unravel the mysteries
of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and sleep apnea.
[printer-friendly
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