For the first time, U2FP will present a poster session, after lunch on Saturday. These will be work-in-progress studies from the University of Minnesota, Health Partners Neuroscience Center, Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute, Minneapolis VA, and Mayo Clinic. If you’re not familiar with a poster, it’s a 3 ft. by 5 ft. display that uses short narrative, graphs, and illustrations to describe a scientific study. They are a feature of...

Disaster themes are an apt metaphor here. I’m thinking of the Netflix show, Stranger Things. Like the Walking Dead, or the Matrix, Stranger Things is a story about a community in distress. And how that community acts to survive, care for each other, and protect each other in the midst of a reality that no one else understands: an Upside Down world that no one is even aware of. I don’t think it’s too much of a leap to say that spinal cord injury is our Stranger Things.

The topic of today’s conversation is the Vagus nerve. In Latin, Vagus means wandering or straying, which this conversation does a fair bit of due to the interesting subject matter. Our guide on this path is Dr. Patrick Ganzer of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. Dr. Ganzer explains how the vagus nerve can be stimulated to open a window of neuro-plasticity and improve functional outcomes in spinal cord injury. We also talk about his research in...

I was devastated to hear him voicing this fear that he cannot keep doing what he believes he is meant to do. Something that brings him joy and purpose. All because paralysis is relentless. I know my son is not the exception, but the rule. This injury robs us and our loved ones of their time, their dreams, and their potential contributions to society. It is unjust. Which is why we...