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SUMMARY:Influencing axon regeneration after spinal cord injury - Mark A. A
 nderson - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology\, Lausanne and the Univers
 ity of California\, Los Angeles
DTSTART:20190214T120000Z
DTEND:20190214T130000Z
UID:TALK113539@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Romina Vuono
DESCRIPTION:Overcoming axon regeneration failure after spinal cord injury 
 (SCI) has been a longstanding problem due to i) an incomplete mechanistic 
 understanding of reasons why axons fail to regenerate and ii) technology c
 apable of probing this question in vivo. Regeneration failure has classica
 lly been attributed to a combination of glial inhibition and poor neuronal
  growth capacity\, but the degree to which each of these might contribute 
 has been incompletely understood. Advances in genetic engineering and biom
 aterial development have given us tools to investigate this question in vi
 vo. In this lecture\, I will discuss the importance of using engineering s
 trategies to identify and overcome regeneration failure after SCI. This ap
 proach has led to the following findings: i) the beneficial role of astroc
 yte scar formation in CNS axon regeneration\, and ii) the development of a
  mechanism- based biological repair strategy to induce robust regeneration
  of propriospinal neurons into and past sites of anatomically complete SCI
 . However\, many biological and engineering questions remain regarding mod
 alities to integrate these axons into existing locomotor circuits to foste
 r functional recovery after severe SCI. I will discuss these aforementione
 d issues and propose potential solutions\, including ways to expand this r
 epair strategy to other neuronal populations and techniques to use neuropr
 osthetic rehabilitation in order to integrate\, tune and functionalize reg
 enerating axons.
LOCATION:IPH large seminar room
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