Moving Beyond Isolated Systems

Sten Grillner, MD, PhD

Neurophysiologist

Karolinska Institute

Neurophysiologist and distinguished professor at the Karolinska Institute’s Nobel Institute for Neurophysiology in Stockholm where he is the director of that institute. He is considered one of the world’s foremost experts in the cellular bases of motor behavior.

Steven Kirshblum, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Kessler Foundation, Reynolds Center for Spinal Stimulation, Centers for Spinal Cord Injury Research

Chief Medical Officer of Kessler Foundation, is a nationally recognized expert in spinal cord injury rehabilitation and research who also co-directs the Foundation’s Reynolds Center for Spinal Stimulation and the Centers for Spinal Cord Injury Research. Dr. Kirshblum is board-certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation and spinal cord medicine. At Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, part of Select Medical Corporation, he serves as chief medical officer and director of Spinal Cord Injury Services. He is also the chief academic officer for Select Medical’s rehabilitation hospital division.

Karen Minassian, PhD

Biomedical Engineer and Neuroscientist

Ap. Professor at the Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Austria; Planning Committee Member, Moving Beyond Isolated Systems Symposium

Karen Minassian is a pioneer of the recent advances in epidural spinal cord stimulation (SCS) in individuals with spinal cord injury. His main interest is the understanding of the neural control of movement with a focus on human spinal cord locomotor circuits. With a background in physics and mathematics, he first used computer simulations to identify the neuronal structures that are electrically activated by epidural SCS. He then extended his approach by using neurophysiological methods and unraveled some of the mechanism underlying the generation of movement in otherwise paralyzed legs under epidural stimulation. His research has paved the way for the recent high profile studies of epidural stimulation. In parallel, he developed transcutaneous SCS, a non-invasive method that can be used as a neuromodulation tool as well as for human neurophysiological studies, a method that has been meanwhile adopted by several groups internationally. From 2016 to 2018 he supervised the research team of Prof. Grégoire Courtine at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), employing next-generation implantable SCS technologies in spinal cord injured individuals. At the Medical University of Vienna, he is currently planning novel approaches to delineate the intrinsic anatomical and physiological properties of the human locomotor networks.

Claudia Angeli, PhD

Human Locomotion Scientist

Assistant Professor Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center Senior Researcher, Human Locomotion Research Center at Frazier Rehab Institute University of Louisville Louisville, KY

Dr. Claudia Angeli is the Director of the Epidural Stimulation Program and Assistant Professor at the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, University of Louisville and senior researcher at Frazier Rehab Institute in Louisville. Her research background and interests are focused in understanding mechanisms of control of human locomotion following neurologic injury. She has over ten years of experience utilizing a combination of epidural stimulation and activity based training for the restoration of function following motor complete spinal cord injury. Her publications have generated a pivotal paradigm shift providing evidence for the potential of functional recovery following motor complete spinal cord injuries.

Ona Bloom, PhD

Spinal Cord Injury Researcher

Professor, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research; Dept. of Molecular Medicine, Dept. of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra Northwell, East Garden City, NY

Ona Bloom, PhD, is a Professor at The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, the research entity of Northwell Health, where she serves as the inaugural director the Laboratory of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Research. She also serves as Director of Research in the Dept. of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra Northwell and is a member of the VA’s National Center for the Medical Consequences of Spinal Cord Injury at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center (Bronx, NY).

Dr. Bloom’s translational research program investigates changes in the immune system after SCI. Her goal is to identify mechanisms of heightened risk of infection and inflammation in people with SCI, to promote life expectancy, recovery, and quality of life. Her research program has received support from private foundation, state and federal funding agencies.

Dr. Bloom is the Director of the International Symposium for Neural Regeneration. She has served as a peer reviewer for the Veterans Administration Rehabilitation Research and Development Panels, the Paralyzed Veterans of America Foundation, NIH, NSF, Program Committee of the Society for Neuroscience and is a member of the SCIRTS study section of the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation.

Maxwell Boakye, MD, MPH, MBA, FAANS, FACS

Neurosurgeon, Professor

Ole A., Mabel Wise and Wilma Wise Nelson Endowed Research Chair Professor Chief Spinal Neurosurgery Director, Outcomes Research Clinical Director, Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Center Department of Neurosurgery University of Louisville Louisville, KY

Maxwell Boakye, MD, MPH, MBA, FAANS, FACS is Professor and Chief of Spinal Neurosurgery and Director of Quality Improvement and Clinical Director of Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Center at the Department of Neurosurgery, University of Louisville. A clinician-scientist, he devotes about half of his time to outcomes and comparative effectiveness research, and spinal cord injury research. He also directs the University of Louisville spine fellowship. His spinal cord injury research focuses on discovering innovative treatments for paralysis. He is director of the Brain and spinal cord injury lab and is the lead neurosurgeon for the University of Louisville epidural stimulation research program. Dr. Boakye has published over 200 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, book chapters, and abstracts and coedited one spinal cord injury textbook.

Marco Capogrosso, PhD

Neurotechnologist, Assistant Professor

Assistant Professor, Department of Neurological Surgery of the University of Pittsburgh

Marco Capogrosso, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery of the University of Pittsburgh and a member of the Rehab and Neural Engineering Labs.

He completed his doctoral studies in Biomedical Engineering and Robotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy. His PhD work focused on computer models of electrical stimulation to support the design of neural interfaces for sensory and motor applications.

After the PhD, Dr. Capogrosso completed his post-doctoral training at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland where he worked on the development of brain spinal interfaces for the restoration of voluntary motor control in animal models of spinal cord injury. Before joining the University of Pittsburgh, he was SNSF Ambizione Fellow, research faculty and member of the managing board of the primate center at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

Dr. Capogrosso research interests broadly involve the study of voluntary motor control. Specifically, he is interested in the design of neurotechnologies to restore sensorimotor function after neural damage or disease. For his work he parallels human clinical trials with experiments in non-human primates and physics simulations

Christopher Cardozo, MD

Physician Scientist

Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY

Dr. Cardozo is Professor of Medicine and of Rehabilitation Medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Director of the Molecular Program of the Center for the Medical Consequences of Spinal Cord Injury at James J Peters VA. He is a physician scientist with an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering who practices pulmonary medicine. Since 2001, his research has sought to understand mechanisms of impaired muscle function after spinal cord injury (SCI) and to evaluate the potential of new drug candidates to improve muscle performance after SCI. More recently, he has contributed to projects evaluating mechanisms for and treatment of sublesional bone loss after SCI, and to cell culture and small animal studies of organ and tissue interactions through release of exosomes, myokines, adipokines and hepatokines, particularly as they relate to dysregulation of body composition and metabolism.

Grégoire Courtine, PhD

Professor, Neuroscience Translator

Full Professor of Neuroscience and Neurotechnology EPFL | Ecole Polytechnique Lausanne CHUV | Hopital Universitaire Lausanne Genève Planning Committee Member, Moving Beyond Isolated Systems Symposium

Grégoire Courtine was trained in Physics and Neurosciences. His passion for translational neurosciences has fueled his research in the development of neurotechnologies to improve recovery from neurological disorders. After obtaining the Chancellor Award during his post-doc at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), he established his own laboratory at the University of Zurich in 2008 before joining the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) in 2012. He is now Full Professor of Neuroscience and Neurotechnology in the Center for Neuroprosthetics at EPFL and in the department of Neurosurgery at the University Hospital Lausanne (CHUV). He is also Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of GTX medical, a start-up he founded in 2014 to translate the neurotechnologies developed in his laboratory into clinical treatments.

David Darrow, MD, MPH

Neurosurgeon

Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Minnesota

Dr. David Darrow is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Minnesota and the Rockswold-Kaplan Endowed Chair for Traumatic Brain Injury at Hennepin County Medical Center, specializing in functional and pain neurosurgery. Dr. Darrow treats diseases of the central nervous system with neuromodulation including epilepsy, movement disorders, trigeminal neuralgia/facial pain, chronic pain, and psychiatric diseases. 

Dr. Darrow is co-PI of the Herman-Darrow Human Neuroscience Lab with a mission of understanding and treating disorders of the nervous system with neuromodulation. The Herman-Darrow Lab links together circuit-level electrophysiology with behavior. By pairing neuromodulation with a quantitative understanding of the pathological circuits of the brain, the lab hopes to help patients improve symptoms and quality of life.  

Dr. Darrow is also the PI of the Traumatic Brain and Spinal Cord Research Center at HCMC where electrophysiology and neuromodulation and used to better understand and treat traumatic injuries of the central nervous system. He is the PI for the E-STAND trial, where neuromodulation is used to restore function after Spinal Cord Injury. In collaboration with many other investigators, the team is testing neuromodulation to restore volitional movement and autonomic function using algorithmic, personalized approaches through remote data collection. 

David Ditor, PhD

Professor, Department of Kinesiologist

Professor Kinesiology Brock University Adjunct professor in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University Adjunct professor in the Department of Kinesiology & Health Science at York University

David Ditor is a professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Brock University, and his research program focuses on the secondary health complications that accompany spinal cord injury. More specifically, Dr. Ditor’s research interests involve i) chronic inflammation after SCI and the associated range of negative effects, ii) cardiovascular disease and dysfunction  after SCI, and iii) sexual dysfunction after SCI. As some of these health complications are modifiable, Dr. Ditor is also interested in the role of exercise and diet in managing and reversing them. In addition to his teaching and research responsibilities at Brock University, Dr. Ditor is also the Founder and Director of POWER CORD; an accessible facility that provides specialized and supervised exercise for individuals with SCI, MS and lower limb amputations. POWER CORD is both a community-based exercise centre and a research facility, and it offers unique experiential learning opportunities to the Brock University students who implement the exercise programs.

V. Reggie Edgerton, PhD

Distinguished Professor

Distinguished Professor, UCLA, Department of Neurobiology

Professor Edgerton received his PhD in Exercise Physiology from Michigan State University and is a member of the Brain Research Institute at University of California, Los Angeles. He has moved his more mechanistic work as well as the translational clinical studies to the highly supportive environments of The University of Southern California Neurorestoration Center, Keck School of Medicine and to the Rancho Research Center at the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downy, CA. His research is focused on how the neural networks in the lumbar spinal cord of mammals, including humans, regain control of standing, stepping and voluntary control of fine movements after paralysis and how these motor functions can be modified by imposing after spinal cord injury. He and his team have demonstrated three effective ways to neuromodulate the spinal cord to improve and regain function: Stimulation of the spinal circuitry using both invasive and non-invasive electrical current; administration of pharmacological agents; and repetitive training of motor tasks. They have reported that epidural stimulation combined with activity-dependent interventions can enable human subjects with chronic, complete paralysis to regain the ability to stand independently and even regain significant levels of voluntary control of movement of the legs.

Recently, they have begun to test different methods for neuromodulation of the spinal circuitry to determine efficacy improving arm, hand and ventilatory function after spinal cord injury, and promoting a more normal gait pattern after stroke and improved motor function in individuals with Parkinson’s Disease and cerebral palsy. They are also pursuing strategies to restore bladder function after spinal cord injury.

Karyn Esser, MEd, PhD

Physiologist, Professor

University of Florida Preeminence Professor – Department of Physiology and Functional Genomics, University of Florida; Associate Director for Basic Muscle Biology - Institute of Myology, University of Florida

Karyn Esser is Professor in the Department of Physiology and Functional Genomics and Associate Director within the Institute of Myology at the University of Florida. Her lab has been working in the area of skeletal muscle adaptation for over 25 years. During the first part of her career, her lab studied the molecular mechanisms that underly adult skeletal muscle adaptation to both endurance training (e.g. fiber type) and resistance training (e.g. hypertrophy). Following a discover from an early generation microarray study in 2002, Dr. Esser’s research direction has transitioned to focus on circadian rhythms, the molecular clock and skeletal muscle. Her lab has pioneered research on the role of circadian rhythms in skeletal muscle health. Use of genetic mouse models of circadian disruption were used to demonstrate that skeletal muscle exhibits profound weakness, and disrupted mitochondria. Her lab’s recent work has found that targeted disruption of the molecular clock only in adult skeletal muscle is sufficient to induce muscle weakness and insulin resistance. In addition, they found that there were systemic changes that including the heart, brain and bone. The lab is currently pursuing the role of the circadian clock in muscle weakness, how exercise can work with the circadian systems and the links between skeletal muscle and other organ systems.

Gail Forrest, PhD

Neurosurgeon, Professor

Kessler site Director of the NeuroRecovery Network. Associate Director Center for Mobility Rehabilitation Engineering Research. Director Center for Spinal Stimulation.

Gail F. Forrest, PhD, the director of the Center for Spinal Stimulation at Kessler Foundation, directs the Foundation’s neuromodulation research for spinal cord injury, including the application of functional electrical stimulation and robotic technologies for restoring mobility and minimizing secondary medical complications. Her current focus is the testing of transcutaneous electrical stimulation to improve upper and lower limb function in individuals with incomplete spinal cord injury, and measuring the effects of transcutaneous and epidural stimulation on muscle and bone.

David Gater, MD, PhD, MS

Physician, Professor

Professor and Chair Spinal Cord Injury Fellowship Director Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Medical Director of Rehabilitation, Jackson Memorial Hospital Co-Director, NIDILRR South Florida Spinal Cord Injury Model System University of Miami | Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine

Dr. Gater is Professor and Chair of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine as well as the Spinal Cord Injury Fellowship Program Director and the Medical Director of Rehabilitation at Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center for the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. He obtained a B.S. in General Biology (1982), M.S. in Exercise and Sports Sciences (1985), Ph.D. in Physiology (1990), and M.D. (1992) from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. Dr. Gater completed an Internal Medicine internship at the U of Arizona and Affiliated Hospitals (1993), and PM&R residency training (1996) at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California. Dr. Gater has board-certifications in PM&R, Electrodiagnostic Medicine and the subspecialty of Spinal Cord Injury Medicine. Dr. Gater has completed Research Career Development Awards with both VHA and NIH, and has mentored many undergraduate, graduate and medical students, resident physicians, fellows and junior faculty. He has received several teaching, research and clinical awards, and is a passionate lecturer. He is currently President of the American Paraplegia Society, President-Elect of the Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals and has published more than 100 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. His research emphasizes the effects of diet and exercise training on energy metabolism, glucose and lipid metabolism, obesity/body composition, cardiovascular fitness, neuroplasticity and functional outcomes in Spinal Cord Injury, and he has been funded by NIH, NIDRR, AHA, PVA SCRF, CH Neilsen Foundation and the VHA.

Yury Gerasimenko, PhD

Movement Physiologist, Professor

Professor and Head Laboratory of Movement Physiology, Pavlov Institute of Physiology, St.Petersburg, Russia Planning Committee Member, Moving Beyond Isolated Systems Symposium

Yury Gerasimenko received his Ph.D. and later doctor’s degree (D.Sci.) in the Pavlov Institute of Physiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia. While at the Pavlov Institute of Physiology, he worked as a researcher and later as a director at the Movement Physiology Laboratory. He then moved to Los Angeles, taking a position at UCLA as a researcher with the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology. He is now Professor of Pavlov Institute of Physiology and Corresponding Member of Russian Academy of Sciences.
Yury Gerasimenko is an expert in the area of regulation of locomotor behavior in decerebrated and spinal animals, as well as in human subjects with spinal cord injuries. He has performed extensive studies that have led to the development of effective rehabilitative strategies for recovery of the injured spinal cord using a combination of therapies, including epidural and transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation, pharmacological intervention and locomotor training.

Megan Gill, PT, D.P.T.

Research Physical Therapist

Research Physical Therapist Assistive and Restorative Technology Laboratory, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mayo Clinic

Megan in a licensed physical therapist who received her Master’s in Physical Therapy in 2004 from Mayo Clinic’s School of Health Science Physical Therapy program and later received her Doctorate in Physical Therapy from the College of St. Scholastica in 2011. She has held multiple clinical roles, all at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN including staff PT and later as the Clinical Lead for the Spinal Cord Injury program. As the clinical lead, she was integral in developing internal clinical pathways, facilitated relationships with industry partners for advanced technology, and gained a growing interest for recovery principles following spinal cord injury. She was able to participate in 0.5-time research and 0.5-time clinical between the years of 2015-2017 and then transitioned full-time into research within the Rehabilitation Medicine Research Center at Mayo Clinic in 2018. Megan’s involvement and interests in research include spinal stimulation for motor recovery after SCI

David Goldstein, MD, PhD

Physician, Research Director

Directs the Autonomic Medicine Section, Clinical Neurosciences Program, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland

Dr. Goldstein graduated in 1970 from Yale College, completed an MD/PhD at Johns Hopkins in 1976, and came to the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1978. He has been a supported continuously as a tenured Senior Investigator at the NIH since 1984. An internationally recognized authority on catecholamines and autonomic disorders, he has more than 600 publications, more than 100 articles cited at least 100 times, and more than 135 first-authored original research reports. Among his honors are the Society for Clinical and Translational Science’s Distinguished Investigator Award, the American Academy of Neurology’s Irwin Schatz Award in Autonomic Disorders, and the NIH’s Distinguished Clinical Teacher Award. He has made several fundamental discoveries, including cardiac sympathetic denervation, buildup of the autotoxic dopamine metabolite DOPAL, and the “sick-but-not-dead” phenomenon in Parkinson’s and related diseases. These discoveries continue to inspire his research on biomarkers, mechanisms, and disease-modifying treatments for catecholamine-related disorders. His single-authored e-textbook, Principles of Autonomic Medicine, can be downloaded freely from his NINDS website https://neuroscience.nih.gov/ninds/Faculty/Profile/david-goldstein.aspx

James Guest, MD, PhD, FACS

Neurosurgeon, Professor

Clinical Professor, Department of Neurological Surgery, The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, Miami, FL Planning Committee Member, Moving Beyond Isolated Systems Symposium

Dr. James Guest MD, Ph.D. is a Professor of Neurological Surgery at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis in Miami, Florida. He obtained his MD degree from the University of Alberta in 1988 and completed neurosurgical residency training in Vancouver in 1998. He was certified by the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada and the American Board of Neurological Surgeons. During residency, he obtained a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Miami studying cell transplantation after spinal cord injury (SCI). In Vancouver, during the last years of residency, he collaborated with the nascent ICORD. He then moved to the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona for fellowship training in spinal surgery and research training in the primate motor system. He then returned to the University of Miami. Dr. Guest has a strong interest in translational research and clinical trials in SCI. He has received funding from Spinal Research, the DOD, the NIH, and the Craig Nielsen foundation. Together with colleagues, he translated autologous Schwann cell transplantation for SCI into human subjects through two sequential clinical trials. For these trials, his team also conducted neurophysiological studies to identify recovery of neural circuits. He is the PI in Miami for the North American Clinical Trials Network (NACTN) Registry, the RISCIS study, and co-chairs NACTN. He is an AO Spine knowledge forum member and has served on the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine grants working group for the past 6 years. He has conducted therapeutics studies in large animal models including cell transplantation, the use of biomaterials and pioneered delivery methods that have been patented. Current work includes neuromodulation using deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR) tested in in combination with epidural stimulation after SCI. He is a co-investigator in a small clinical trial testing MLR DBS for freezing-of-gait. His neuromodulation group recently participated in the Up-LIFT transcutaneous study for upper extremity recovery. He is collaborating with researchers from the Bronx VA, Kessler Rehabilitation, and the University of Louisville to assess the mechanisms by which epidural stimulation normalizes blood pressure in cervical injury subjects during epidural stimulation.

Susan Harkema, PhD

Spinal Cord Injury Researcher and Innovator, Professor

Professor, Department of Neurological Surgery, Associate Scientific Director, UofL Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, Director of Research, Frazier Rehab Institute. Director, Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation’s Neurorecovery Network, Rehabilitation Research Director, Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center

Dr. Harkema’s research has explored the neural plasticity of spinal networks and recovery of function after spinal cord injury (SCI). She initially focused on locomotion in a model of clinically diagnosed motor complete injury. Over the years, serendipitous discoveries allowed her to unravel mechanisms of the human spinal circuitry that modulate the autonomic nervous system, and her translational research program expanded to include technology development to improve implantable epidural stimulators.

Dr. Harkema leads the KSCIRC translational faculty within the Pediatric NeuroRecovery, Adult NeuroRecovery, and Epidural Stimulation Programs. Over the past decade, these programs have collectively been awarded over $72 million to improve motor, cardiovascular and bladder function and the health, and quality of life of adults and children living with paralysis. During that time, she also led six rehabilitation centers and nine community fitness and wellness centers in the translation of scientific knowledge into clinical practice as the Director of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network.

Dr. Harkema has published more than 110 scholarly manuscripts and book chapters, delivered over 100 worldwide lectures and keynotes and co-authored seven United States patents. Among her honors and awards, she was the 2008 co-recipient of the Reeve-Irvine Research Medal, awarded to individuals who have made critical contributions to promoting repair of the damaged spinal cord and recovery of function. In 2011, she received the Difference Maker Award from the Rick Hansen Foundation, and the Breakthrough Award from Popular Mechanics. In both 2014 and 2019 she was named the Innovator of the Year by Business First. She earned her Bachelor of Science and PhD from Michigan State University and conducted her postdoctoral fellowship in neurophysiology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Ursula Hofstoetter, PhD

Biomedical Engineer and Neuroscientist

Ap. Professor, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Austria

Ursula Hofstoetter is affiliated with the Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. Her scientific approach is inspired by her background in technical mathematics and her longstanding collaborations with the leading neurorehabilitation centers and clinical research units in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. Her research focuses on human spinal sensorimotor circuits, their functional alterations after upper motoneuron injury or disease, and their neuromodulation by electrical spinal cord stimulation. Her research in epidural spinal cord stimulation has contributed to unraveling the directly recruited neural structures and the transsynaptically activated spinal circuits. Ursula Hofstoetter has co-developed the method of transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation in Vienna as a tool for human neurophysiological studies and for innovative neurorehabilitation strategies. She is internationally recognized for her leading role in implementing clinical studies using transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation to augment residual locomotor function and to control spinal spasticity in individuals with spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis.

Charles Hubscher, PhD

Spinal Cord Injury Researcher, Professor and Vice Chair

Professor and Vice Chair; Department Anatomical Sciences & Neurobiology, University of Louisville School of Medicine

Dr. Charles Hubscher received his Bachelor of Science degrees in Biochemistry (1986) from Concordia University and in Psychology (1988) from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He earned his Master of Science degree (1990) and Doctor of Philosophy degree (1994) in Neuroscience from the Psychology Department at Florida State University in Tallahassee. He held an Assistant Scientist position at the University of Florida in Gainesville in the Department of Physiological Sciences before coming to the University of Louisville as a faculty member in the Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology in 2001. Dr. Hubscher currently holds the rank of Professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and serves as Vice Chair for the Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology. He has an Associate appointment in the Department of Neurological Surgery and is a member of the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center. His research on spinal cord injury is funded by grants from agencies that include the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, and the Kentucky Spinal Cord and Head Injury Research Trust. Specific research includes functions related to the upper and lower urinary tract, anorectum, and male and female reproductive organs.

Andrei Krassioukov, MD, PhD, FRCPC

Spinal Cord Injury Clinician-Researcher

Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, BC, Canada; Associate Director, Rehabilitation, International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), UBC, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Staff Physician, Spinal Cord Injury Program, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Vancouver Acute (GF Strong), in the Department of Medicine, Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Andrei Krassioukov is currently a professor at the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Department of Medicine, and associate director and a scientist at the International Collaboration on Repair Discovery (ICORD) at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Prof. Krassioukov also holds an endowed Chair in Spinal Cord Rehabilitation Research at the University of British Columbia. He is also a staff physician at the spinal cord injury program at the GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre in Vancouver. He is a co-chair of the International Autonomic Standards Committee for the American Spinal Injury Association and International Spinal Cord Society (ASIA/ISCoS). Prof. Krassioukov’s research is focused on autonomic dysfunctions following spinal cord injury and his laboratory is supported by grants from the Canadian Institute for Health Research, Heart and Stroke Foundation, Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Rick Hansen Institute/Foundation, Craig Neilsen Foundation, Department of Defense, Wings for Life and many others. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts, books, book chapters and reviews. He is a member of numerous advisory boards for the international agencies involved in research in the area of spinal cord injury and disability. Prof. Krassioukov’s work in the area of spinal cord injury has been recognised through numerous national and international awards including the inaugural Alan Brown Award from American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA). Prof. Krassioukov was inducted as a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Presently, Dr. Krassioukov is a President of the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA).

Igor Lavrov, MD, PhD

Researcher and MD

Assistant professor at Mayo Clinic in the Department of Neurology and the Department of Biomedical Engineering

Igor Lavrov was trained in medicine (neurology) and neuroscience. After completing Postdoctoral Research Fellowships at the University of Louisville and at the University of California Los Angeles, he was working as a researcher at UCLA and later as an Assistant Professor at the Mayo Clinic. He also completed a clinical fellowship in Deep Brain Stimulation and Clinical Neuromodulation at the Department Neurology and Neurosurgery, Mayo Clinic.

Over the course of a twenty year career, he participated and directed multiple research projects. He studied spinal cord neuromodulation in several animal models and in clinical trials. His current research interests are focused on neuronal circuits, their modulation, reorganization, and repair after traumatic injury, with particular focus on spinal cord stimulation and regenerative therapies. The ongoing success of these studies, currently is leading to the establishment of a new perspective for restoration after spinal cord injury and also covers multiple aspects of neuromodulation for movement disorders and chronic pain.

Mark Nash, PhD, FACSM, FASIA

Spinal Cord Injury Researcher, Tenured Professor

Tenured Professor of Neurological Surgery, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and Physical Therapy at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine (UM-MSOM); Associate Scientific Director (Rehabilitation Research) for the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis; Vice-Chair of Research in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and Co-Director of the NIDILRR Spinal Cord Injury Model System

Dr. Mark Nash is currently a tenured Professor of Neurological Surgery, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and Physical Therapy at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine (UM-MSOM), and Associate Scientific Director (Rehabilitation Research) for the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. He received his Doctoral Degree in Applied Physiology and Clinical Anatomy from the University of Toledo and the Medical College of Ohio, and spent his final year of training as a Doctoral Fellow studying the rehabilitation of ischemic heart diseases. In 1984 he joined the Faculty of Neurological Surgery at the UM-MSOM, and one year later was a Founding Principal Investigator for the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.

Dr. Nash currently serves as Vice-Chair of Research in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and Co-Director of the NIDILRR Spinal Cord Injury Model System. He is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (FACSM) and the American Spinal Injury Association (FASIA) and has published more than 170 peer-review manuscripts, scholarly monographs, and book chapters. Dr. Nash was the Chair of the Cardiometabolic Clinical Guideline Panel for the Paralyzed Veterans Association Consortium on Spinal Cord Medicine, which developed the inaugural evidence-based guidelines for the identification and treatment of cardioendocrine disease after SCI. He was also the lead author of the PVA Consumer Guide on the same topic. Dr. Nash is on the Executive Committee for the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA), to become ASIA President in 2025. He has received multiple grant awards from the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, and the Craig H. Nielsen Foundation, which have examined causes for, and interventions on the cardiometabolic disease after SCI. In 2012 he was honored by ASIA with the David Apple, MD Award and in 2018 he presented the D.B. Dill Memorial Lecture for the ACSM. In 2018 Dr. Nash received the ACRM John Stanley Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievements in Rehabilitation Research.

Aaron Phillips, PhD

Neuroscience Researcher, Assistant Professor

Assistant Professor in the Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology, Cardiac Sciences and Clinical Neurosciences

Aaron Phillips was trained in Experimental Medicine, Biosciences and Mathematics. His appreciation of the interactions between the nervous and cardiovascular systems, and understanding how these systems are disrupted in the presence of clinical conditions, has driven his research into the development of novel therapies for people with neurological health issues. After obtaining the Banting, CIHR, NSERC, Heart & Stroke Foundation, and Craig Neilsen Fellowships as well as the Killam Research Award during his post-doc at the University of British Columba (UBC), he established his laboratory at the University of Calgary in 2017. He is now an Associate Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology, Clinical Neurosciences, and Cardiac Sciences. Within the Foothills Medical Centre, he is Director of RESTORE.net, which is a platform dedicated to developing translational technology for neurological injury. He has received the Brain Canada Leader Award, The Arthur Guyton Award in Excellence in Physiology from the American Physiological Society, and the Top 40 Under 40 from Avenue Magazine. He has funding from several organizations including CIHR, NSERC, PRAXIS, Wings for Life, and the US Military through DARPA. 

Phillip Popovich, PhD

Neuroscience Professor

Director, OSU Center for Brain and Spinal Cord Repair (CBSCR); Professor, Neuroscience and Neurosurgery, The Ohio State University; Visiting Professor, Deutsches Zentrum fur Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE), Bonn, Germany; Chair, Department of Neuroscience, The Ohio State University College of Medicine

Phillip Popovich completed his PhD training in physiology and spinal cord injury (SCI) at Ohio State University (OSU) where he is currently Professor and Chair of Department of Neuroscience, Director of OSU’s Center for Brain and Spinal Cord Repair and Executive Director of the Belford Center for Spinal Cord Injury. As a post-doctoral fellow, also at OSU, he was awarded a Sandoz Research Fellowship that supported his formal training in immunology and CNS autoimmune disease. His research program is focused on understanding how SCI disrupts communication between the nervous and immune systems leading to a state of chronic immune dysfunction, including immune suppression and “metainflammation”.

Enrico Rejc, PhD

Neuromuscular and Motor Control Researcher, Assistant Professor

Assistant Professor, Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, University of Louisville, KY; Scientific Director, Neuromuscular and Skeletal Research Core, Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, University of Louisville, KY

Enrico Rejc, PhD is presently Assistant Professor and Director of the Metabolic, Neuromuscular and Skeletal Research Core at the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Louisville, USA. Prior to taking this position, he was involved in research activities at the University of Udine, University of California Los Angeles, and Manchester Metropolitan University. In the last 10 years, his research has been primarily focused on investigating the effects of spinal cord epidural stimulation parameters, peripheral sensory information, and activity-based training paradigms on the recovery of lower limb motor function in individuals with motor complete spinal cord injury. He is also interested in the effects of disuse, aging and physical exercise on the human neuromuscular system.

Andrew Taylor, PhD

Cardiovascular and Rehabilitation Researcher, Associate Professor

Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School; Associate Chair for Research Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation; Director, Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, Spaulding Hospital Cambridge

Dr. Taylor is the Principal Investigator for Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital’s Cardiovascular Research Laboratory and oversees the Exercise for Persons with Disabilities (ExPD) program. He holds a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Arizona and had postdoctoral fellowships at Duke University Medical School and the Medical College of Virginia before joining the Harvard Medical School Faculty. He is currently an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, Associate Chair for Research in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and a Fellow of the American Heart Association. He has published over 100 research articles on topics such as the impact of microgravity on blood pressure control in astronauts, the effects of exercise on human aging, and most recently the beneficial effects of functional electrical stimulation of the legs for rowing exercise in those with spinal cord injury. This latter work forms the core of his research in spinal cord injury and has been funded by the Department of Defense, the Neilsen Foundation, the American Heart Association, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. He was editor for the American Physiology Society’s text, ‘The Physiology of Exercise in Spinal Cord Injury,’ the only book surveying the physiologic systems impacted by Spinal Cord Injury in the context of exercise to date.

Jill Wecht, EdD

Autonomic Researcher, Professor

Professor of Human Performance and Rehabilitation Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai; Program Director of the Cardiovascular Autonomic Program within the National Center for the Medical Consequences of SCI at the James J Peters VA Medical Center; Chair of the Autonomic Standards Committee of ASIA and ISCoS; Planning Committee Member, Moving Beyond Isolated Systems Symposium

Dr. Jill Wecht investigates the impact of autonomic cardiovascular impairment on blood pressure regulation and the secondary consequences of hypotension and orthostatic hypotension on cognitive function and quality of life in persons with chronic spinal cord injury (SCI). She and her team have established associations between systemic and cerebral hemodynamics and cognitive test performance and suggest premature cognitive aging in the SCI population may be the result of impaired decentralized autonomic cardiovascular control following injury. Recent findings, which describe the use of lumbosacral epidural stimulation to safely and effectively increase and maintain seated blood pressure in persons with chronic SCI are exciting and offer a viable clinical option to target autonomic cardiovascular regulation and restore blood pressure regulation, cerebral blood flow, cognitive function and quality of life.