September 18, 2025
How a Quad Opens a Jar
Jason Stoffer
In the spring of 2017, U2FP and our Washington state advocates secured state funding for spinal cord injury research. That appropriation - guided by members of the SCI community - invested in the early transcutaneous spinal stimulation (TSS) work of Dr. Chet Moritz at the University of Washington. Chet’s TSS work became critical to ONWARD Medical’s Arc-EX device, which was just approved by the FDA earlier this year.
Our friend Jesse Owen has been a C3/4 quadriplegic for 12 years. She recently regained some important hand function, thanks to this research and the resulting device. Check out this video of her opening a jar for the first time!
Investment in SCI research is important. It is changing lives. We have critics even within our own SCI community who say that research is a waste of time and money. I hope these stories begin to change that narrative.
U2FP is helping to make these discoveries possible by mobilizing the SCI community’s voice and perspective. Thank you, Dr. Moritz and ONWARD Medical, for your work. And thank you Jesse Owen for sharing your story!
We are halfway through September and have only secured a fraction of our goal. Help us secure a $50,000 match grant during SCI Awareness Month so that we can keep working to accelerate smart, innovative research for our community.
Join us!
PS - I’m in Washington, D.C. right now and will have some exciting updates soon about the groundwork we’re laying here for a National SCI Research funding strategy…stay tuned!
