Dr. Davies Research :
In the blink of an eye, Ayre’s co-founder and Research Director, Charles
Hansen’s entire life was turned upside-down. In 2006 he was struck by an
out-of-control motorcycle while riding his bicycle, leaving him with over
30 broken bones, two punctured lungs, and other extensive injuries. He
has recovered from all of the injuries but one—a spinal cord injury
(SCI) that left him completely paralyzed below the chest.
At the present time there is no known therapy effective in treating these devastating injuries to the spinal cord. In fact pioneering neurosurgeon Ramón y Cajal, who won the Nobel prize in 1906 for his discoveries in that field, declared that the mature human nervous system was incapable of regeneration. For nearly a century Cajal’s proclamation was taken as absolute truth. But the discovery of stem cells in recent decades has created a new window into solving the problems of repairing SCI’s.
Perhaps the most dramatic results have come from UK-born researcher,
Stephen Davies, Ph.D., now based at the University of Colorado School of
Medicine in Denver. In experiments that can only be described as coming
tantalizingly close to providing a cure, Dr. Davies first trained
laboratory rats to walk across a grid without making missteps. After
partially severing their spinal cords so that walking was slow and
uncoordinated, he treated them with preparations of stem cells that had
been guided to become the precursors to a type of support cell for the
nervous system called glia.
The results were nothing short of miraculous. Within a few weeks all of the rats were walking across the grid normally again! Analysis of their spinal cords showed regrowth across the site of the injury of over 40%, while the previous record had been less than 5%. Dr. Davies and his team have been making successful progress with this research for several years now. The next step to turning this into an effective treatment for SCI's is to begin human trials. This is an expensive process that involves additional lab studies in order to gain FDA approval.
Dr. Davies’ work can be accelerated dramatically simply by providing extra funding. That is why Ayre Acoustics, Inc. is proud to be a sponsor of Dr. Davies’ research team. You too can make a difference! Give on-line at the
University of Colorado Neuro-Repair Surgery Fund
and all donations go directly to Dr. Davies’ lab. Donations are
tax-deductible for US citizens, as the CU Foundation is a registered
501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Here is a short video introduction to Dr. Davies, his lab, and his research.
A summary Dr. Davies wrote about his work can be read here
Making the Right “Star Cells” for Repairing Spinal Cord Injuries.
A general overview of Dr. Davies’ research is outlined in this article from Telegraph.co.uk
Special nerve cells could be key to treating spinal injuries.
There are two highly technical groundbreaking research papers available at the Journal of Biology.
Astrocytes derived from glial-restricted precursors promote spinal cord repair
Transplanted astrocytes derived from BMP- or CNTF-treated glial-restricted precursors have opposite effects on recovery and allodynia after spinal cord injury
Unfortunately funding in the USA for medical breakthroughs (such as the one Dr. Davies is working on) is bogged down both by bureaucratic red tape and structural deficiencies. Newsweek recently published an excellent
article outlining the problems we are facing as a nation. For
example a cure for osteoporosis exists, but has been stopped dead by the
Patent Office for the last ten years. (Both Europe and Japan have granted
patents, but the US Patent Office has refused.) The only way to short–circuit
the problems and bring a cure to those who need it is directly
through private donations.
Please join the team working to cure spinal cord injuries. Currently
there are over 1 million Americans living with SCI’s with over 11,000 new
cases every year. Additionally, Dr. Davies’ research will potentially
have implications in helping other forms of damage to the central nervous
system—stroke, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and more.
Your donation will make a difference!
Update - March 2011
Dr. Davies continues to make progress in his work. In his latest published paper, he and his team have shown that using human stem-cell derivatives produce even better results in repairing spinal-cord injuries in rats than using the equivalent cells derived from rats. The implications of this cross-species experiment are yet to be fully appreciated, but perhaps the most important take-home lesson is that Dr. Davies is one step closer to applying his ground-breaking techniques to human subjects. The full paper (highly technical) is available for both viewing and as a free download here.
At the annual Working2Walk conference in 2010, Dr. Davies gave an exciting (and fairly technical) overview of his work, available as a video here.
I personally urge you to support this important work by making a tax-deductible contribution to the University of Colorado Neuro-Repair Surgery Fund. A single dollar per day - $30 per month - will make an impact. Please join me in making regular contributions to support Dr. Davies' research.
Thank you,
Charles Hansen
President, Ayre Acoustics, Inc.