January 14, 2025
Remembering Jerry Silver
U2FP Staff
Jerry Silver, who dedicated a 50-year career to restoring function after spinal cord injury, died on January 7. He was 77.
Dr. Jerry Silver attended U2FP’s annual symposiums whenever he could. The above image was taken at our annual symposium in 2012 in Irvine, California.
Silver, a longtime faculty member at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, was widely recognized in the research world, but was also on a first name basis among people living with SCI and anyone else who followed the science. He was a frequent presenter at U2FP’s annual symposium, unraveling complex neurobiology to nonscientists with simplicity and wit. He never wavered from a hopeful message that paralysis can one day be treated.
“We got to know Dr. Silver quite well over the years. He was an SCI research pioneer, always innovative and passionate in his work, and eager to share it with the U2FP community,” said Matthew Rodreick, U2FP’s Executive Director. “He always looked forward to sharing his work with the Ohio Cure Advocacy Network activists who created a state research fund there. He was upbeat, full of hope and ever-cognizant of the SCI community’s frustration with the lack of novel therapies to restore lost function. We mourn his loss but celebrate his contributions to SCI curative therapies. Our condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues.”
Jake Beckstrom, U2FP’s CAN Manager and C4-6 complete quad, emphasized Silver’s special relationship with the SCI community: “Dr. Silver was always excited to share what was going on in his lab with the SCI members of the Ohio Advisory Board. Over the years, he interacted with us so seamlessly that - despite not having an SCI - it often felt like he understood where we were coming from more than other able-bodied individuals. We will really miss him.”
Dr. Silver (left), presenting at U2FP’s Symposium in 2019, alongside a panel with Dr. Marc DePaul (center) of NervGen Pharma, and Dr. Sasha Rabchevsky (right) of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine.
Silver’s work explored the effect of spinal cord scarring as an impediment to nerve growth. This eventually led to a clinical trial currently testing a regenerative drug he co-invented. This treatment improved function in paralyzed lab animals, enough so to spur formation of a startup, NervGen.
NervGen recently completed enrollment of its first patient cohort, 20 individuals with chronic SCI. The clinical trial, hosted at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago, is continuing to enroll patients with subacute injuries (20 to 90 days post injury). More information about the trial here.
It’s too bad Silver never got to see the NervGen trial results. He never lost faith in science, or in the promise of his data. He always said paralysis could be treated, and he always wanted to be the one to do it.
Silver was born and raised in Cleveland, and received his PhD from Case Western Reserve University there in 1974; after postgraduate work at Harvard, he continued at Case in the Department of Neurosciences.
Private services will be held in Cleveland.
You can listen back to our CureCast interview with Dr. Silver here, as well as view the last of several symposium presentations he gave in 2019 here.
