COVID19 abruptly cut short the SCI Roadmap project inspired by Reeve’s unrelenting cure vision.
People in chairs are still waiting for a superhero..
I reached out to everyone in SCI who would share their feedback with me.
The heavy lift was overcoming institutional baggage, a few blocking egos, and the false dichotomy of care vs cure missions.
In retrospect, the focus on epidural stimulation and a centralized (read, unscalable) all-encompassing rehab regiment was a mistake.
Also see Chet Moritz’s work at U of Washington on transcutaneous stimulation. Both groups see positive effects on dysautonomia, eg blood pressure.
Steven Kirshblum at @KesslerFdn told me there are 5 interventions we should be testing today in a coordinated manner across multiple clinical sites:
2) moderate acute intermittent hypoxia
3) stem cell therapies
4) BCI (see @neuralink)
5) activity-based training aka rehab
Design trials to prove efficacy of single intervention, and then stack other interventions on top.
Are axonal sprouting and relay circuits (which don’t evolve naturally) sufficient or is long-distance axonal growth required for lasting functional recovery?
There’ll likely be a need to safely turn on and later turn back off again long-distance axonal growth programs.
@praxis_sci has boldly set out to do just that.
I can still imagine a world without chronic SCI in 15-20 years.
Will have more to say soon! 🚀