By the Numbers (Episode 111)
Guest: Jen Dulin
Today we’re talking with Dr. Jen Dulin from Texas A&M University. Dr. Dulin is a spinal cord injury researcher, but this discussion is a little different as it's not about the active research she’s doing in her lab. Instead, we discuss a project that U2FP pitched to Jen a couple years ago: could we do an analysis on the last 15 years of spinal cord injury research funding trends, themes, and categories, so we can understand - in detail - what's happened over that time period? Dr. Dulin happily said yes to our idea, and we then identified several people with SCI to help her with that project. And the data they've compiled so far looks to be pretty impactful.
Jen presented the preliminary data of this study at our symposium in Atlanta back in September. There's still work to do, but we are getting very close to finishing this project and thinking about its future. Where does all this data go? How do we make it as accessible and transparent as possible? How does it live on? Can we create a platform that can continue to be updated every year and continue to be as transparent and easily accessible as possible? These are some of the things that we talk about in this episode.
As always, please share your thoughts with us via email at curecast@u2fp.org. Thanks for listening!
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Bumper music: Dig a Hole by Freaque
Guest Bios
Jen Dulin, PhD is an Associate Professor of Neurobiology at Texas A&M University. She joined the field of spinal cord injury (SCI) research in 2008, when she began her graduate studies at UT Health Science Center in Houston with Dr. Raymond Grill. Her postdoctoral work at the University of California in San Diego with Dr. Mark Tuszynski focused on neural regeneration after spinal cord injury. Dr. Dulin became a faculty member at Texas A&M University in 2017. The central goal of the Dulin lab’s research is refining approaches for cell transplantation with the aim of restoring hand and leg function after SCI. Ongoing work in the lab is studying how enriching cell grafts for key types of neurons and combining cell transplantation with rehabilitation, can enhance functional outcomes. Her lab published a systematic review article about SCI clinical trials in 2022, in collaboration with U2FP. They are now working together on a project to evaluate SCI research funding.
Connect with Jen Dulin here:
- Website: Jen Dulin Faculty Page - Texas A&M
- Email: jdulin@bio.tamu.edu
Related Symposium Presentation
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Click the title talk or image to watch Dr. Valerie Dietz's presentation at U2FP's 2022 Symposium in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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Click the title talk or image to watch Dr. Jen Dulin's presentation at U2FP's 2024 Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia this past fall.
Related Research
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Over the past 15 years, we identified increased representation of neuromodulation and rehabilitation trials, and decreased representation of drug trials. Overall, the number of new clinical trials initiated each year continues to grow, signifying a hopeful future for the clinical treatment of SCI. Together, our work provides a comprehensive glimpse into the past, present, and future of SCI clinical trials, and suggests areas for improvement in clinical trial reporting.
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