SCS is unique among other spinal cord injury cure organizations in that from 2001-2014 we owned and operated our own, independent research center. While we have now moved our center in with the University of Minnesota, we are still an independent entity under our own control and funded by SCS chapter activities. Most cure organizations you may be familiar with are actually contracting with some university or research laboratory. While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with that setup, it does have several drawbacks that are detrimental to our objective. On the other hand, being in control of our own center gives us several distinct advantages.

Not so for many other research organizations. They may have many other priorities, and a cure for spinal cord injury is not necessarily the highest of them.

Spinal cord injury is complex and there are many factors that have to be overcome. Among these are- Getting nerves to regenerate; replacing neurons that are lost due to injury; eliminating and suppressing the reformation of the scar tissue that forms on the damaged nerves; blocking the natural growth inhibitors that take over in the damaged spinal cord, and effective physical therapy to maximize the recovery. Unfortunately, it appears there will be no “silver bullet” that solves all of these problems. It’s going to take a combination of approaches to form a complete treatment for the adult, chronic spinal cord injury.