Last week we organized a meeting attended by leaders from The Craig H Neilsen Foundation, United Spinal, The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, The North American SCI Consortium, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Wings 4 Life and The Shepherd Center. We met to share information, strategize and mobilize our community to fight back. At the time, there was no formal path forward. Now there is an emerging strategy...

Andrew knows this program well and we discuss how the program worked, what made it so successful, what set it apart from other Federal research grant programs and the damaging fallout that will ensue if we can’t get it reinstated. We hope that you will share our sense of urgency on this matter, that you will contact your Congressional Representatives in the House and Senate. And we hope that this conversation

We’re excited to announce that we’ll be upgrading to a new donor management system starting in early April. We’ve been working on migrating all the data from our old provider to our new provider for a few months, and will be finalizing the transition in the next week. Donor management software helps U2FP...

You may have heard, but spinal cord injury research just took a MAJOR blow and we need to do something about it, NOW. What Happened? On March 15th, The 119th Congress passed and POTUS signed into law a continuing resolution bill, H.R. 1968. This bill cut about $850 million dollars in medical research funding being conducted for veterans, with civilians benefiting as well. As part of the collateral damage, arguably the most effective Spinal Cord Injury Research program in the world was eliminated. The $40M program made up roughly 1/3 of the entire Federal allocation of funding toward SCI Research and there’s a good chance...

There is a terrible irony hiding in the news this past week. The Federal Budget that passed last Friday (3/14) cut 57% - approximately $850 million - out of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP). This is a Department of Defense agency that funds biomedical research programs, including spinal cord injury. Within those cuts is a zeroing out of the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program (SCIRP)…or about $40 million this year. That’s $40 million GONE, right now...

Welcome back to our second episode in this three-part series about the barriers to progress in the treatment of spinal cord injuries. We’re once again joined by neurosurgeon, researcher and lived-experience advocate, Dr. Kent New. In this episode, we discuss the problems associated with preclinical, as well as early- and late-stage clinical trials. If you...

The Bird’s Nest Cafe in Estes Park, CO is hosting a Fundraising Gala and Silent Auction to benefit Unite 2 Fight Paralysis! Money raised from ticket sales and auction items goes directly to Unite 2 Fight Paralysis’ work to accelerate treatments and functional recovery research for folks living with a spinal cord injury (SCI)...

Today’s conversation is the first in a three part series with Dr. Kent New on the barriers to progress for SCI treatments. Kent is a neurosurgeon and researcher who suffered a C6 level spinal cord injury from a motor vehicle accident in 2014. He is uniquely qualified through his education, work experience and lived experience with an SCI to guide us through this subject matter...

Consider joining Team U2FP this year for the 2025 Twin Cities Marathon or 10-Mile race - registration is now open! You’ll get guaranteed entry into a world-class marathon and be helping folks with spinal cord injuries advocate for functional recovery. This year’s events are scheduled for Sunday, October 5, 2025, starting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Whether you are a regular marathoner or distance athlete, or a newly interested runner or wheeler, Team U2FP will support you...

Next Friday, March 7th, 2025, Unite 2 Fight Paralysis is hosting a registration kick-off event at Dual Citizen Brewery for the Medtronic Twin Cities in Motion (TCM) Marathon and 10-Mile races. Bring your family, friends, neighbors, or co-workers - anyone can join us for the kick-off event, whether you’re considering racing or not. Those who do sign up to race with Team U2FP in the 2025 Twin Cities Marathon or 10-mile race will get two free beers (or other beverages of choice) and an Adidas Terrex...

I’ve been looking forward to our 20th Annual Science and Advocacy Symposium for a long time. It is a moment to mark the birth of Unite 2 Fight Paralysis as an organization, and the beginning of a new wave of involvement and advocacy for curative therapies led by the SCI community. If you haven’t, you should read our origin story detailing the six women who founded and led this transformative organization. In the spring of 2005, these visionary individuals...

Today I’m talking with Jason Biundo. Jason is a lived-experience graduate student at Harvard Medical School. He earned a dual degree in Neuroscience and Biology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. It's worth noting that some of that degree was earned from a hospital bed while recovering from his spinal cord injury at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. Beyond this, Jason is a personal friend of ours and a fierce U2FP advocate. We begin our conversation exploring how Jason’s injury influenced his educational trajectory and priorities. We then move to his current work on...

I am excited to announce that our $5M SCI Research Grant bill is being introduced this week in the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate by our legislative champions, Representative Paul Tittl and Senator Van Wanggaard! (You can read a preliminary draft of the bill here). Matthew and Jason are en route to the Capitol today to join our Wisconsin CAN advocates for three days of legislator meetings. We have a 10-day window to get as many legislators to co-sponsor our bill as possible, so that is our main objective between now and this Thursday. Meanwhile, I’ll be...

On Friday, March 7th, 2025, Unite 2 Fight Paralysis is hosting a registration kick-off event at Dual Citizen Brewery for the Medtronic Twin Cities in Motion (TCM) Marathon and 10-Mile races. Anyone can join us for the kick-off event. We’ll be recruiting racers and celebrating U2FP’s recent success at increased accessibility: TCM is the first marathon in the United States to allow the use of e-assist handcrank wheelchairs - a pioneering achievement! Bring your...

Here is a recent news story about a brain therapy that allowed two paralyzed individuals to walk again. By stimulating a part of the brain called the lateral hypothalamus (LH), scientists in Switzerland reported meaningful recovery in two individuals with incomplete spinal cord injuries...

Today we’re talking with Dr. Jacob Goldsmith. Jacob is a research scientist at the James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Our conversation will explore the interesting relationship between Testosterone and Spinal Cord Injury. We discuss the role of Testosterone in humans, why the presence of this critical hormone may...

We are growing at U2FP. We know that expediting cures for spinal cord injury is worth the effort. We also know that this work is not going to happen on its own and that our community will need to speak up and advocate to get things done. One of our main goals is to provide you with the educational resources you need to be the most effective advocates possible. And so many of you are stepping up in so many ways! But our work doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It requires...

A conversation with James St John at Griffiths University in Australia, about his highly anticipated clinical trial that uses olfactory ensheathing cells to restore the injured spinal cord...

Here we go again, and hopefully for the last time. The Wisconsin Legislative Session has officially begun and after six long years of trying to get a spinal cord injury research grant bill enacted, we are sitting as pretty as we ever have. Hopefully we can escape the fate of Sisyphus and finally be rid of this boulder! Here’s a quick refresher of our advocacy campaign in Wisconsin thus far: a group of stalwart advocates have been showing up for years now to educate legislators on the...

Jerry Silver, who dedicated a 50-year career to restoring function after spinal cord injury, died on January 7. He was 77. 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...

We’re back with round two of stem cells and their application to spinal cord injury with our tour guide, Alina Garbuzov. In this episode, we wrap up our overview of stem cell types, sources and potential uses in spinal cord injury. We also field some listener questions from part 1 and talk about the work that Alina is doing at the Mark Tuszynski Lab at UCSD. We realized after the fact that these two conversations are...

I’m proud of the work we are doing, but we need to scale it. We can’t keep pretending that our smart, small programs are enough. Prodding the cure economy with alternative, collaborative opportunities is great, but as I laid out recently, we also need to build an SCI Translation Factory...

Wishing you a restful holiday season...

This is why prodding the system, cajoling it, annoying it, hoping that it will reform itself in time for us and our loved ones to recover is not a strategy I’m willing to bet my son’s life on.

This is the story of U2FP’s unlikely four year battle (and eventual success) in pushing the Twin Cities Marathon (TCM) to be more inclusive of people with disabilities. In fact, our victory marks the first time any marathon in the United States has allowed the use of e-assist handcrank wheelchairs - a pioneering achievement! Our charity marathon teams play a huge role in fundraising for our work on curing spinal cord injuries. So it didn’t seem right that many people with an SCI who wanted to support us in this way could not be...

On a personal note, I want to reiterate how proud I am to manage Unite 2 Fight Paralysis’ financial affairs. Rarely have I seen an organization do so much with so little, and continue to push to be more transparent, both fiscally and in the broad range of services that we provide to the SCI community. Our overhead expenses are lower than anywhere I’ve ever worked (and that’s saying something after 50 years in finance!) and our commitment to the mission of curing paralysis is...

This is the first in a two-part series covering the role of stem cells in spinal cord injury with Dr. Alina Garbuzov. Along with the experience she brings as a person living with an SCI, Alina is a researcher, working in the Mark Tuszynski Lab at the Center for Neural Repair at the University of California, San Diego. Today's conversation is part one, where we introduce Alina and learn about her unique perspective as a lived experience researcher; how her injury fine-tuned her professional trajectory; and about her...

Registration is open for the 2025 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. Don’t miss out on your opportunity to receive a guaranteed spot as a runner or wheeler in this world-class racing event. But beyond the endorphin rush of participating in this internationally recognized marathon, your training and fundraising efforts are supporting U2FP’s important work, especially our Cure Advocacy Network (CAN) initiative. CAN advocates work to pass legislative funding bills for SCI research. And we are very close to passing a $3M SCI Research funding bill in Wisconsin...

I wanted to let you know that we've just made available all the presentations from this year's 19th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia.

For the last several years I have been meeting privately with investors and stakeholders across the academic, clinical and biomedical sector to develop a plan for what I’ve been calling “The Translation Factory:” an independent institute where scientists, clinical researchers, and biotech entrepreneurs are all working under the same roof. This ‘factory’ would not be affiliated with...

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...

As those of us here in the U.S. pause this week to observe our Thanksgiving holiday, we at U2FP would like to express our gratitude to all of you. So many of you support us in this difficult but necessary work to bring about cures for paralysis...

Registration is open for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon 2025. This past year was U2FP’s best ever showing in the Chicago Marathon, with 25 racers and over $37,000 raised for curative therapies. U2FP is once again an official charity partner of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. We're building our roster for next year and looking for 30 runners and wheelers to join our ranks. Let’s see if we can...

Today we are talking to Arash Bayatmakou and Dale Hull, the organizational heads of NorCal SCI and Neuroworx, respectively. NorCal SCI is a resource non-profit serving the SCI community of northern California. Neroworx is an outpatient rehabilitation center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The main focus of our discussion is the lack of access to outpatient rehabilitation after SCI and the creative collaboration these organizations have...

This is the long and winding story of a highly anticipated clinical trial happening in Australia next year. Scientists intend to transplant a 3D nerve cell bridge seeded by cells harvested from each participant’s nose directly into the lesion area of their spinal cord. The study also includes a huge amount of rehab training. Many of you have likely already seen the recent news coverage around this trial; indeed, several of our followers reached out to me about this story...

the clock is ticking. With less than 12 hours to go, we don't want to miss the opportunity to double the impact of our programs, like Lab Rats, which places people with an injury into SCI research labs as lived-experience consultants; or our CureCast Podcast, which provides interviews with SCI scientists and advocates, unpacking cure research from the SCI community's point of view; or the Cure Advocacy Network (CAN), which passes and then helps oversee state legislation that funds SCI research for functional recovery. In fact...

My grandfather's nickname was Stormy Rodreick. He was a pilot, a barnstormer, crop duster and bootlegger delivering moonshine across the Kentucky/Ohio border. I never knew him, in large part because he was illegally married to two other women at the same time he married my grandmother. But stories of who he was, and wasn’t, were formative for me. He was a rebel, criminal, liar and a womanizer. I used to wonder if...

Remember, U2FP doesn’t believe in just throwing money at a problem (have we cured cancer yet?). Instead we work strategically and collaboratively to accelerate the pace of discovery, anticipating obstacles and transforming them into opportunities. We are always seeking to improve the relationships between those who research the injury and those who live with it (e.g., our Lab Rats initiative, or our Annual Symposium which brings all the stakeholders together)....

I’ve never participated in an official marathon. Neither in my legged life, nor my wheely life. Sure, I’ve covered that distance (26+ miles) many times in the wilderness. Before my spinal cord injury I trekked for days or weeks on foot through the woods. But even after my SCI, I’ve been known to go off the beaten path with my new wheels every now and then. But beyond the race event, there was something really special about being part of the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon this year: we were making history! Seriously...

Please join us for an Activity Based Therapy Webinar, brought to you by Unite 2 Fight Paralysis and the Association of Neuro Activity Based Professionals...

As most of you know, we had a generous donor from the SCI community who committed to match all donations (up to $100k!) to U2FP during the month of September. This was in honor of SCI Awareness month, which we also celebrated by featuring testimonials from SCI individuals who shared the one thing they’d most want back after their injury...

Today we are talking about Brain Computer Interfaces (or BCI) with Luke Bashford and Daniel Kramer. Daniel is a neurosurgeon and faculty member at the University of Colorado, Anschutz. He is also the co-founder of the Neural Engineering Research and Design of Colorado (or NERDco). Luke is a researcher in neuroscience and neurotechnology. He is co-affiliated with the University of Colorado and Newcastle University in the UK. We discuss the application of BCI in spinal cord injury, what is happening currently and...

I’m writing to you from Atlanta, Georgia, where we are busy preparing for our 19th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium. As you may have seen, Hurricane Helene has conspired to complicate things. While we don’t know how bad the storm’s impact will be, we are...

Matthew and I were recently interviewed on the Quadcast Podcast with host and SCI community member John McAleavey...

In just over a week, U2FP’s 19th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium will be happening in Atlanta, Georgia - Friday, September 27 & Saturday, September 28, 2024. While we are excited to see so many of you in Atlanta next week, we know that not everyone is able to make a trip like this - especially many in the SCI community. Which is why we will once again have a livestream option. Livestream attendees will be able to...

Here's an old SCI research trope: give us five years and we’ll have something for you. Everybody with SCI hears this, for the last 40 years. Well, is five years finally here?

It’s September! And as most of you know it is Spinal Cord Injury Awareness month. But did you also know that September is National Wilderness month?

We’re just two weeks away from U2FP’s 19th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium and I wanted to encourage you to join us (register now). Whether you’re a person with an SCI, a family member or caretaker to someone with this injury, a grad student studying SCI, a researcher, clinician, activity based therapist, biotech representative, government regulator or NGO - your presence at this meeting is...

Our 2023 Annual Report is out this month, highlighting the milestones of last year and the ongoing work we continue to do this year. The accomplishments we’ve achieved are largely due to the time, talent and treasure of so many of you: individuals in the SCI and scientific communities who make our work possible. Please take a few minutes to...

Here’s the thing: spinal cord injury robs you of the physical ability to do many things and have more diverse experiences; but it doesn’t rob you of your desire to do those things. My appetite, developed over 40-some years, hasn’t changed. But my body has. It’s the same story, over and over.

If you could drive to a clinic tomorrow, pay $100,000, and permanently get back one thing you lost after your SCI - you’d do it right? I know I would. Even though I don’t have anything close to $100k. I’d figure out a way - extreme financing, kickstarter, panhandling, etc - I’d get the money. Well guess what?

Session three at U2FP's Symposium (September 27-28 in Atlanta) will consider several aspects of spinal cord stimulation, both epidural (eSCS, implanted) and transcutaneous (tSCS, skin surface), including its application to spasticity, women's sexual function, and general sensory and motor improvement. Evan Sandler is a PhD student from the Edelle C. Field-Fote lab at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta. This group participated in the multicenter clinical trial for ONWARD’s tSCS device, which showed meaningful improvement in upper extremity function, both sensory and motor in participants with cervical injuries. Sandler’s emphasis is in tuning and optimizing tSCS to treat...

Today’s guest is Dr. Gordon Mitchell, a professor of neuroscience at The University of Florida. He’s also the founder and director of the University’s Center for Breathing Research and Therapeutics. In this episode, we discuss the role of intermittent hypoxia and its effect on neuroplasticity and recovery of respiratory and motor function. Gordon takes us on a conversational tour of his early, pre-clinical observations which led to him pioneering the development of a translational model for clinical research. That translational model has now been used in over 30 studies...

While I understand the variations in injury level and the subsequent secondary conditions to a degree that makes them clearly obvious, I also exist in my own apple, focused on the issues at my own core...

We have a great line-up of speakers, that include innovative labs asking hard questions (follow the money); young researchers who want to restore sexual pleasure for folks with SCI; and industry representatives from ONWARD and NervGen set to report on their latest clinical trials and potential therapies. And our agenda has been structured into...

There are only 4 days left to save nearly 30% off your registration to U2FP’s 19th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium. Our Early Bird discount deadline is this Friday, August 16th. Use these savings to...

Let’s look at Friday morning’s second session, entitled “3 Body Problem.” This session title refers to the eponymous science fiction TV series where passionate scientists join forces with creative government agents for an existentially entertaining showdown. U2FP has convened our own panel of three scientists (passionate to be sure) to consider the association between three interrelated human body characteristics: movement, sensation, and autonomic function. In balance, these features make for a...

There’s only a week and a half left to save big on U2FP’s Annual Symposium. Our Early Bird pricing - which saves you 30% off our regular registration fee - expires next Friday, August 16th. That means you have just under...

Today's guest is Dr. Elizabeth Bottorff, a postdoctoral researcher in the biomedical engineering department at the University of Minnesota who is studying sexuality after spinal cord injury. Elizabeth is conducting an add-on study to the ongoing EStand trial there. From the beginning of epidural stimulator research for spinal cord injury, there have been many reports of the recovery of sexual function. Her goal is to shift this anecdotal evidence into...

Jennifer Dulin, PhD, is a SCI researcher at Texas A&M. Dulin’s main interest of study is regeneration related to stem cells. That’s not what this presentation is about though. Instead, she will discuss preliminary data from a study she has undertaken – at the request of, and in collaboration with U2FP – to follow the money that's been invested in SCI research over the years. No one has ever sorted it out in an organized way. Where did the money go? Does the money follow research trends? Are funding priorities changing? Can we then answer the questions, what was...

My last note, Spinal Cord Injury is So Hot Right Now, mentioned a few things U2FP has accomplished. Over the coming months, I want to share about our growing education and advocacy programs, which fuel our mission of accelerating functional recovery research. In my early hospital days, and even during those inpatient and outpatient stays at a model system, I felt something was still missing. So did Jason Stoffer, our Curecast Podcast host and Cure Advocacy Network Manager. We first met at our in-patient stay back in November of 2017. Since both of us had backgrounds in emergency medicine and were athletes...

Find out about ways to collaborate with the SCI and Scientific communities as we work together to accelerate the development of curative therapies for those living with SCI. Sign up to attend U2FP's Symposium, which centers the voice and perspective of the SCI Community. You'll get educated on the latest in curative treatments and strategies. Hear directly from SCI community members and advocates about their goals, experience and priorities. Share your perspective and learn about novel strategies for restoring function and chat with the researchers who pioneered them.

Today’s episode is a brief primer on how this podcast got started and the kind of conversations you can expect here. You’ll learn about our hosts - Matthew Rodreick and Jason Stoffer – their relationship to SCI, why they do this work, what they hope this podcast can achieve and how this work is an extension of the...

Who are you in relation to spinal cord injury? Are you a scientist? A clinician? A biotech representative? A foundation funder? A government regulator? And - most importantly - do you live with this injury? I’m asking because your relationship to SCI determines how you view the problem of paralysis. Which is why I believe our upcoming...

There are over 300,000 people in the United States living with a spinal cord injury, with roughly 18,000 new injuries a year. U2FP has 2,500 subscribers to our newsletter, with roughly 62 monthly donors. I am aiming to raise our monthly donor-ship by another 40 of you lovely people by the end of 2024. So far this year, we’ve added...

You probably saw some recent spinal cord injury research news, impressive clinical trial results for hand and arm function in chronic cervical SCI using noninvasive, skin-surface stimulation. I might suggest this headline: Stim has arrived; SCI medicine enters new era. Spinal cord stimulation has been shown to work – it’s not ‘miraculous’ work, but there is a measurable benefit and users...

Today's episode is a conversation with Dave Marver, the CEO of the company, ONWARD Medical. No doubt you've heard of ONWARD. We discuss the recent news about their transcutaneous stimulation device - ARC-EX - and their effort to gain regulatory approval from the FDA, along with the results from their Up-LIFT Trial. You'll find links to the trial and related articles below to help understand more about the device and trial. We also follow up with some discussion about the other products they have in the pipeline, including...

U2FP’s Annual Symposium is approaching fast, happening in Atlanta, Georgia on September 27-28. I have written before about the importance of proximity as a grounding principle for our work, as well as its importance for understanding how we perceive our collective roles in the effort to deliver curative therapies for SCI. Why the focus on proximity? Because we care most about what we’re closest to and we see best what is closest to us. We will host eight sessions over the course of two days. Below you’ll find a summary of each session we’ve planned and the presenters we’ve confirmed so far. We will be...

We offer eligible SCI attendees the opportunity to apply for travel grants to our annual meeting. We know the financial barriers that exist for our community and want to give motivated SCI advocates every opportunity to enrich our Symposium through their presence and participation...

This week we are talking with Jake Beckstrom, who is U2FP’s Co-Manager of the Cure Advocacy Network along with our Wisconsin advocate Michael Moore. It's a great conversation where we talk about the drama that took place this year with our legislative work in Wisconsin. As a refresher, this past spring we were able to pass our $3M SCI Research bill through the Wisconsin Assembly, but we were...

What kind of limits do we set on our expectations? What can we accomplish with a team of ordinary, dedicated individuals? How wide is the divide between adaptation and physical recovery after SCI? These are the questions that Jason Stoffer and Quinn Brett will be...

We’re only a week away from our special screening of two short films about breaking barriers in the world of adaptive sports. Spots are filling up. Don’t wait...

Our guest today is Leann Rees. Leanne is a physical therapist with a PhD from Melbourne, Australia. She’s been in the business of rehab and reintegration for 30 years, 20 of which were spent in spinal cord injury. Leanne’s doctoral thesis examined many aspects and consequences of the media portrayal of spinal cord injury and that is what we’re talking today. This is a fascinating discussion about the historical and contemporary portrayals of SCI and how...

A few months ago, we kicked off a campaign to add 40 new monthly donors to our list of supporters. As the new development director, I wanted to lead by example, so I became the first new monthly donor of this new effort. I haven’t been alone - six new monthly donors have since joined us, helping to...

I know many of you read CureCast host and CAN Manager Jason Stoffer’s piece from late last year, Crossing the Vastness: An Adaptive Team’s Journey from Rim to Rim of the Grand Canyon. Indeed, it remains one of our most popular posts ever. In that piece, Jason (above left) tells the story of his journey with fellow U2FP colleague Quinn Brett (above right) and another para-athlete as they attempt to be the first-ever individuals to tackle the Grand Canyon on adaptive trikes. Well, their travel partner, Robbie Prechtl, was...

Last year’s inaugural poster session at our symposium in Minneapolis was such a success that we wanted to build on it this year. And thanks to the collaborative support of our title sponsor, The Emory Neurotrauma Translational Research Center (ENTiRe), we are excited to once again offer a poster session as part of the agenda at this year’s 19th Annual Symposium (September 27-28, 2024) at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. This year’s posters will be presented exclusively by...

Registration for U2FP’s Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium is officially open! Bring your point of view: We are all looking at the problem of spinal cord injury from our own unique perspective. Let’s listen and learn from each other so we can build a collaborative vision that helps bring recovery after SCI.

Where are we? Where have we been? Where are we going? And how do we get there together? These are the questions we’ll be asking at this year’s 19th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium, happening in Atlanta, Georgia on September 27-28, 2024 (registration opens this Friday, May 17th). But we are going to be asking these questions with the understanding that your point of view is a critical piece of the...

Today we’re talking with Dennis Bourbeau. Dennis is a highly regarded clinical and academic researcher in the area of bowel/bladder/and sexual function. Dr. Bourbeau gives us an update on his work, specifically in bladder control devices. We also discuss the critical importance of connecting with and understanding the patient population, the process of getting a device to the market, and...

Tell me you are paralyzed without telling me you're paralyzed. For those of us who work remotely, we all dip on and off camera during online meetings. For those of us who are paralyzed and work remotely, those off-camera moments often have to do with our secondary complications. One being our peeing problems. When you suffer from a spinal cord injury (SCI), managing all of the secondary issues that...

Preparations are in full swing for U2FP’s 19th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium, happening September 27 - 28, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. We’ve got an exciting agenda unfolding with our usual slate of top-tier scientists, clinicians, industry leaders, funders and advocates you’ll hear more about in the coming weeks. But first, we’re excited to announce that our room block at our conference hotel, the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, is finally open for reservations. Secure your spot at our conference hotel and lock in our...

U2FP is excited to announce a special screening of two new short documentaries that feature our own Jason Stoffer and Quinn Brett. Disabled Views (25 mins) charts the first-ever Rim-to-Rim ride through the Grand Canyon by disabled individuals on adaptive trikes; Power Moves (14 mins) follows Quinn Brett’s completion of the 3000+mile Divide Trail from the Canadian to Mexico border on a hand-cycle. Both films represent the grit and determination that exists within the SCI community...

Ever considered participating in an organized race but not been sure where to start? As a member of Team U2FP, you’ll have support from registration to race day...

Today we are talking to V. Reggie Edgerton, a Professor Emeritus of Nuerobiology at UCLA and co-founder of the spinal stimulation company, SpineX. Reggie Edgerton is a giant in the field of neuromodulation. Some have called him the father of spinal stimulation, and his influence can be found in the work of most researchers in that field today. Notable names such as Susan Harkema and Gregoire Courtine were actually students in Reggie’s lab before going on to...

Mayo Clinic recently published results of a 10-patient study using stem cells for chronic spinal cord injury. The cells are drawn from the stomach fat of each patient, processed, and injected into the spinal fluid. The so-called Celltop trial reported that 7 of 10 got a measurable return of sensory or motor function. Let’s break this down a little. First, it’s good news when...

Today we are celebrating our 100th episode of U2FP’s CureCast podcast! No guest would be more appropriate for that celebration than Kate Willette. Kate and Mathew started the podcast 6 years ago and she co-hosted the first 34 episodes. Kate also wrote the book “Don’t Call it a Miracle” which is required reading for anyone with a spinal cord injury. Kate was dragged into the world of advocacy when...

In this episode, you’ll hear from Physical Therapist, PhD and Researcher, Leanne Rees; Neuroscience student Jason Biundo; and Motivational speaker and Onward Marketing Consultant, Scott Chesney. We cover a variety of topics in this episode, among them: Leanne’s research on the media portrayal of SCI; how Jason’s climbing accident focused his interest in neuroscience to spinal cord injury research translation; and Scott’s wisdom from 38 years of lived experience with an SCI. In the way of topic warning, we do briefly discuss...

Let’s check in on the news about Neuralink, the Elon Musk startup. Hard to miss the coverage that the company recently implanted one of its devices in the brain of a guy with quadriplegia. At first all we had to go on was a single Musk tweet announcing the first human implant – purposely obscure, with no details, no facility or clinician named. There wasn’t even a...

Registration is now open for another Team U2FP race event - the Medtronic Twin Cities in Motion Marathon & 10-mile races! Help U2FP advance curative interventions for the SCI Community by competing in either the marathon or 10-mile races! This year’s events are scheduled for...

I needed a few days of reflection before I wrote this update to all of you. If I had written down how I was feeling too soon after getting back from Madison last week, I’m afraid I would’ve said some things that I might want to take back later...

You might be wondering why we are interviewing the founder of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, Fran Visco. As many of you know, we in the SCI community always hear the money refrain: that what we really need is “more money, more money, more money.” Well, cancer receives a lot more money than spinal cord injury, obviously. But what’s fascinating...

I arrived in Madison, Wisconsin last night and am preparing to join our advocates in the halls of the Capitol this morning. Thanks to some stellar intel work by our staff along with wheels-on-the-ground recon last week by long-time WI CAN colleague, John Martinson, we have identified the specific Senators who...

The next step is for the bill to get passed on the Senate floor. We thought this would be an easier task, now that the Assembly has passed the bill. But like every step of our advocacy work in Wisconsin thus far, it's going to take more effort than we had hoped...

Working with their colleagues at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, UCLA and Harvard, Anderson and Squair took on one of the holy grail challenges of SCI research: repairing an anatomically complete injury. They report substantial recovery of walking function in 27 of 30 animals, using a complicated series of steps to mimic...

Today we are talking with Jordan Squair and Mark Anderson about their September 2023 paper published in the journal Science: “Recovery of walking after paralysis by regenerating characterized neurons to their natural target region”. The work is akin to the first gardeners figuring out how to make plants grow. What elements are necessary? What combination of...

Hounding the internet, I found Unite 2 Fight Paralysis (U2FP) and latched onto their CureCast podcast, read the SCI research primer they recommended, “Don’t Call it a Miracle” by Kate Willette, and then cold-called the new Executive Director, Matthew Rodreick. I had so many questions: Why aren’t we making any progress? Why doesn’t it seem like my new community is advocating very loudly? How can I become a part of this movement for curative therapies U2FP keeps talking so pragmatically and knowledgeably about? Matthew spent over an hour with me on that first call. I was impressed that...

It's happening! Earlier this week, WI Assembly Speaker Robin Vos heard our community’s appeals and referred our SCI Research Grant Bill AB19 onto the Assembly floor for a vote. Late last night, just before midnight (with reports from John Martinson up in the gallery), we watched our bill receive a near unanimous vote of support after a beautiful speech by Rep. Jimmy Anderson, who has a spinal cord injury and has worked with us from...

Legislative politics often moves way too slow. But sometimes, miraculously, everything can change in a single day. That’s what’s happening in Wisconsin right now, thanks to your ongoing attention and pressure. Just yesterday, we got word that our bill is close to a final vote without being scheduled by the JFC (where it is still being held up by Rep. Mark Born). Turns out that the Assembly Speaker, Robin Vos, can introduce our bill through a little-known...

Today we’re talking with Dr. Kajana Satkunendrarajah. Kajana is an associate professor and researcher at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She is also an ally of our legislative efforts in Wisconsin to pass an SCI Research Grant bill there. We discuss Dr. Satkunendrarajah’s NIH R01 grant submission to study her lab's recent discovery of cervical level neurons connected to...

With less than two weeks left in the 2023-24 Wisconsin legislative session (Feb. 22nd tentative deadline), our efforts to pass an SCI Research Grant bill (AB19/SB27) in the Badger State are coming down to the wire. Since we began our advocacy work in Wisconsin in 2018, this is the farthest our bill has made it through the legislative process. Right now, we only have one more hurdle to overcome: for the bill to be put on the Joint Finance Committee’s schedule and receive...

Despite Unite 2 Fight Paralysis being laser focused on getting curative therapies to our SCI community, it’s important to acknowledge that accessibility concerns often interfere with our ability to pursue our mission. Case in point: the conference hotels for our annual symposium. Every year at our annual symposium, no matter what hotel we choose for our conference, we run into the same problem: too few accessible rooms. And when I say ‘too few’ that is being nice. The average is...

Today's conversation features my co-host Jason Stoffer, our new development director, Quinn Brett, and their adventure buddy and filmmaker Robbie Prechtl. Last year, Jason and Quinn completed a rim to rim trip of the Grand Canyon on handcycles(!). They were accompanied by Rob and a team of friends who came along for the adventure and to provide assistance. In case you don’t know, doing a rim to rim journey through the Grand Canyon means descending down to...

U2FP’s Ohio Cure Advocacy Network (CAN) recently helped award nearly $3 million in grants to seven projects focused on spinal cord injury research. Back in 2019, Ohio SCI community members Ian Burkhart, Allie Leatherman, Peter Nowell, Jeni Belt, Donna Sullivan, Jeremy Bigelow and David Casares came together with U2FP and successfully passed this $1.5M per fiscal year legislation. As with all U2FP CAN legislation, the law funds functional recovery research, chosen by a lived-experience review board...

Today's episode is a brief collection of micro-interviews that we conducted during our 2023 Science & Advocacy Symposium here in Minneapolis. During this two day event our podcast producer Julie and my co-host Jason set up a podcast booth and interviewed whoever wanted to come and talk about the symposium, talk about themselves, and talk about their position relative to the...

Over the holidays, I was gifted a wonderful reminder of the realities of living with a spinal cord injury. With it came the anxiety and the shortness of breath that accompanies the realization that I am a prisoner to this condition. There is no escape and there is (currently) no cure. I was also reminded that, although it is imperative that I pursue a fulfilling life with what remains, no change will be made if I don't embrace and voice my utter dissatisfaction with the progress of cure research. Trigger warning: blood and gore ahead. I am a paraplegic at L1. I cannot void my bladder on my own and I rely on...

Mark your calendars: U2FP's 19th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium will take place on September 27 - 28, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia. We're especially grateful to...

Today we are speaking with Dimitry Sayenko. Dimitry is an MD, PhD and an associate professor in Neuromodulation and Nuerosurgery at Houston Methodist Hospital, in Houston, Texas. Our conversation starts off with an exploration of Dimitry’s fascinating beginnings, studying muscle atrophy and bone density in the context of aerospace in both Russia and the U.S. We also talk about his current work studying transcutaneous electrical stimulation and...

As 2024 gets under way, many of you know someone who has resolved to run or wheel in a marathon this year. Or maybe you’ve made a commitment to completing a marathon this year - whether for the first time or the tenth time. Either way, consider joining Team U2FP for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. As an official charity partner of this world-class event, we’re able to offer racers guaranteed admission and even reimburse their...

Here’s a look back at spinal cord injury research studies published in 2023. I selected a few of my favorites from this past year. Then, to make this more expansive, I invited members of the U2FP Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) to pick a paper or two that caught their interest. This compilation is not ranked or scored, it’s not meant to be comprehensive or all-inclusive. I’ll go first, followed by the SAB – Moses Chao, Paul Lu, John Houle and Keith Tansey. l also added a paper picked by...

I wanted to let you know that we've just made available all the presentations from this year's 18th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This means that even if you couldn’t attend this year’s gathering of the SCI and Scientific Communities, you can now view it all by going to...

I was thinking about Bran (a character with a SCI from the popular Game of Thrones tv show) as I drove to Madison a couple weeks ago for another trip to the Wisconsin Capitol with our advocates. We had booked a new round of meetings with Assembly and Senate leadership to once again tell our stories, in the hopes that it will keep our bill top of mind and provoke legislators to move on our behalf. Though I know it was strategically smart for us to do this, I must admit, I didn’t want to go...

We at Unite 2 Fight Paralysis wish you much joy during this holiday season, however you celebrate. As always, we are enormously grateful for your...

As 2023 draws to a close, many of our supporters are planning their year-end charitable contributions. I wanted to make our SCI community aware of some incentives that can help you maximize your gift. Take a look at these giving options as you consider supporting U2FP's important work. Charitable Deduction Limits: The limit for cash donations in 2023 is...

Today’s conversation is a highly anticipated one. For years we’ve been hearing about the groundbreaking work of Jerry Silver to render the injury scar permeable to axon growth. That work led to development of the pharmacologic NVG-291 and the associated company NervGen Pharma. The research has finally advanced to a human SCI clinical trial, led by Monica Perez, PT, PhD, who's today's guest. Dr. Perez is the...

Back in early October of this year, I joined my fellow paraplegic adventure companion and U2FP colleague, Quinn Brett, along with some other great friends, in an attempt to traverse the Grand Canyon, rim to rim to rim (R2R2R). This is a bucket list item for many distance runners and a feat that Quinn herself had completed prior to her injury. This time we would attempt to do it on handcycles. Almost every year since we met at Craig Hospital, where we were recovering after our injuries, Quinn and I have done something physically challenging together. We do it as a reminder that we are...

The words chronic and clinical trial are seldom paired in a pharmacologic/regenerative SCI study. This trial is a rarity, so interest is expected to be strong. But meeting the trial requirements and actually being enrolled, that’s the challenge. The chronic part of the trial began in September with a plan to enroll 20 patients. (Recruitment for the subacute phase hasn’t started but will include 20 newly injured participants -- 10 days to 49 days post injury). As with any clinical study, the NVG-291 trial has inclusion and exclusion criteria. To be eligible here, one must be an...

Registration has opened for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon 2024. Last year's race garnered attention around the world as Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum set a new marathon record at 2:00:35 - nearly 34 seconds faster than the previous record! You could be part of history again this year when you sign up to race with Team U2FP, an official charity partner of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. We're building our...

As a professional climber, I was writing grants and being awarded tens of thousands of dollars in funding for myself and my team members to go on far-fetched excursions around the world, from Greenland to Madagascar, Southern Patagonia to the Baffin Islands. Then, in 2017, I fell rock climbing El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, sustaining a T12 burst fracture resulting in an ASIA A spinal cord injury. In my initial hospital days, I found myself...

Today we’re talking with Ceren Yarar-Fisher, PhD, PT. Dr. Yarar-Fisher is Vice Chair of Research of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in the Dept. of Neuroscience at The Ohio State University. She’s also the director of clinical research at the Belford Center for Spinal Cord Injury. In this episode, we start off exploring the unique origins of Ceren’s interest in science and later spinal cord injury. We also talk about her research interest in SCI functional recovery through rehabilitation and nutrition, her role at the multi-disciplinary...

I’m writing this letter from the Wisconsin capitol in Madison. It is still early November. I’m here with our CAN advocates to make a final push to pass our $3M SCI Research Grant bill this session. By the time you read this letter, we’ll all know whether or not we succeeded (see my post script below). Why am I sharing this uncertain moment with you? Because it exemplifies two important pillars of how U2FP works: proximity and tension. These are our guiding principles, our means and ends. Let me explain. We’re at the capitol to...

Your ongoing investment is making an impact. To date, Unite 2 Fight Paralysis has helped deliver meaningful interventions to restore function in over 200 persons with a spinal cord injury. And that’s just our Cure Advocacy Network program. We’re placing individuals with an injury into...

Like so many people here in the U.S., U2FP is pausing this week to take stock of all we are grateful for. Over and over, the word ‘community’ comes to mind for me. The concept of community is central for U2FP. We use it frequently when talking about those who make up the ranks of spinal cord injured individuals, along with their families and loved ones who help them navigate life after SCI. This is intentional. Without a sense of

Our guest today is Meghan Moynihan. Megan is the Executive Director of the Institute for Functional Restoration, or IFR, a not-for-profit organization based at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. The IFR seeks to further functional recovery in spinal cord injury by developing commercial strategies to get that research to market. We discuss Megan's background as a researcher and her unique perspective based on 17 years with the Food and Drug Administration along with her current work as executive director of the IFR. It is an illuminating discussion on the so-called valleys of death that any therapy must survive to...

My sense is that our cause is getting lost in the current drama of Wisconsin’s higher profile partisan fights. Our bill is bipartisan, and widely supported, and so it’s being taken for granted and put on the back burner with key legislators and their aides. Like so many other areas of life with an SCI, once again we’re being told to wait. We’re being told to just be patient. Well, I’m impatient when it comes to potential recovery for my son and the rest of our community. We’re running out of time. And that’s where you come in...

U2FP's Annual Symposium is filled with exceptional individuals from all backgrounds, both onstage and off. Our meeting would not happen without a small army of volunteers, which is another feature of our collectivist approach. While we are grateful to all of our event volunteers, we thought one deserved a little extra light this year, since his work with the SCI community in Minnesota has been so important, but could be easily overlooked: Kurt Wiger...

Our conversation today is with David McMillan, an assistant professor at the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, Department of Neurological Surgery, and Director of Education and Outreach for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. Jason and Julie recorded this interview with David onsite at this year's Science and Advocacy Symposium in Minneapolis, where we had a podcast booth set up. The conversation is more casual than our usual ones and is completely unscripted. David was walking by and Jason pulled him in to chat about his connection to spinal cord injury, the work that he does at the Miami Project and his thoughts on...

I am writing to you today, as someone who has been fighting for this bill for the last 5+ years, to ask for your help in getting this bill through the last hoop.

As many of you know, our Cure Advocacy Network has been working hard in Wisconsin to pass a $3M SCI Research Grant Bill this year. It has been a long and difficult, but successful journey, passing through committees, gaining legislative friends, we even made the news! We were set up for success, with the only hoop remaining to get a floor vote for passage, until some big political distractions entered the picture. Now, we are in the precarious position of being...

Today’s episode is a bit different. We’re turning the mic towards our own work here at U2FP to let you in on what’s cooking. Jason and Matthew begin by discussing some unique developments with our...

In just over a week, U2FP’s 18th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium will kick off at the Minneapolis Hilton (Friday, October 20 & Saturday, October 21, 2023). While we are excited to see so many of you here in Minneapolis next week, we know that not everyone is able to make a trip like this - especially many in the SCI community. Which is why we will once again have a livestream option. Livestream attendees will be able to...

And as I mentioned last week, we’ll also be showcasing work from our featured artist, Lynne DeNio, whose husband has a spinal cord injury. These original, mixed media pieces will be on display for conference attendees to view. Additionally, we will have a limited number of 11x17 prints from this series available for sale. We were so moved by Lynne’s work that we also decided to feature it in this year’s conference program, which you can now download and view below...

U2FP has a special relationship with artists. From our long-time collaboration with filmmaker Kelsey Peterson, to our 2020 Symposium featuring 6 visual artists with an SCI, to my own son Gabriel, who’s a musician and whose 2019 performance piece, A Cripple’s Dance, made the particular universal by asking the (mostly) able-bodied audience, “How are you crippled?” U2FP is fortunate and greatly honored to be partnering with artist Lynne DeNio this year, who generously donated 16 of her mixed media works to be

Today’s episode is a bit different. We’re turning the mic towards our own work here at U2FP to let you in on what’s cooking. Jason and Matthew begin by discussing some unique developments with our Team U2FP racers involving extreme heat, adaptive trikes, and a trek along the rim of the Grand Canyon(!). We also discuss U2FP’s upcoming symposium, including how we designed the spinal stim panel, our focus on approaches that combine more than one...

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...

U2FP's Annual Symposium offers a wonderful opportunity to listen to one another, and then share your experience and thoughts on SCI research strategies. This exchange is key to aligning our goals and priorities. As we do every year, we hope to provoke some rich discussions around themes we believe are important to the community. We will host a breakout session Saturday afternoon on three main discussion points...

What follows is the final summary report from the Food & Drug Administration's (FDA) Listening Session which was organized by U2FP. The below report has been officially approved by the Patient Affairs Group at the FDA.

Opening Remarks: Description of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) as a Multi-System Condition

SCI is a multi-system condition with a population of patients that exhibit a heterogeneous set of symptoms and secondary complications. It is not well served by traditional clinical trial designs with only one or two clearly defined...

There are only 4 days left to save nearly 30% off your registration to U2FP’s 18th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium. Our Early Bird discount deadline is this Friday, September 8th. Use these savings to offset your travel expenses and secure your spot among an all-star roster of scientists, clinicians, companies and community advocates leading the way towards...

Today's guest is Dr. Kim Anderson-Erisman, a friend and a very influential researcher who we have a really great conversation with. We begin with the story of her spinal cord injury along with her early studies and research, and that leads into one of the things she’s best known for: her work on patient preference as a result of directly surveying the spinal cord injury community. Finally, we explore how this...

As summer begins to wind down, so does the opportunity to save big on U2FP’s Annual Symposium. Our Early Bird pricing - which saves you 30% off our regular registration fee - expires on Friday, September 8th. That means you have just under two weeks to reserve your spot at the lowest possible...

One of the primary goals at our Annual Symposium is to maximize the number of individuals in attendance with a spinal cord injury. There are few things more satisfying than seeing a room full of the leading SCI scientists engaging meaningfully with a room full of SCI individuals and their family members. To my knowledge, we are one of the only conferences that centers this sort of educational relationship building. But we know the significant barriers that folks with an injury face when they travel. We know it first hand because...

Today, our guest is Louise Phipps Senft. Louise is the mother to a son with an SCI, and founder of Blink of an Eye, a nonprofit organization that is committed to addressing that initial moment when everything changes after a spinal cord injury. A big theme of this conversation is trauma. And one of the things that arises in our dialogue with Louise is how this emotional trauma kind of goes under or undiagnosed – both with the injured person AND with the family and the extended community. Louise is an extraordinary person who will tell us a bit about the story of her family and how...

Do you know anyone who has participated in a trial using transcutaneous or epidural stimulation? At this year’s symposium, we have once again put together a panel of individuals who have had a spinal cord stimulator implanted. We think it's critical to hear directly and honestly from our community about their experiences. So, we will have a group of SCI folks who have either participated in trials and/or have been implanted clinically with these devices seeking to restore function. We will be...

What you are about to hear is one of the richest conversations we’ve ever had on the show. Our guests today are Gabriel Rodreick (Matthew’s son) and Julie Censullo (CureCast producer) who are here to discuss an audio-art project they created together called “Life Begins in the Stillness” - which we play at the top of the episode. We then dive into their relationship with spinal cord injury, with each other, with art and with the creative process. This conversation goes deep into the ripple effects of SCI beyond the injured individual; how it slams headlong into our families and friends; and how Gabe’s injury propelled...

Rumors of improved function while using psychedelics have circulated the last few years, notably with wilderness photographer Jim Harris, who was recently profiled in Outside magazine. We interviewed Jim in Episode 70 of our CureCast podcast - which was a fan favorite. But, as usual, we dug into the science first, talking with an SCI and Bioinformatics researcher at the University of Minnesota, Jessica Nielson (Episode 69). We’re bringing Dr. Nielson back - this time as a presenter at our Annual Symposium - to talk about her exploration into the current and potential use of psychedelics in the SCI population and whether or not they might be useful in combination with other therapies, like regenerative medicine and...

Memo to FDA from people living with spinal cord injuries: We respect your process for keeping a tight gate on safety and efficacy for new therapies and devices. Heed our voice: there is urgency. Please accelerate translation from research to clinic. And consider spinal cord injury not as a massive movement disorder or set of isolated conditions but as a whole-body disease state. Unite 2 Fight Paralysis has participated in two recent meetings with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The regulatory agency is being urged to...

What has changed in acute SCI care over the last 5 years? What progress are we making? Are newly injured folks getting the same message co-host Jason Stoffer got from his clinicians 5 years ago? We asked today’s guests - Shekar Kurpad & Candy Tefertiller - to give us some high level answers to those questions...

Right now is a great time to maximize your savings for U2FP’s 18th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium, happening on October 20 - 21, 2023 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind gathering that centers the voice and perspective of the SCI Community. Worried about travel expenses? Consider applying for a Travel Grant, which we offer to individuals with paralysis in need of...

That walk down memory lane got me thinking about the critical importance of connection, relationships and conversations: key drivers behind our annual symposiums. U2FP works hard to be a connector across the SCI landscape, looking to bring our SCI folks into the center of the conversation. The SCI community’s input is critical to help make curative therapies smarter, more efficient and translatable (ie, where is this research going? and what does it mean for people who live with the injury?).

What if we could take all the neural trash that forms in the spinal cord after an injury, the stuff that hinders connectivity, and turn it into treasure? This is the idea behind cellular reprogramming. Today's podcast guest, Dr. Arshak Alexanian, is a biochemist and the Chief Scientific Officer at the Wisconsin biotech firm, Cell Reprogramming & Therapuetics, LLC. We met Dr. Alexanian not too long ago while advocating for our $3M SCI Research Grant bill in the Wisconsin legislature. Dr. Alexanian believes so strongly in the possibility of cellular reprogramming that he took the leap out of academia and into private business to help make it happen.

We needed boots on the ground. So I volunteered to step out from behind my usual role here as Content Manager, and put on an advocacy hat. I drafted my 11-year-old daughter, Ruby, to come with me for two days of legislative door knocking and strategy meetings. I figured it was a good opportunity to educate her on the democratic process, and utilize her sullen, pre-teen intimidation tactics for our advantage. She vowed

Today's guest on the podcast is Kim Eisner, the executive director of the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation. This year happens to be the Neilsen Foundation’s 20th anniversary. For those who are unfamiliar with the Foundation, its namesake Craig H. Neilsen, was an entrepreneur who sustained a spinal cord injury in 1985 and formed the foundation in 2002. This was an attempt to catalyze research and support for people living with a spinal cord injury. In the last 20 years, The Neilsen Foundation has contributed almost $360,000,000 to both research and nonprofit organizations serving people with spinal cord injuries. Given this milestone, we wanted to...

This week, U2FP’s superstar CAN advocate, Sam Troyer, was featured in a local news piece on Milwaukee’s ABC affiliate WISN 12. The story just became available online last night - take a minute and check it out. Then, amplify the impact of this story by contacting the chairs of the Joint Finance Committee, which is meeting today to decide the fate of our bill...

Have you ever wondered what it feels like to participate in an SCI clinical research trial? How do you find out about these trials? Does anyone make a recovery? What are some reasons that you might take the leap - or not? On today’s podcast, you’ll get some answers to these questions and many more. Our guests, Mandy Mackenzie and Laura Grabowski, have each participated in a number of clinical trials and we’ve put them in the hot seat to give you..

Our campaign to pass a $3M SCI Research Grant bill in the Wisconsin legislature is looking good. Several of our advocates were interviewed by Milwaukee local news outlet WISN 12 in Wisconsin last week (we’ll let you know when it airs). Additionally, we keep getting positive feedback from...

Registration for U2FP’s Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium is officially open! This year’s event will take place at the Minneapolis Hilton Hotel, on October 20-21, 2023. Secure your spot at this one-of-a-kind gathering of the...

This is just a quick note to remind you that registration for this year’s 18th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium opens tomorrow, Friday, June 2nd! Don’t wait, register tomorrow and take advantage of the following incentives...

At least once a year Gregoire Courtine’s spinal cord stimulation lab in Switzerland publishes a research study; well-written, solidly scientific, beautiful multimedia presentations, they always seem to wind up in the top journal Nature. They’re always news desk catnip and the headlines are always the same: “paralyzed man walks.” This past week Courtine’s group published another paper in Nature, “Walking naturally after spinal cord injury using a brain–spine interface.” I urge you to...

At this year’s 18th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium our unofficial theme is going to be ‘A Celebration of Advocacy’. I say ‘unofficial’ because I feel like we try to celebrate advocacy every year at our conference. This year, though, we want to be even more intentional about incorporating the advocacy experience - both its successes and

Today’s episode is a rebroadcast of our conversation with Grégoire Courtine from two years ago. Dr. Courtine has been pivotal in the successful application of epidural stimulation in humans with SCI, in both his research and device commercialization. In this episode, we talk about Dr. Courtine’s motivation to study spinal cord injury and epidural stimulation in particular. We discuss the translation of his early rodent model research into humans and the mechanism of the therapy, such as...

Last October, I wrapped up my third season of serving as consumer reviewer for the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP), Spinal Cord Injury Research Program (SCIRP), also referred to as “DoD” because the Department of Defense is tasked with managing the program. The work I do with SCIRP is one of the most impactful things I do as an SCI advocate. As a consumer reviewer, my job is to review research proposals and assess their...

This year, we’re excited about a friendly marathon competition between two people close to U2FP’s heart: Jake Anderson and Jordan Bolton. Jake has been wheeling for Team U2FP for years, with an amazing group of family and friends cheering him on and helping him train each year. Jordan is U2FP’s Social Media Strategist, athlete and fitness enthusiast.

Today our guest is Dan Hellenbrand, a renaissance man of sorts. Dan sustained a cervical injury (C5-6) as a carpenter back in 2003 and eventually ended up going back to school to become a SCI researcher, as well as an advocate for curative therapies. We have an interesting conversation about early physical therapy, the role of belief and competition with yourself and how that...

Science Writer Sam Maddox explains a recent paper from Samuel Stupp's lab at Northwestern University. In this work, Stupp combined his "dancing molecules" with a type of stem cell made by genetically reverse-programming a human skin cell to become a neuron- an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC). 

The North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium (NASCIC) has developed a free online course to increase knowledge of the research process. This is so that individuals with SCI and caregivers feel prepared to serve as research advocates and that SCI researchers and healthcare providers are better able to effectively partner with the SCI community.  

Today's conversation is a rebroadcast of our interview with Samuel Stupp back in 2022. We thought it was a good time to revisit this conversation, given Dr. Stupp’s most recent publication, which you can learn more about below in the summary review done by U2FP’s science writer, Sam Maddox. During the course of this conversation, we dig into Dr. Stupp’s unique approach as an...

A little over a month ago, we launched a monthly donor campaign in hopes of adding 35 new monthly donors. In that kickoff message, I tried to lay out our current vision and how we don’t want to stall on our current growth trajectory. Our longtime supporters know that we launched a similar campaign back in 2019. In the short video below, I chat with U2FP’s content manager, Ryan Romine, about why we

Today’s episode revisits important elements and loose ends of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) that didn’t fit neatly into the arc of our first three conversations on this topic. We’re calling this installment the ‘Junk Drawer’ - not because we consider these loose ends to be junk, but because they represent...

This Friday, March 31st is the deadline to sign up with Team U2FP for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. Don’t miss out on your opportunity to receive a guaranteed spot as a runner or wheeler in this world-class racing event. When you join Team U2FP, your fundraising efforts will support U2FP’s important work, especially our Cure Advocacy Network...

Our Wisconsin CAN advocates continue to rack up the wins! Early this week we got word that the Senate Health Committee voted in favor of our SCI Research Grant Bill (SB27) with a 5 to 1 vote of approval! Compounding this good news is the positive impact this process is having on...

Today we talk with Bill Murphy, a bioengineer out of the University of Wisconsin Madison. We recently met Dr. Murphy when he came to the Wisconsin Capitol in support of our $3M SCI Research Grant bill back in January. Bill’s team has been working on developing biomaterials to improve the body’s ability to receive and utilize Chondroitinase ABC (ChABC). ChABC is an enzyme that holds lots of promise for...

There is definite momentum behind our $3M SCI Research Grant bill in Wisconsin - thanks to so many of you! Just two weeks after having our bill heard in the Senate Health Committee, we now have another hearing in the Wisconsin Assembly this Thursday, Mar 16, 2023 at 10AM central time. I know these messages can seem repetitive and feel a tad spammy with their continued appeal for you to contact legislators. But I can’t stress enough how much they...

We’ve been busy building our agenda for this year’s 18th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium. I wanted to give you a quick update and provide you with the latest details below, so you can start making plans for this one-of-a-kind gathering of the SCI and Scientific Communities. Check out our diverse list of confirmed speakers and panelists so far, representing a wide array of...

This is the third and final (for now) installment of our 101 tour of spinal stimulation. We're joined again by Sam Maddox, U2FP's Scientific Advisory Board Director and veteran science journalist. Today, we discuss the commercialization of spinal stim, detailing the path that these therapies will need to traverse to arrive at the market. We talk about how labs and businesses are organized and review some of the challenges they face, including...

Tomorrow morning, Dr. Murray Blackmore, Mike Mohr and Dan Hellenbrand will testify in support of our $3M SCI Research Grant Bill (SB27) before the Wisconsin Senate Committee on Health. Dr. Blackmore's mother suffered from a spinal cord injury, while both Mike and Dan both live with the injury. Dan Hellenbrand (pictured above, left) is also a research specialist at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. Dan joined us at the Capitol last month and was able to...

Good news - our $3M SCI Research Grant bill (SB27) has been given a hearing in the Wisconsin Senate Committee on Health this Wednesday, March 1st! Senate Committee members will hear testimony in support of our bill and vote on whether or not it moves forward. Please contact these 3 Senators today and ask them to...

That phrase in the subject line - ‘work smarter’ - isn’t our official vision, of course. And it doesn’t come from me. It’s actually an affectionate tag that one of our monthly donors, Chris Barr, uses to describe our work. (You might remember Chris for his 15 minutes of fame on Good Morning America a few years back). Chris and all of our donors - especially our monthly donors - are a big reason why U2FP is positioned so well these days. I wanted to take a moment and bring you up to speed on where U2FP has been, where we are now, and where we hope to go in the...

When you join Team U2FP, your fundraising efforts will support the work of our Cure Advocacy Network, helping advocates to pass legislative funding bills for SCI research in their home states. This is the real impact our racers have...

We’re continuing our conversation around spinal cord stimulation in part 2 of this multi-episode series with Sam Maddox, a long-time SCI science writer and U2FP’s Scientific Advisory Board Director. Today we’re going to focus on what’s happening currently with some spinal stimulation researchers, what clinical outcomes they are targeting, how they are connected to each other and how their approaches differ. Additionally, you’ll hear Matthew and Sam share the insight they gained from...

U2FP’s Wisconsin CAN advocates kicked off the new year with a blitz of meetings in the state capitol last month. The results are galvanizing: we now have 33 co-sponsors - 25 representatives (a quarter of the entire Assembly!) and 8 Senators - who have signed on in support of our $3M SCI Research Grant Bill. The bill has been officially introduced in both the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate. Finally, our bill has already been...

Jason and Matthew talk with U2FP Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) Director and Science Writer, Sam Maddox in the first part of our series on Spinal Stimulation. We’ve been thinking about the need for a discussion on what spinal stimulation is, why it's been studied so extensively, who are the influential scientists and players in the space, the trajectory of where and how it started as an exploration for restoring function in SCI, and - most importantly...

This past month, U2FP’s Executive Director Matthew Rodreick sat down with David Stevens, host of the Spinal Cast podcast, which is presented by the Morton Cure Paralysis Fund. In their conversation, you can hear Matthew discuss the origins behind his involvement with U2FP, starting with his son Gabriel’s spinal cord injury. They talk in depth about...

Preparations are in full swing for U2FP’s 18th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium, happening October 20 - 21, 2023 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We’ve already begun planning our agenda, and will have announcements about confirmed presenters and panelists over the next few months. Today, we’re excited to announce that our room block at our conference hotel, the Hilton Minneapolis, is open for reservations. Secure your spot at our conference hotel and secure our special group rate. Don’t wait...

Jason and Matthew interview Jim Harris, a wilderness photographer who was injured in 2014. Jim was recently featured in Outside Magazine regarding his experience with psilocybin and its connection to some restored mobility. This conversation is a follow-up to our previous podcast with Dr. Jessica Nielson on the potential use of psilocybin after SCI. However, in this episode, we specifically focus on one of our community member's direct experience with...

Our CAN advocates are making what they hope will be their final push to pass a $3M SCI Research Grant Bill in Wisconsin (they've been working for 4 years there). They were at the Capitol in Madison last week making connections with more lawmakers who are vowing to support an SCI research bill this legislative session. This work would not be possible without our Team U2FP racers, who raise funds as they train for their races.

We secured another legislator’s support for our $3M SCI Research Grant Bill yesterday! After meeting with Matthew Rodreick, Jason Stoffer, and WI CAN Advocate John Martinson, Representative Rob Summerfield (R - Bloomer) agreed to co-sponsor our Bill. Rep. Summerfield is the Majority Caucus Chair, as well as a member of the Committee on Health, where it is looking likely our Bill will be assigned after it is...

Yesterday we kicked off our first day of legislator meetings, advocating for our $3M SCI Research Grant bill here in Wisconsin. We ended the day with a meaningful evening of strategizing and communal sharing. Today we’re back at the Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, meeting with legislators and pressing our case for lawmakers to pass our $3M SCI Research Grant Bill...

Matthew Rodreick drove into Madison yesterday afternoon. Jason Stoffer flew into the Wisconsin capitol from Montana last night. Jake Beckstrom has been fine-tuning our 3-day legislator blitz and meeting schedule for weeks. Die-hard Wisconsin CAN advocate John Martinson arrived at the capitol this morning. And Samantha Troyer - another warrior for functional recovery - will arrive at the people’s house this week as well. Many others from the SCI Community plan to...

Medical devices offer life changing benefits for thousands of patients. What happens when companies go broke and no longer supply parts, software or tech support? Customers are high and dry, left to MacGyver tech on their own, or hope the bones of their device maker gets new life in a merger or reboot. They may also be left to wonder if their dead device will require expensive, risky uprooting...

As I’ve said recently, I’m extremely proud of the community-minded leadership our board and staff consistently demonstrate. Because the majority of them are impacted directly by this injury, they feel the urgency of finding curative interventions on the deepest possible level. I’m happy with all we’ve been able to accomplish this year, but it’s not enough. There’s more work to do. And we can't do it without you...

Mark your calendars: U2FP's 18th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium will take place on October 20 - 21, 2023, here in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And we're especially grateful to this year's title sponsor, The University of Minnesota Medical School's Department of Rehabilitation Medicine! We'll have more details coming...

We've just made available all the presentations from this year's 17th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium in Salt Lake City, Utah. This means that even if you couldn’t attend this year’s gathering of the SCI and Scientific Communities, you can now view it all by going to the Video Library section of our website and/or our YouTube playlist. This year’s symposium was divided into multiple sessions, broken out over two days of presentations and interactive...

And it's a power that our partners and collaborators need from us. It might sometimes split or interrupt the celebrations of the day, not unlike all the Christmas days I spent in a busy ER. But like that, the interruption comes with an invaluable experience of spinal cord injury that must be shared for our good and for the good of our larger partner family.

In our most recent collaborative endeavor, though, we did find the money for a cool study, one we helped design. This is a perfect example of U2FP working off-stage, and seizing opportunity: We created a unique multidisciplinary research study combining a nerve growth drug and epidural stimulation in a large animal model targeting chronic spinal cord injury.

In 2017, I suffered a spinal cord injury and entered a new world. Connecting with Unite 2 Fight Paralysis has had a positive impact on my new life. U2FP’s work educating and creating awareness about all aspects of spinal cord injury, not just the loss of leg or hand movement, resonated with me. This injury is so nuanced from person to person, but is also vastly misunderstood and misrepresented in our culture.

The research of psychedelics as a therapeutic for anxiety, depression, and PTSD has gained a lot of traction over the last decade. Given their potent effects on the nervous system, what are the unique benefits and possible side effects of psychedelics for the SCI population? And further, what is their potential to elicit functional recovery? If you ask the community, it doesn’t take long to find anecdotal evidence that the benefits go beyond just the psychological realm. Read Jim Harris’ account in Outside Magazine, as an example. In this episode, Matthew and Jason speak with Jessica Nielson to explore the potential psychedelics may hold for the SCI community...

Since the midterm elections, we’re back in full swing in Wisconsin and have confirmed the support of even more legislators, with several of them volunteering to sign on as co-sponsors of our bill, which is slated to be introduced again in January. We also have a good chance of making it into the Governor’s budget in February. This means we have two separate, possible paths to success! U2FP’s Cure Advocacy Network does more than just send state dollars to SCI researchers. It puts the SCI community at the decision-making table, allowing those who are injured to serve on the advisory boards that prioritize what projects get funded. And as our network of state legislative funding grows....

There’s wind in the sails of neuromodulation. It’s not news that a few dozen people with spinal cord injuries have gotten stimulator implants, in clinical trials and more recently in a Minneapolis clinic. Nearly all of them report meaningful recovery. So here’s today’s stitch: pull any thread of this story, and it always comes back to U2FP. Try it. We are in this recovery of function business at a very deep level...

Team U2FP is building its roster for next year - and we're looking for runners and wheelers to join our ranks for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon 2023. Please consider joining us. Then share this opportunity on your social media channels, with your friends and family, along with those in your work and faith communities. Training for a marathon while helping to advance curative therapies for those with an SCI is a great way to kick off the New Year!

As 2022 draws to a close, many of our supporters are planning for their year-end charitable contributions. I wanted to make our SCI Community aware of some incentives that can help you maximize your gift. Take a look at these giving options as you consider supporting...

We know that the work isn’t done, though. Epidural stimulation is likely just one piece in a broader strategy of combinatorial therapies that will need to include biological and/or pharmacological interventions (e.g. stem cells, etc.). That’s why we work to facilitate a holistic ecosystem of SCI individuals, clinicians, scientists and investors who are collaborating in new ways with one another, leading to exciting possibilities, and better, faster outcomes. Here are just a few examples of this sort of work from the past year:

You are part of this community. You endure the unseen difficulties of living with this injury. Or you work long hours in a lab, or at a foundation or biotech startup, trying to understand and alleviate the suffering of those who live with an SCI. Many of you inhabit more than one of these roles. And every time we collaborate, we get closer to functional recovery. U2FP knows we can't do this alone. We need everyone's voice in equal measure. That's why we need you.

Kelsey Peterson's documentary, Move Me, airs nationwide tonight on PBS. Please tell your friends, family and co-workers about the film, and share it on your social media channels. This movie deserves to be seen by the largest possible audience. U2FP has been involved with this film from day one. We acted as...

This Thursday, November 3rd we'll be presenting a special screening of Kelsey Peterson’s documentary, Move Me. Join us at 7pm in the Tek Box Theatre at the Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts, followed by a special Q&A with writer/director Kelsey Peterson after the film! Tickets are selling fast. We are nearing capacity for our venue, and only have a handful of seats left. If you wait until the day of the show, it may be too late - get your tickets now. There are so many great reasons to join us for this special...

We’re only a week away from our special screening of Kelsey Peterson’s documentary, Move Me! Spots are filling up. Don’t wait - get your tickets now. I remember when Kelsey first got the idea to do a documentary dealing with spinal cord injury. It was right after she helped me and other advocates pass the landmark SCI/TBI Research Grant Bill here in Minnesota in 2015. In 2017, I came on as U2FP’s Executive Director, and at my suggestion...

Matthew and Jason talk with Ann Van de Winckel, a researcher and physical therapist at the University of Minnesota Medical School, who is doing fascinating work to help restore body awareness below the level of injury - yes, you read that right - using cognitive multisensory rehabilitation (CMR). Dr. Van de Winckel’s work is showing...

U2FP is inviting you to a private screening of the film Move Me, in Minneapolis on Thursday, November 3, 2022 at 7pm. This special event will take place in the Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts - Tek Box Theatre. In addition to seeing the film on the big screen, we'll have a live Q&A with writer/director Kelsey Peterson, along with...

U2FP is excited to announce a special screening of the film Move Me, Kelsey Peterson’s documentary about the emotional and physical challenges of her life after suffering a spinal cord injury. The film, which is still racking up selections and accolades on the film festival circuit, will be given a private showing by U2FP here in Minneapolis on Thursday, November 3, 2022 at 7pm in the Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts. This special event will feature a live question and answer session with Kelsey after the film, along with...

This episode features Thomas Cloyd, who is competing in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon for Team U2FP next Sunday, October 9th. Thomas’ reasons for joining Team U2FP go well beyond just this race. His history with U2FP goes back almost a decade when he helped Matthew Rodreick and others in the SCI community pass the SCI/TBI Research Grant bill here in Minnesota in 2015. That bill was the catalyst for U2FP’s Cure Advocacy Network (CAN), which has now passed over $25M in SCI research funding via these legislative advocacy efforts. And since it’s hard to get grant money to lobby state legislatures, Team U2FP is one of our primary sources of funding for CAN...

There's still time for you to join us via our livestream. You'll be able to watch almost all the presentations and even participate live in the question and answer sessions. Plus, you'll get early access to our recordings once the conference has ended.

Don't miss out on this one-of-a-kind event where you can get up to speed on the latest curative research from world-class scientists, so that the impact of our collective voice can be that much stronger.

We're just days away from U2FP's 17th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium, happening Friday, September 23 and Saturday, September 24, 2022. And there's still time to register, either to attend in-person or via our livestream! As always, we're convening the major stakeholder groups in curative ...

In her Saturday morning talk (made possible with ASIA funding), Lana Zholudeva, PhD describes a new ASIA program called Translational Research to Inform Practice (TRIP). This is intended to facilitate better dialog across SCI interest groups. Meanwhile, Dale Hull, MD, MPA, will present a talk about how SCI acute rehab has shrunk to absurd levels – while at the same time the value of rehab in the recovery process has been scientifically validated. In that gap is opportunity – for a clinical...

There are more trials for spinal cord injury related issues now than ever – fewer than 10 in 2012 to 112 in 2021 – and more are coming. But not a single one has led to a treatment. There are many reasons for this: Drugs or devices just didn’t work as they did in animal studies, sponsor companies ran out of money, etc. But it’s not just hard science and lack of resources: There are issues with the way trials are...

We are exactly two weeks away from U2FP’s 17th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium, happening September 23 - 24, 2022 in Salt Lake City, Utah. While we are excited to be back in person, we know that not everyone is able to make a trip like this - especially many in the SCI Community. That’s why we are once again offering a…

In the latest episode of CureCast, Jason and I talk with Andrew Park, a clinician-researcher at Craig Rehabilitation Hospital in Denver, Colorado. Jason happened to meet Andrew while in Denver for one of U2FP’s Cure Advocacy Network stakeholder meetings last February. During that meeting, Andrew’s passion for his work became evident. In this podcast, we talk about…

Jack Jablonski, namesake of the Jack Jablonski Foundation, will be giving a few remarks ahead of the Spinal Stimulation session at our 17th Annual Science and Advocacy Symposium, September 23 and 24 in Salt Lake City, Utah (register here). The Foundation is sponsoring the session featuring Reggie Edgerton, Susie Harkema and

My first encounter with the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs Spinal Cord Injury Research Program (SCIRP) was while I was watching archived video of the SCI 2020: Launching a Decade for Disruption in Spinal Cord Injury Research conference, hosted by the National Institutes of Health. In passing, I luckily heard the words about "people with the injury sitting on the review panels and having a say in what gets funded." Hearing this piqued my interest in a major way. THAT was not paralysis. That was empowerment and agency! I've now had the privilege to serve on two peer review panels with SCIRP, and the experience has...

Jason and Matthew talk with Lucia Webb, U2FP’s Operations Director, about a seemingly minor aspect of our work - our racing and fundraising initiative, Team U2FP. We discuss what Team U2FP is and breakdown why it’s critical for so much of what we do, especially the legislative bills we’ve passed through our Cure Advocacy Network...

We’re just a month away from U2FP’s 17th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium in Salt Lake City, Utah (September 23 and 24 - register here). As always, we look for creative ways to maximize the impact of our conference for the SCI Community. Given that the Mountain West is home to so many outdoor enthusiasts (including symposium speaker and U2FP board member, Quinn Brett), we’ve teamed up with several adaptive sports organizations to coordinate an...

Jason and Matthew interview Dr. Camillo Castillo, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician at Frazer Rehabilitation Hospital in Louisville, KY along with his Clinical SCI Navigation team: Emily Coons, Brendan Doksa and Heather Connor. We are raising a simple question about the introduction of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) to the clinic: are we ready to receive it? What will that look like? Who follows the person with the stimulator? Who sets the parameters for...

Today is the last day to get the best bang for your buck on U2FP's Annual Symposium. Save nearly 30% off our regular prices when you register today ..

We’re excited to announce that our Title Sponsor - The Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital/University of Utah Health - is offering a special tour of its brand-new facility for attendees of U2FP’s Annual Symposium! This tour will take place...

We extended our Early Bird discounts for an extra week, but time is running out. Be sure to register by this Friday, August 19th to save nearly 30% then use these savings to offset your...

That's right, we've extended our Early Bird discounts until next Friday, August 19th! With the cost of travel up significantly (along with everything else), we wanted to give everyone an extra week to save nearly 30% off registration fees for our 17th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium...

Unite 2 Fight Paralysis is proud to have Quinn Brett presenting at our 17th Annual Science and Advocacy Symposium, September 23 and 24 in Salt Lake City, Utah (register here). Quinn is an advocate for recreational accessibility and curative interventions, as well as a member of U2FP's Board of Directors. Last year, Quinn hand-cycled the US portion of the Tour Divide in 25 days. This is the world's longest off-pavement cycling route, extending from the Canadian Rockies to New Mexico. It's seriously gnarly...

U2FP has been working with a researcher who is interested in conducting a human research study to restore orgasm in men with chronic SCI. In order to design the study, the researcher has asked us to disseminate the attached survey to determine...

Unite 2 Fight Paralysis is pleased to present a special screening of 'Move Me', the long-anticipated documentary film from Kelsey Peterson, at our 17th Annual Science and Advocacy Symposium, September 23 and 24 in Salt Lake City, UT (register here). The feature length film tells Kelsey’s story: Poor judgment, high-level spinal cord injury, loss and heartbreak, and now, 10 years later, an attempt to balance hope for recovery with acceptance that life with disability has intrinsic value and meaning. U2FP has been involved in this film from the beginning. The idea emerged from...

Unite to Fight Paralysis is very grateful to Aneuvo for supporting our 17th Annual Science and Advocacy Symposium, September 23 and 24 in Salt Lake City, Utah. This is a Los Angeles based company that is developing a neurostimulation device for treating spinal cord injury. Aneuvo will begin a large, multicenter trial for its transcutaneous system within weeks. But wait, Aneuvo is just one of many stim players you'll hear from at our Symposium this year. There are now four companies working on transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation, all of which emerged from the Los Angeles neuromod culture at UCLA and Caltech and ...

Want to try something new, without the pressure of a formal race, but with the structure and encouragement of teammates? Check out Team U2FP’s Freestyle Challenge, a DIY race event that you can tailor to be as creative or challenging as you like! In the Freestyle Challenge, participants can design their own event, be it running or wheeling a 5k around your favorite lake, paddleboarding in the pacific, long-distance adaptive trailriding, mountain climbing, or trying out all the

How do scientists model a spinal cord injury in animals? And what does that mean for translating those discoveries into humans? This has been a conversation we’ve prioritized at past symposia, and we’re addressing it again this year. One of the focal points that will be discussed are animal characteristics - their age, gender and ...

Today is the last day to apply for a Travel Grant to U2FP's Annual Symposium. Don't miss your chance to get part or all of their travel expenses covered to attend our one-of-a-kind conference. U2FP is proud to provide Travel Grants to individuals with paralysis in need of financial assistance. Special thanks to the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation and Global Technologies for helping to underwrite this program!

Just a reminder that this Wednesday, July 13, is the application deadline for Travel Grants to our 17th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium. U2FP is proud to provide Travel Grants to individuals with paralysis in need of financial assistance. Special thanks to the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation and Global Technologies for...

Next Wednesday, July 13, is the application deadline for Travel Grants to our 17th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium. U2FP is proud to provide Travel Grants to individuals with paralysis in need of financial assistance.
Special thanks to the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation and Global Technologies for helping to ...

We are all rolling and walking around in the bubbles of our own individual experiences. What can we set in motion if we speak up and stir up the conversation towards cures for SCI...

Unite to Fight Paralysis is very grateful to Blackrock Neurotech for supporting our 17th Annual Science and Advocacy Symposium, September 23 and 24 in Salt Lake City, UT (register here). Blackrock will also be presenting during the Industry portion of our agenda. Here’s some background on the company, and on its co-founder and chairman, Florian Solzbacher...

Team U2FP has launched its Freestyle Challenge, a race event you can customize to be as creative or challenging as you like! Today, I want to highlight a couple of our Freestyle Challenge racers. Lorraine Schaeffer and Sarah Ashbaugh have fully embraced the adventure aspect of the Freestyle Challenge, taking this unique race event to a new elevation: Mount Blanc in France/Switzerland! Read on to learn about this mother/daughter team and why they’ve decided to...

Unite to Fight Paralysis is very grateful to the University of Utah and its Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital for sponsoring our 2022 Annual Science and Advocacy Symposium. Here’s some background on the brand-new hospital, and on its namesake. The 75-bed hospital, made possible thanks to a $47.5 million donation from the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, opened in September 2020. To recognize the new center, U2FP had chosen Salt Lake City as the host site for our 2020 symposium, but of course no live events occurred that year, or the next...

Experience the beauty of Salt Lake City from the heart of downtown at U2FP’s 17th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium this fall - September 23-24, 2022! With quick access to the Rocky Mountains and a plethora of adaptive outdoor activities available, you may even want to extend your stay by a few days. Either way, be sure to reserve your hotel room now, as reservations are going fast...

Want to try something new, without the pressure of a formal race, but with the structure and encouragement of teammates? Check out Team U2FP’s Freestyle Challenge, a DIY race event that will take place over the weekend of August 20-21. In the Freestyle Challenge, participants can design their own event, be it running, wheeling, kayaking, weightlifting, or trying out all the taco trucks in town...

We are committed to ensuring that as many individuals from the SCI Community as possible have the opportunity to attend this important gathering. Get ready to join us for this unique, stimulating and collaborative event happening in beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah, this fall - September 23-24, 2022...

There’s lots of action happening on Team U2FP right now - don’t miss your chance to be a part of this unique and creative movement for cures. By signing up to race in one of several fun and creative Team U2FP events, you can raise funding and support for the work U2FP does to advocate for...

Jason and Matthew interview Dr. Uzma Samadani, a neurosurgeon working in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Dr. Samadani participated in the EStand trial along with David Darrow, Ann Parr and Taye Nettoff. We decided to interview Dr. Samadani based on her experience of implanting epidural stimulators in people with SCI - as part of her clinical practice - instead of the current approach, which is to limit access to only those enrolled in a relevant clinical trial. We talk about her...

This is just a quick note to remind you that registration for this year’s 17th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium is set to open this Friday, June 3rd! You'll save 30% with our Early Bird pricing, and folks in the SCI Community, as well as students, can take an extra 50% off. You'll want to join us for this uniquely collaborative event happening in beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah, on September 23-24, 2022. We’ll also be opening our travel grant applications to individuals from...

Registration for this year’s 17th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium opens next Friday, June 3rd! While inflation is affecting everyone - including our hotel costs for hosting this year’s event - our prices will remain the same as previous in-person Symposiums. We are committed to ensuring that as many individuals from the SCI Community as possible have the opportunity to attend this important gathering. Get ready to ...

We continue to have spots available for the Medtronic Twin Cities in Motion Marathon & 10-mile races. By joining Team U2FP, you’ll receive guaranteed entry, as well as your application fee reimbursed! Not a distance runner or wheeler? Consider tapping someone in your social network. We all know at least one person who is an active marathon racer; has that 26.2 sticker on their bumper; and fills up your social media feed once a year with images of glorious, finish-line exhaustion.

In this episode, Quinn and Jason talk about their experiences with SCI, meeting at Craig hospital, and their realization that the word “cure” is not embraced by everyone in our community. We are dedicating this podcast episode to Franklin Elieh, co-founder of NorCalSCI. Franklin died suddenly this past month after living for decades with an SCI. He embodied the critical characteristics of empathy, systems thinking and deep connection to the community that all successful advocates share. He also lived his life on the continuum of Care and Cure. His death is a reminder of ...

Registration is now open for Team U2FP's very own race event - the Freestyle Challenge! This is your chance to get super competitive and/or super creative, all while raising funds and awareness for SCI recovery. Back in 2020, when the pandemic hit and regular marathons were canceled, we created a DIY race event, which we called the Run-Walk-Roll. Since then, participants have gone beyond running, walking or rolling; they’ve done things like paddleboarding, lake strolling, 5k-ing and 100-mile trail riding on an adaptive trike! So we had to re-brand. The Freestyle Challenge is your chance to ...

Registration for the Medtronic Twin Cities in Motion Marathon & 10-mile races is currently open, and we are looking for more runners and wheelers to join Team U2FP for this exciting event! Sign up to run in either the Marathon or 10-Mile race and help U2FP advance curative interventions for the SCI Community. You’ll be guaranteed a spot, regardless of

Making this film, weaving hope and acceptance together, gave me more freedom to explore who I am as I continue to adapt and grow. My desire for functional recovery is for me, not for anyone else. Regaining sexual function could add to my quality of life. Hand function could give me more independence. I miss these things that I have lost, and even as my acceptance and self-love deepen, I still feel that loss, and that’s ok.

Mark your calendars to join us for a unique, stimulating and collaborative gathering focused on curative interventions: September 23-24, 2022, in Salt Lake City, Utah. We've got a growing line-up of great speakers from all spheres of the Scientific and SCI Communities. Here are our newly confirmed speakers ...

Help U2FP advance curative interventions for the SCI Community by competing in The Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon or 10-mile races! This year’s events are scheduled for Sunday, October 2, 2022, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. When you sign up for either the Twin Cities Marathon or the 10-Mile race, you’ll be guaranteed a spot, regardless of your ...

Registration is now open for another Team U2FP race event - the Medtronic Twin Cities in Motion Marathon & 10-mile races! Help U2FP advance curative interventions for the SCI Community by competing in either the marathon or 10-mile races! This year’s events are scheduled for Sunday, October 2, 2022, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Below are a few reminders, as well as some more detailed information on getting around at the capitol in Madison. As we mentioned yesterday, our SCI Research Grant bill (AB873) is scheduled for a hearing this coming Wednesday, April 6! This is our opportunity to raise our voice as an SCI Community and help legislators understand the impact this funding for curative therapies could make in our lives.

Great news - our SCI Research Grant bill (AB873) is scheduled for a hearing this coming Wednesday, April 6! This is our opportunity to raise our voice as an SCI Community and help legislators understand the impact this funding for curative therapies could make in our lives. Here are the three most impactful things you can do ...

This year's confirmed speakers include Spinal Stimulation researchers like Reggie Edgerton, Susan Harkema and David Darrow; Collaborative Projects from Jerry Silver, Monica Perez, and Candace Floyd; and out-of-the-box engineers like Samuel Stupp and Florian Solzbacher; along with Utah's premier SCI advocate Dale Hull, co-founder and Executive Director of Neuroworx.

Jason and Matthew talk with Samantha Troyer, an SCI peer mentor in Wisconsin who joined up with U2FP’s Cure Advocacy Network (CAN) to become a legislative advocate there. Sam is joined by our CAN Manager, Jake Beckstrom. We talk about the current effort to pass an SCI research funding Bill in Wisconsin, its attendant ups and downs, unique challenges, the perseverance required for this work, and the power of our shared SCI story.

Good news - Representative David Murphy has agreed to give our $3M Wisconsin SCI bill (AB 873) a hearing! We are working with his office to confirm an exact date and time for this to take place next week in the Colleges and Universities Committee. Getting our bill heard in the Wisconsin Assembly will put it on the record, moving it one step closer to being passed! Please contact Rep. Murphy’s office and say “Thank You!” This is your chance to ...

The Wisconsin legislature’s regular session ended yesterday, March 10th. And while our $3M SCI Research Grant bill didn’t get voted on, it turns out we still have a shot! This week, I received word from one of our cosponsors that there is still time for our bill’s assigned committees (Health in the Senate; Colleges/Universities in the Assembly) to schedule a hearing. This special, post-session period allows bills that were already in-progress when the session ended to move forward if ...

The more followers we have, the more impact we can have for curative therapies. For example, right now we have a bill in the Wisconsin legislature we’ve been working towards for almost 5 years. More social media eyes on our posts means more calls and emails to legislators from the SCI and Scientific Communities that will lead to curative treatments.

The Wisconsin Cure Advocacy Network has come so far this session in our attempts to pass legislation for SCI research funding. And we are so close to reaching that goal! This week is our last chance to get our bill heard in the Senate before the session ends on Thursday, March 10th. Senator Patrick Testin is the legislator with the power to give our bill a hearing so that it can then be brought to a vote. Please ...

Jason and Matthew speak with Samuel Stupp, a Professor of Materials Science, Chemistry, Medicine, and Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University. You may remember reading about Dr. Stupp late last year. News about his ‘dancing molecules’ used in a preclinical model of acute spinal cord injury circulated widely. We discuss ...

The latest episode of U2FP’s CureCast podcast is out today, March 4. It’s not to be missed. Matthew and Jason interview Samuel Stupp, the Northwestern University scientist whose study of a nanotech polymer lit up the news media a couple of months back – one injection of a seeded, liquid plastic scaffold restored function in paralyzed mice after just four weeks. This was indeed a huge story in the SCI world. Although Stupp has been working on these sorts of polymers for 30 years and nanomedicine is not a novel idea, this research ...

Despite a busy start to 2022 (our intense Wisconsin SCI advocacy work, some fresh podcasts and our new effort to place SCI folks in research labs) we are still working hard on this year’s 17th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium! Mark your calendars for September 23-24, 2022 and join us in ...

Walking on demand, by say pushing an indicator or a smart watch, breaks from what the rest of the SCI neuromod field has been focusing on. Most experiments are looking in less media-sexy areas -- blood pressure management, bladder or bowel control, pain control or maybe trunk stability. Onward, a publicly traded company that always likes to deliver good news to investors, says they’re hoping spinal cord stimulation works for many issues common to people living with SCI. But this study, it’s about walking. Readers can watch this video that shows one of the guys in the Swiss study, Michel Roccati, using his stim system to stand in a bar; he is quite emphatic in his endorsement for

U2FP’s Cure Advocacy Network (CAN) is at the closest point it has EVER been to passing legislation for spinal cord injury research funding in Wisconsin. We have made it this far because of our CAN team’s strategy and persistence coupled with YOUR phone calls and emails! Now, we need each of these bills (AB873 & SB1010) to be given a public hearing (ie, where members of the public can share how this legislation would impact ...

Jason and Matthew talk with Michael Lane (Researcher at Drexel College of Medicine) and Jake Chalfin (SCI advocate and chair of the PA Spinal Cord Advisory Research Council) as we continue with part 2 of our series on the experience of SCI community members joining research labs as consultants ...

Last night we received confirmation that our $3M SCI Research Grant Bill was officially introduced in the Wisconsin Senate (full text of Senate Bill 1010 here; Assembly Bill 873 here)! Not only that, but Senator Chris Kapenga has referred it to the Committee on Health as well. Your calls and emails are moving this Bill closer to possible passage in Wisconsin. A little less than a month ago, I said that getting our bill introduced this session, in both the house and senate, was a long-shot. But the hard work ...

Despite many of you emailing and calling on behalf of our Wisconsin SCI Research Grant bill, Senator Chris Kapenga (R - Delafield) has yet to indicate he will introduce our bill in the Senate. And this legislation can't move forward until that happens. Everyone from everywhere (in other states and countries) should contact Senator Chris Kapenga. All calls and emails his office receives help to demonstrate that this is a critical issue ...

Jason and Matthew interview Dr. Murray Blackmore (Marquette University) and Nancy Nichols (person with lived experience of SCI) about Nancy’s addition to the Blackmore Lab as a consultant. We talk about the relationship that developed, the impact it's had on the Blackmore Lab, and the impact relationships like this could have on ...

As I wrote last week, our Wisconsin SCI Research Grant bill got a shot in the arm when Senator Van Wanggaard (R - Racine) signed on as an enthusiastic co-author. As a senator, and a person with an SCI, Wanggaard’s endorsement could represent a big step forward for our bill. I say “could” because Senator Wanggaard himself can’t introduce our bill. Only the Senate President, Chris Kapenga (R - Delafield), can do that. We need Senator Kapenga to introduce our bill and ...

On Tuesday, our CAN Advocates met with Senator Van Wanggaard (R - Racine) who agreed to co-author our bill. It turns out that Sen. Wanggaard has a cervical spinal cord injury (no paralysis, but lasting impairments) resulting from a car accident he was in as a police officer, previous to his time as a legislator. Sen. Wanggaard provided some of the most encouraging words yet about our bill ...

Since our SCI Research Grant Bill (Assembly Bill 873) was finally introduced last week in Wisconsin, things have been moving fast. We’re seeing more enthusiasm and signs of progress thanks to your calls and emails to key legislators. Yesterday, we received confirmation of two more co-authors who have joined our bill - Representatives David Murphy & John Spiros. Rep. David Murphy’s support is very encouraging, as he is ...

NervGen announced in a press release recently that it intends to test its spinal cord nerve regeneration drug NVG-291 in humans later this year, treating both sub-acute (less than three months post) and chronic (at least a year) spinal cord injuries. The clinical trial will be held at a single site, the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago. The release is of course full of investor-targeted enthusiasm (“unprecedented … groundbreaking … restoring life’s potential”); it also includes this caution: “Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements made in this news release.” OK, we won’t. But still, this is news, it’s promising, and ...

In our latest episode, Jason and Matthew talk with Andrew Grande (MD, FAHA, FAANS) and Walter Low (PhD) - two brain specialists at the University of Minnesota who focus on neuroregenerative and neurorestorative therapies for various brain disorders, including traumatic brain injury. Why are we talking to brain specialists about TBI? Because in our efforts to pass an SCI funding bill in Texas, we came across a broad coalition of brain specialists ...

Drip, drip, drip… do you hear that, folks? That sound is the Republican iceberg of opposition that is finally beginning to melt, thanks to the perseverance of our Wisconsin CAN advocates. This past Tuesday, our $3M bi-partisan SCI Research Grant bill was officially introduced in Wisconsin: Assembly Bill 873! For the last 4 years, we’ve been unable to get Wisconsin Republicans on board with our SCI Research funding bill. But our hard work has paid off ...

I know we’re not all marathon runners or wheelers. Likely only a small percentage of you reading this message have run even one marathon. (Full disclosure, I have not run a marathon). But, we all know at least one person (usually more) who is an active marathon racer; who has that 26.2 sticker on their bumper; who fills up your social media feed once a year with those images of glorious, finish-line exhaustion. What I’d like you to consider today is ...

We’re filling our roster of Team U2FP participants for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon (October 9, 2022), and we’d love to have you join us! Sign up for Team U2FP and get a guaranteed entry to one of the premier marathons in the country ...

U2FP prides itself on being clear-eyed about the barriers (both scientific and emotional) that we face as we do the difficult work of advocating for cures. We know building a collaborative movement is hard, messy and painful. But we also believe the SCI Community knows a thing or two about how to leverage pain into power. It's worth noting that our entire staff has invested not just their time, but also their funds into our movement ...

Scientist Aileen Anderson (pictured above), who directs the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at the University of California Irvine (UCI), was recently awarded $5.5 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to develop a new human neural stem cell line for large scale manufacturing. Her project is worth noting because the ultimate target is to put solid science behind a safe and predictable therapeutic for chronic cervical spinal cord injury. But what really makes this newsworthy is that it reframes Anderson’s pioneering work in stem cells and revisits the central role her studies played in one of the greatest ever spinal cord injury ...

In the latest issue of Current Opinion in Neurology, NASCIC president and long-time friend of U2FP, Kim D. Anderson, writes about the continual need for increased engagement between the SCI and Scientific Communities. The article, "Equitable partnerships between scientists and persons living with spinal cord injury will strengthen research scope, quality, and outcomes", acknowledges the work U2FP has been doing to move things forward in this particular area: "Additionally, Unite 2 Fight Paralysis ...

As 2021 draws to a close, many of our supporters are making arrangements for their year-end charitable contributions. I wanted to make our SCI Community aware of some incentives that can help you maximize your gift. Take a look at these giving options as you consider supporting U2FP's important work ...

U2FP’s Board believes strongly in the work our team is doing in the cure space. We have planned for and overseen a period of growth that we continue to be excited about. Our desire is to see U2FP broaden and deepen its innovative work to have a greater impact for individuals, like myself and many of my board colleagues, who live with an SCI. Which is why our Board has collectively given $32,000 this month ...

We are connected by our shared experiences of pain in response to this injury and as a result of this injury. There is a transformative power available in that connection. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not suggesting the pain is itself the power. I am suggesting that there is power in the connection from sharing an experience like SCI ...

Happy Holidays from U2FP

We've just made public all three days of this year's 16th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium! This means that even if you couldn’t attend this year’s gathering of the SCI and Scientific Communities, you can now view it all in the ...

A big skin-surface spinal cord stimulation study called Up-LIFT, targeting hand and arm function in people with cervical spinal cord injuries, has reached full enrollment of 65 participants. The company Onward, a major sponsor of the annual U2FP Science and Advocacy Symposium, said ...

We’ve already filled almost a 1/3rd of our roster of Team U2FP participants for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon 2022! Don’t wait - sign up for Team U2FP and get a guaranteed ...

My default is to roll my eyes when a set of relatives and friends all start sending me the same news blurb for another spinal cord injury study. From reading the press release, you can never tell if this new finding is worth getting excited about. It’s rare that a piece of research lives up to the hype that a university press machine is drumming up. But I must admit, the work published by the Samuel Stupp lab (Alvarez et al., 2021) in Science this November, does appear promising.

Jason and Matthew interview Dr. Barry Komisaruk, Neurophysiologist from the Psychology Department at Rutgers University. Barry has been researching sexuality for over 50 years and ...

Team U2FP is building its roster for next year - and we're looking for runners and wheelers to join our ranks for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon 2022.

I’ve been slowly but steadily relearning to see my body without the harmful narrative, without shame or judgement, and without confining ties to the able-bodied sex I’d been having. I’m discovering what feels good in this body, finding new pathways to pleasure, without feeling like it should be something else, like I should be someone else.

I’ve had the Bob Dylan song, “Love Minus Zero/No Limit,” running through my mind again lately. Music heads and old heads will know it. The last two lines of the second verse always stick with me: ‘...there’s no success like failure / And failure’s no success at all.’ Personally, I’ve always tried to apply these lines to my life. They remind me not to be afraid to fail and to always keep myself open to what can be learned from every action. Professionally, I’m reminded of them every day as we at U2FP continue to ....

On this #GivingTuesday, I hope you'll consider making a year-end donation or becoming a monthly donor to U2FP today. Take a look at some of the things our grassroots movement has accomplished in the last few years, thanks to your support:

Unless you've been unplugged from the internet the last few weeks, you probably know that tomorrow is #GivingTuesday - a global day of giving. Like you, I've received an onslaught of reminder emails and social media ...

We at U2FP want to wish our friends in the U.S. - and everyone else who celebrates - a Happy Thanksgiving! We are thankful for your support and for all those working alongside us to ...

In the wake of our Symposium, with all of its detailed strategies for scientific and advocacy advances, we wanted to re-center the personal experience of those who live with the injury. I am one of those people. I shared this reflection on my injured anniversary with my friends and family this past August. I hope it resonates with those who are injured, and motivates all those working for a cure.

We have a good chance of getting our Wisconsin SCI Research Bill passed, IF - and only if - we can persuade a Republican Senator to coauthor our Bill. Right now, Senators John Jagler and Devin LeMahieu are our most promising options. And that’s where you come in: we need you to ...

Today is the last day to register for U2FP’s 16th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium. Online Registration closes tonight, October 19th ...

Tomorrow is the last day to register for U2FP’s 16th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium. Online Registration closes on Tuesday evening, October 19th. Get your tickets now

U2FP’s 16th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium is just a week away, starting Thursday, October 21 - Saturday, October 23, 2021. This is a premier gathering of the SCI and Scientific Communities. And it’s not just a science show and tell, but a collaborative meeting. We bring all the players together to sharpen and accelerate the speed and efficacy of the movement for cures. Online Registration closes on Tuesday, October 19th, so ...

Only 2 weeks left until our 16th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium (Virtual) begins - register now to reserve your spot! Get up to speed on: SCI regeneration advances from leading scientists; research takes on sexual function recovery; rehab, exercise and nutrition for the ...

It's been a long, hard slog through the Wisconsin legislature since we started our advocacy there back in 2018. The wheels turn slowly, but sometimes patience and persistence are rewarded. Please help us keep our foot in the door, so we can swing it wide open and pass this much need Bill.

Hurry, tomorrow is the last day to take advantage of early bird discounts on our 16th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium (Virtual), which is happening October 21 - 23, 2021. Don’t miss out: our Early Bird registration period ends this Friday, September 24th. This is your chance to save 30% off our ...

Don’t miss out: our Early Bird registration period ends this Friday, September 24th. This is your chance to save 30% off our regular priced registration fees. Plus, we have additional discounts for SCI Individuals/Families, Students & PCAs who can save another 75%! Then, go check out our feature this month in New Mobility magazine ...

Previously, we’ve defined three very broad research approaches that Symposium presenters will address to promote recovery in chronic spinal cord injury: Replacement (add cells); Rejuvenation (activate dormant nerve networks); and Regeneration (regrow spinal cord nerve axons). Now we are going to take a dive into a more specific area of SCI research: the neurobiology of sexual function. Not baby making. Pleasure.

As we announced this past weekend, we just made the difficult decision to transition our 16th Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium to a fully virtual event. Today, we’re happy to announce that registration for this newly-virtual event is now open!

I’m writing to share with you the difficult decision we at U2FP have made to transition our Annual Symposium from an in-person meeting to a fully virtual conference this fall. We had been hopeful that we would see the Covid Delta variant begin to recede by summer’s end. Instead, we continue to see an increase in the number of new infections. Many in our SCI Community are immunocompromised and/or have respiratory issues that ...

I am Jordan Bolton from Apple Valley, Minnesota - and I’m U2FP’s new Social Media Strategist! Three years ago, I was paralyzed from the neck down while a student at Lake Region State College in North Dakota. I suffered a C-4 and C-5 Spinal cord injury one night during a party with my basketball teammates and was given only a 5% chance of any recovery.

Join Team U2FP's very own race event - the Run-Walk-Roll! This event, which takes place Friday, September 24 through Sunday, September 26, allows you to create your own course and complete it at your own pace. But you can do more than just run, walk or roll. We want you to feel free to entertain endless opportunities. Consider possibilities such as a pub crawl or a lawn mower ‘race’ or ....

Last March, I finally made it to Maui after years of feeling called to her. I had planned to move there in the winter of 2012-13, but then I got injured. So it felt like a full-circle moment for me when we landed. However, I found myself struggling on what quickly became “the island of the able-bodied” through my eyes ...

We’ve defined three very broad research approaches to promote recovery in chronic spinal cord injury: previously, we covered Replace (add cells) and Rejuvenate (activate dormant nerve networks). Let’s now consider Regeneration — the functional regrowth of spinal cord nerve fibers (axons). Regeneration will almost certainly be in the form of combination therapies along the stages of axon growth. The theme of regeneration — and collaboration — is woven through the Symposium agenda. Here are a few examples of how regeneration works ...

At the beginning of this year, we were quite shocked when the proposed budget appeared without this important program listed. We reached out to those of you in our SCI, research and clinical communities, and you all responded...

This is the second in a series of articles with background and context for the 2021 Unite 2 Fight Paralysis Annual Science and Advocacy Symposium. This two-day event tells you what you need to know about the science to repair the injured spinal cord. Today, we'll look at rejuvenation, which you might think of as the rousing of nerve cells that are still alive and home where they should be, but maybe asleep, and not functioning in harmony with spinal cord nerve circuitry. In the simplest terms, how might these cells be brought back online?

Jason and Matthew talk with Megan Detloff (SCI researcher at Drexel College of Medicine) and Bethany Kondiles (SCI researcher at ICORD). They talk about the evolution of the International Online SCI Research Seminar (IOSCIRS) in response to the pandemic and as a forum for SCI researchers to stay abreast of one another's work. But they have also begun to discuss the value of the seminar for the lay audience of people living with SCI. We talk through this development and both the challenges and opportunities to use this platform as a way to connect researchers and people living with SCI.

This is the first of three articles with background and context for the 2021 Symposium, a look at who’s presenting what, and why. Some nerve cells in the damage zone die right away, and they’re gone. Nearby, others are in peril, and many succumb hours and days later as the injury site becomes toxic to cells. What if we were to REPLACE lost cells or rebuild the mangled cord structure to encourage recovery? In this article, we will explore the REPLACE part of the 2021 Symposium agenda. In subsequent posts, we will look at the other Rs, regeneration and rejuvenation.

Registration is now open for Team U2FP's very own race event - the Run-Walk-Roll! Help U2FP advance curative interventions for the SCI Community by competing in this flexible race that you can make as competitive or creative as you like! This is your chance to create the race you’ve always wanted to participate in. Consider options such as ...

Jason and Matthew continue the conversation from episode 52 with SCI community members, Quinn Brett, Kelsey Peterson and Thomas Cloyd. They discuss each guest’s experience with sex after injury, where they got their information and what they’ve learned and continue to learn. This conversation starts to set the stage for ...

Registration for U2FP’s Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium is officially open! Secure your spot at this one-of-a-kind symposium and save 30% when you register now during our Early Bird registration period ...

We’re down to just a couple of spots left for our Twin Cities Marathon & 10-mile races. If you’ve been thinking of joining Team U2FP for these events, now’s the time to sign up! Help U2FP advance curative interventions for the SCI Community by ...

Heads up - registration for U2FP’s Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium is opening this Friday, June 18th. Our symposium will be at the Sheraton Salt Lake City hotel this year, on October 22-23, 2021. If you haven’t reserved a room yet, head on over to our Conference Hotel page and book at our group rate. We’ve lined up a great selection of Speakers and structured our Agenda to address the crucial cure questions ...

We’ve been working tirelessly in meetings with many key WI legislators to get our SCI Research funding put back into the Governor’s budget. Now we need your help. Tomorrow (Tuesday, June 15th) is the last budget hearing of the Joint Committee on Finance - and our last chance to get this funding put back into the Governor’s budget. Please contact these Joint Finance Committee Members today and ask them to introduce a motion to add the program funding back into the budget ...

I had no idea when we started this film project that it would become my story. That was not my interest, not even a glimmer on my shaky horizon. I wanted to speak as part of the collective — a small piece of the SCI community looking for answers and relaying them however I could. I wanted to know where we are on our arduous quest for a cure. And I got some answers. But quite honestly ...

Humans are sexual creatures, there is no doubt about it. For many, sexuality is a major life driver and a source of well-being. In poll after poll within the SCI community, regaining sexual function persists in the top of the “wish list”. Yet, outside of fertility and “genitourinary health”, sexual function is given a cold shoulder in SCI research. This is why we launched our Curecast series on sex (we've dubbed it the 'SexCast'), so that sexual function can be ...

We only have 2 spots left on our Twin Cities Marathon team! Help U2FP advance curative interventions for the SCI Community by competing in this year’s Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday, October 3rd! All the regular entries for this year’s Twin Cities Marathon have already been taken. But when you sign up to run or wheel with Team U2FP, you’ll be guaranteed a spot, regardless of your experience level.

I hope you are enjoying the heart of spring and the move toward summer….not to mention the lifting of restrictions and the move towards some sense of normalcy. Speaking of which, we are knee-deep in the process of planning the in-person return to our Annual Science & Advocacy Symposium - October 22-23, in Salt Lake City. And speaking of our Symposium, you might have noticed something different ...

Our Twin Cities Marathon & 10-mile slots are filling up! We only have 2 spots left in the 10-mile race and 2 spots left in the marathon. Help U2FP advance curative interventions for the SCI Community by competing in either the marathon or 10-mile races!

Episode 52 begins our series on Sex, sex and SCI and the research into restoring sexual function. Matthew and Jason start by talking with Kelsey Peterson, Quinn Brett, and Thomas Cloyd about their experiences with sex after injury: their partners, perceptions, feelings and explorations. This is a frank and explicit conversation, so be prepared. We plan to continue the conversation with multiple interviews and guests. So please send us your comments and questions in order to steer our discussion in the most relevant direction.

A clinical trial is currently underway to see if newly injured people with spinal cord injuries improve their recovery by modifying their diets. In earlier experiments, switching paralyzed animals to a high fat, low carbohydrate diet improved their recovery. How about trying this in people too ...

Jimmy Anderson is a state representative in the Wisconsin general Assembly who also lives with an SCI. Jason and Matthew talk with Jimmy about his education, injury and how they led him into politics. They also discuss the effort Jimmy is championing to create a $3 million Wisconsin SCI research program. This push for smart SCI research funding is modeled after similar legislation U2FP’s Cure Advocacy Network has helped pass in other states. Jimmy gives an update on the current status of this proposed funding ...

We learned that Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers included $3M for SCI Research funding into his proposed budget, thanks to our legislative champion, Rep. Jimmy Anderson. Our CAN Manager, Jake Beckstrom, posted an update about this a couple weeks ago. Now we’re asking you to once again pick up the phone - no matter where you live - and contact these key legislators in Wisconsin ...

Ok, you probably heard about this or saw the video clip of the monkey playing a computer game with his brain. The headline is from Forbes. Note the first red flag: revolutionize. This word never adds up to anything but bait. The headline is for sure overstated, but the story itself is only partly lure. Pager, a little nine-year-old rhesus monkey, plays games on a screen, sipping on a banana smoothie as a reward. Check out the video ...

Today is the last day to join Team U2FP for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. BONUS: A generous donor is offering to donate $500 for travel to and lodging at the Chicago Marathon!

Check out the recent news story about longtime Symposium attendee and more recent Wisconsin CAN advocate, John Martinson.

Here's a great piece highlighting the work of our Cure Advocacy Network in Wisconsin, featuring advocate John Martinson, and including U2FP's Matthew Rodreick and Rep. Jimmy Anderson.

This is the final week to join Team U2FP for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. The deadline to register is this Friday, April 23rd. Plus, a generous donor is offering to donate $500 for travel to and lodging for the Chicago Marathon! Just email us your intention to take advantage of this incentive (marathon@u2fp.org) and then register here!

My first experiences with learning how to live with spinal cord injury became deeply connected with Colorado. I attended a monthly science meeting that educated us on the most current research and the trajectory of a fix. It was at that monthly science meeting that I heard this statement: “Everyone recovers some, but no one recovers fully.” That statement kept echoing in my head. There had to be something.

The maple syrup-making process has been reminding me of our Cure Advocacy Network. We have been patiently tapping legislative opportunities in Texas and Wisconsin. And there are finally some signs of sweetness in each of these states.

Time is running out to join Team U2FP for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon! The registration deadline is just a week away: Next Friday, April 23rd. We’ve also just opened another Team U2FP race event - the Medtronic Twin Cities in Motion Marathon & 10-mile races! Sign up to run or wheel at any of these events with Team U2FP.

We have really great news coming out of the Minnesota legislature folks! Earlier this week, the Democratic led House Higher Education Finance Committee, and the Republican led Senate Higher Education Finance Committee released their budgets for the upcoming biennium, and both budgets are keeping the Spinal Cord Injury and Traumatic Brain Injury Research Grant Program intact! On top of that, our friend in the Senate, Chair of the Higher Ed Finance Committee, Sen. David Tomassoni, even included ...

Registration is now open for another Team U2FP race event - the Medtronic Twin Cities in Motion Marathon & 10-mile races! Help U2FP advance curative interventions for the SCI Community by competing in either the marathon or 10-mile races! This year’s events are scheduled for Sunday, October 4, 2021, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Help U2FP advance curative interventions for the SCI Community - join Team U2FP for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon! This year’s race is scheduled for Sunday, October 10, 2021. By joining Team U2FP, you’ll be guaranteed a spot in one of the premier marathon events in the country, even if it’s your first time participating in a marathon event!

Headlines and media coverage of research can often be misleading. Sam talks about his years following and covering the research. He provides a number of suggestions for what to look for, what terms are critical to understand in order to have a better grasp of what the announcement really means for those of us in the SCI community.

Check out the second of five video segments from our Working 2 Walk 2020 Virtual Symposium: Pre-Clinical Research. If you weren't able to join us last fall, you can now watch the Pre-Clinical Research portion of the symposium here on our video library page.

We told you some weeks back that Governor Walz planned to defund and thereby eliminate our SCI/TBI Research Grant Program in Minnesota. This was both surprising and disheartening. Sure, we knew 2020 was a tough year. And there might be some fallout from COVID and economic forecasts. And we might have to compromise on some cuts in the budget. We did not expect, however, the complete elimination of the program in the governor’s proposed budget.

Did you know that the Chicago Marathon is one of the premier marathon events in the country? In fact, they’ve already filled their guaranteed entry slots as of the end of February. But if you join Team U2FP, you’ll be ensured a slot - even if it’s your first time participating in a marathon event. Plus, you’ll be helping U2FP advance curative interventions for the SCI Community!

Quite the cringe-inducing title, no? This is a real headline from a tech/gadget content farm called BGR, for Boy Genius Reports. Not my mainstream but hey, made me look. Here’s a less inflammatory press-release header for the same story: Yale scientists repair injured spinal cord using patients' own stem cells. Major points to know: this sub-acute clinical study is mainly based on Japanese science at Sapporo Medical University. It isn’t new, it’s at least three years old, but the publication of its results just came out: 13 patients with cervical injuries C2 to C5 and aged 21 to 66 were intravenously infused with their own bone-marrow derived stem cells about 50 days post-spinal cord injury. In 12 cases, motor function improvement was reported by the researchers as “significant.” No tumors, no reported adverse events.

We at U2FP are continuing the important work to preserve funding for the Minnesota SCI/TBI Research Program. This past Wednesday, I was part of a group of current and former Advisory Council members from the Minnesota SCI/TBI Research Grant Program who met with Dennis Olson, the Commissioner of Higher Education. We were slated for a 30-minute phone call to plead our case for preserving our $6 million funding of the program.

Check out this brief highlight of U2FP's work - notably our CureCast podcast - in the latest issue of NorCal Spinal's newsletter. NorCal SCI is an organization helping to connect the spinal cord injury community in Northern California.

We're closing in on the final weeks of registration for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, scheduled for October 10, 2021. But there are only 3 weeks left to register! Now's the time to sign up to run or wheel with Team U2FP!

Your voice matters. Often we talk ourselves out of speaking up because we don't think anyone is listening, or we don't think we have anything to say. Here's a brief anecdote to illustrate that if you never try, you'll never know ...

We just got some much-needed good news from Wisconsin! Governor Tony Evers has included $3M for SCI Research in his proposed budget for the next 2 years. Please send a message or call Governor Tony Evers to thank him!

Jason and Matthew speak with Dr. Melissa Miller and Jacqueline Roche from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program’s SCIRP (Spinal Cord Injury Research Program).

SCIRP is a $40 million per year funding program for SCI that is of specific interest because they include people with SCI in the scientific review process. We talk about the program, its funding strategies and most importantly...how much they want to hear from you!

We still have slots to fill on Team U2FP for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, but the clock is ticking ... there's just a little over a month left before the registration deadline.

I was on a Zoom call last week with four Unite 2 Fight Paralysis colleagues, several members of the Ohio Cure Advocacy Network (CAN), and with two Ohio State scientists, Phillip Popovich and Dana McTigue. The reason for the call was to mingle science and advocacy by discussing a new study from the Popovich lab that was made possible by CAN-channeled money from the Ohio legislature.

We are continuing to press our case for the critical value of the Minnesota SCI/TBI Research Grant Program. We're meeting with legislators, organizing advocates, talking to the media, sending messages and making phone calls. Please join the effort (no matter where you live) by sending Governor Walz a message or calling his office now. Simply share the following:

Our battle to preserve the Minnesota SCI/TBI Research Grant Program continues. And we need everyone from everywhere (any state or country) to call Governor Tim Walz and Rep. Connie Bernardy today before 3pm central time. And if you want to go the extra mile, call all the Committee Members.

Help U2FP advance curative interventions for those of us with an SCI - join Team U2FP for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. When you join Team U2FP, you'll receive guaranteed admission to one of the premier marathons in the United States. We've already filled several spots, but we'd love for you and your friends to join our roster of runners or wheelers!

Despite the challenges of 2020, U2FP continued to grow thanks to the on-going success of our initiatives, the deepening of our strategic partnerships with scientists, clinicians and industry leaders, and a demand from the SCI Community to bring our advocacy efforts to more states. In order to grow in a strategic and sustainable way, we’ve added 2 new staff members and 3 new board members. We’re excited about all of them and wanted you to meet them. Take a look!

We and the SCI/TBI community in Minnesota need your help. Minnesota's Governor, Tim Walz, has introduced a preliminary budget that defunds the $6M Minnesota SCI/TBI Research Grant Program. It is one of many cuts he's proposed to account for other deficits in the state budget. Please call Senator Tomassoni, Rep. Connie Bernardy and Governor Tim Walz asking them to keep this critical program in place.

Maybe you saw this spinal cord research news, it has gotten a lot of media traction in the past week, partly because there was before and after video of treated animals, and yep, they got better. Is this headline backed by any different news than all the other “mice got better” stories you’ve seen in the past 50 years? Breakthrough? Too soon to know. Groundbreaking? Ditto. Let’s say it deserves attention. Here's the gist ...

Team U2FP continues building its roster for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, on Sunday, October 10, 2021. We've already filled several spots, but we want you and your friends to join us! As one of the official charity teams for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon 2021, we provide guaranteed entries for the race in return for your commitment to fundraise for Spinal Cord Injury Research.

Anyone who’s experienced a life-altering trauma has this knowledge that sometimes things go terribly wrong. The lingering grief resides a couple of layers down, but the knowledge is always right there. Like a phantom doorway out on the corner of your mind. For me, this persistent knowledge requires a choice. Do I just acknowledge that it's there and go on about my business, do I ignore it or do I use it as fuel for change?

Check out this great new grant opportunity from our friends at the Neilsen Foundation, starting just after the new year!

As promised, we've just made public the first of six video segments from our Working 2 Walk Virtual Symposium this past October. If you weren't able to join us then, you can now watch the Clinical Research portion of the symposium on our video library page (or on our YouTube channel).

Jason and Matthew talk with Dr. Richard Toselli, the President, CEO and CMO at InVivo Therapeutics. InVivo has developed and is trialing its Neuro Spinal Scaffold for the treatment of Spinal Cord Injury in the acute setting. We talk with Dr. Toselli about its development, current testing and potential future uses and applications.

As 2020 comes to a close, I've been trying to take stock of the past 12 months. I know many of us have experienced deep and difficult pain. And that pain has been compounded by a sense of fear and the unknown. Fortunately, in my conversations with many of you, I've been encouraged (but not surprised) by our community's resilience and staying power. After all, we in the SCI Community were familiar with the concept of social distancing long before Covid-19 arrived.

Team U2FP is building its roster for next year - and we're looking for runners and wheelers to join our ranks for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon 2021! This coming year's race is on Sunday, October 12, 2021. As in years past, Team U2FP is an official Charity Partner for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. We have 25 spots to fill - and we want you!

Let's continue to raise our voice, share our struggles and joys together, and use the energy from this emotional roller coaster constructively to get ourselves and our loved ones the functional recovery they deserve.

Giving Tuesday is just a week away - next Tuesday, December 1st! What is Giving Tuesday? It's a global generosity movement, unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world.
We want to use this day of giving to encourage you to make a year-end gift, or become a monthly donor to U2FP. U2FP continues to work hard for the SCI Community, and these two groups of supporters have made a huge difference in our being able to make important gains, such as:

We are seeing the benefits of U2FP’s choice to facilitate proximity, collaboration and cross-fertilization. The research enterprise is now recognizing - and sometimes even requiring - that the SCI Community’s voice is heard at every intersection of advancement: discovery, translation, clinical study and commercial development. U2FP is already well-positioned at these intersections. That is the choice we’ve made and will continue to expand upon.

Team U2FP is building its roster for next year - and we're looking for runners and wheelers to join our ranks for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon 2021. Join Team U2FP! As one of the official charity teams for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon 2021, we provide guaranteed entries for the race in return for your commitment to fundraise for Spinal Cord Injury Research.

Could there finally be a bit of a bandwagon effect happening in spinal cord stimulation? There are clinical trials aplenty, including implanted stimulators and the ones that work on the skin surface, without surgery. There are now companies testing spinal cord stimulators with an eye on the market, trials with kids are happening, and there are SCI clinicians in the real world using stim devices that are commercially available, albeit not designed for paralysis.

As 2020 draws to a close, many of our supporters may be making arrangements for their year-end charitable contributions. Given the tumultuous year this has been, I wanted to make the SCI Community aware of some new tax incentives made available by the CARES ACT that was passed earlier this year. Hopefully, these recent additions to the tax code can help you maximize your giving potential while reducing your tax burden.

This year was my first opportunity to attend Unite 2 Fight Paralysis’ annual symposium: Working 2 Walk. I heard about this conference through my friend here in Ohio, Ian Burkhart, who has a C5 SCI. (You may also know Ian from U2FP's Cure Advocacy Network, where he and other SCI advocates helped secure $3M for SCI Research here in Ohio; or you may have read about his success with an experimental brain implant). When registration for Working 2 Walk opened, I also heard how impactful and meaningful this conference was from Drs. Phil Popovich and Dana McTigue, and so was excited to have a chance to be a part of it.

Jason and Matthew speak with Leon Ford about his advocacy and activism in Pittsburgh and across the United States. The conversation weaves in and through the wisdom that Leon has earned through tragedy, pain and self reflection...and its relationship to our work of protest and partnership.

This is it - the last day to register for the Working 2 Walk Virtual Symposium (Thursday, October 22nd - Saturday, October 24th). We still have deep discounts available (75%!) for Individuals with an SCI, their families and caregivers.

Working 2 Walk starts this week (!) on Thursday, October 22nd and runs through Saturday, October 24th. Registration closes tomorrow night, so don't wait - register now! Over the last couple months, we've been sending out summaries of the various stakeholder groups we'll be featuring at the Symposium. In case you missed any of them, here they are:

- Pre-Clinical Research: broadly defined as research done in laboratory experiments and animal models
- Clinical Research: research performed with humans
- Industry: companies that are trying to bring a research discovery to a clinical product
- Funder: agencies or foundations that fund research of all kinds
- SCI Advocacy: SCI foundations/nonprofit organizations working to influence all the above stakeholders

How things get made. There’s a whole slew of books, podcasts, YouTube channels and - if your social media feeds are anything like mine - lots and lots of short videos showing how all sorts of things are created from Twinkies to robots. Well, the next session highlight is a little bit like this, albeit more complicated: Industry

Stem cells are on the California ballot. Again. Sixteen years ago, voters overwhelmingly supported Proposition 71, which created the $3 billion California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The agency has spent just about all the money, and they’re asking for more, Proposition 14, this time for $5.5 billion. If they don’t get it they will either disband or adapt, perhaps as a nonprofit of some sort.

Today, we’re giving you a summary of the pre-clinical research session at this year's Working 2 Walk Symposium. Pre-clinical research can be roughly defined as the relationship between discovery and early stage translation toward clinical use.

For some of us, the roots of our grief are inextricably wound up in the urgency to realize curative therapies. But grief is not enough and often not the best guide. We must grow our knowledge of the science and the various systems within which it operates in order to fund research well.

Jason and Matthew interview professional climber and passionate spinal cord injury advocate, Quinn Brett. We talk with Quinn about her career as a climber, the 100 foot fall from the face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park that dropped her into our SCI community, and how she’s navigating the ascents of advocacy.

One of the first steps in being an advocate for finding a cure for paralysis is to elect officials that will listen to our concerns, obtain research funding, and enact legislation to improve our quality of life and work with us to find a cure.

We are continuing to feature each of our 5 key stakeholder sessions at Working 2 Walk. Today we want to talk about the SCI Advocacy Session (You can read the summary of the clinical research session from the last newsletter here). Attendees will hear from 3 individuals from the SCI community - from 3 different parts of the world - about how they see the problem of spinal cord injury, how they are addressing it, and where they believe we need to go ...

Spinal cord nerves don’t grow in adults, but once upon a time, when we were embryos, these cells grew like crazy. What happened to their growth motor, could we find it and turn cell growth back on, especially after injury?

This year’s Working 2 Walk Symposium is coming up quick, and we’re going to be dropping these notes to explain a little bit of the agenda in the hope that it will stir your thoughts and generate questions that will lead to some critical and valuable conversations for all of our attendees.

How do we create longevity within a movement? We foster community. We connect. We find joy together so we can fight together. Simon Rosser, PhD, MPH made me hip to this concept over a conversation we had during production for SUBMERGED. I was interviewing Dr. Rosser about his involvement with AIDS activism in the 80’s and 90’s, how their community accomplished what they did, and the things we, as the SCI community searching for a cure, could learn from their efforts.

Sometimes I fear that our community is not expected to venture into the deep end of this pool. But we are asking you - the SCI Community - to seek deeper waters. It's one of the main reasons U2FP exists: to educate and unite our community towards an effective relationship with the whole cure enterprise, its strategies and one another.

In our latest CureCast interview, Jason Stoffer and Matthew Rodreick speak with long time activists and twins, Jason and David Carmel. David was injured over two decades ago while vacationing in Mexico. He has gone on to a successful career in biotech. Jason is a PhD / MD researcher at Columbia University who researches activity based therapies and electrical stimulation. Their unique connection as twins weaves in and through our conversation for a unique perspective on their journey, work and activism after SCI.

Jason and Matthew interview Dr. Gregoire Courtine, the Chief Science Officer of GTX Medical and Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Dr. Courtine has been researching spinal cord stimulation for over 20 years and is hoping to bring that research to clinical relevance with emerging clinical trials with GTX’s LIFT (non-invasive electrical spinal cord stimulation) and GO2 (targeted epidural spinal stimulation).

If you follow spinal cord injury research, you will sooner or later come across the name Bob Yant. If you don’t yet know him, let me introduce you to the ultimate cure warrior.