June 24, 2026
Full Circle in Ohio
Jake Beckstrom
U2FP’s Ohio Cure Advocacy Network (CAN) recently met with Megan Moynahan to discuss her KeyGrip research project. This was one of seven SCI research projects funded in our 2023 round of grants, thanks to the $3M biennium appropriation that U2FP advocates secured in 2019. That means $1.5M per year is funding functional recovery research in the state. The money is disbursed from the Ohio Third Frontier under the state’s Department of Higher Education.
Source: keygrip.co/home
The KeyGrip system is an implantable neuroprosthetic electrical stimulation device designed to help people with cervical spinal cord injuries open and close their hands. Over the past three years, the KeyGrip system has gone through a few iterations to what it is today. Moynahan has successfully completed the first human implant during a one-day outpatient procedure, and is now in the process of data collection with that patient.
The progress of Moynahan’s project is notable in itself, but if you look a little deeper it exemplifies what Unite 2 Fight Paralysis has been building with the Cure Advocacy Network across numerous states.
The advocates on the below zoom call with Moynahan, Jason, and me, were the actual folks living with SCI in Ohio who advocated for the creation of the funding mechanism that currently funds the KeyGrip system. These and other Ohio CAN advocates are the ones who met with Randy Gardner back in 2019 when he was Majority Leader of the Ohio State Senate. After his very first meeting with the advocates, Sen. Gardner told us he would champion the push to pass this funding in Ohio.
Above: Ohio CAN advocates met with Megan Moynahan recently to discuss details and provide feedback about the KeyGrip project.
Luckily, the very next year, he was tapped by the Governor as Chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education. And as per his discretion in his new office, Chancellor Gardner established the SCI Research Incentive under the Ohio Third Frontier allocating $3 million per biennium towards spinal cord injury research within the state.
The folks on the zoom call above are providing crucial feedback for better results and outcomes on the project. They are also members of the advisory board who decide which projects to fund every two years. The advisory board is a crucial part of our bills across these state programs. It ensures people living with SCI have decision-making power with researchers, scientists, and clinicians during the reviewing and scoring process of the research project proposals. This SCI community involvement ensures the state funding is distributed to research projects that focus on functional improvement for people with spinal cord injuries. Though not pictured here, there is also a panel of SCI scientists who vote on which projects get funded.
Researchers whose work is funded (like Moynahan) are meeting with the same folks who have given their time and energy over many years, and who themselves are experts in the lived experience of SCI and the science of SCI research. Their involvement allows for crucial feedback at key intervals to further escalate the impact of these research projects.
Seven research projects were funded in 2023 (including Moynahan’s project), via U2FP’s Ohio CAN. Our advocates will be meeting with all seven researchers to get updates and provide feedback for those projects. This is what accountability looks like when dealing with public funds and research projects that will improve functionality for people living with SCI.
This model of expert science and lived-experience inclusion is a formula for greater success for both researchers and the SCI community. Your support of Unite 2 Fight Paralysis is what makes this work possible.
Thank you!
PS - Moynahan’s project is now expanding from Cleveland to Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore. KeyGrip is looking to recruit eight more participants. If you live near those three cities and would like to participate in this clinical trial, please respond to me (jakebeckstrom@u2fp.org), and I can connect you with Megan Moynahan!
