Project Purpose: This project focuses on the critical need for new treatment paradigms for patients with chronic spinal cord injuries. One major barrier to regeneration after SCI is the formation of the glial scar. This project will use a novel method for neatly ablating glial scar tissue in chronic SCI which, in combination with other therapies, shows significant promise in improving locomotor outcomes in individuals with previously untreatable, chronic SCI. The research team has successfully removed existing glial scars in chronically contused rat spinal cords using a rose Bengal—based phototoxic approach. This represents the most promising novel therapeutic approach to scar ablation in the central nervous system for chronic SCI. With a focus on translation to the clinic, proposed methods are compatible with cGMP manufacturing processes to enable seamless clinical translation of the research. This innovative project could provide pre—clinical data for an application to the FDA for a Phase I clinical trial.
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