Shepherd Center is a world-renowned center for neurorehabilitation research. Clinical studies are conducted in collaboration with leading experts at other hospitals, research centers, medical schools and universities, and industries from around the world at Shepherd Center’s Virginia C. Crawford Research Institute. Shepherd Center’s research activities primarily focus on spinal cord injury, brain injury, multiple sclerosis and neuromuscular disorders. The Center works to develop, refine and evaluate new treatments, drugs, surgical techniques, diagnostic tools and various therapy interventions. In the field of spinal cord injury, Shepherd Center supports translational and clinical research efforts in the areas of paralysis, spasticity, pain, autonomic dysfunction and other consequences of spinal cord injury. The Spinal Cord Injury Research Program at Shepherd Center is especially interested in the idea of restorative neurology and carries out studies that address the recovery of function in residual, reorganized or regenerated neural circuitry in patients with spinal cord injury. The Spinal Cord Injury Research Program at Shepherd Center has developed a human laboratory called SCIL (Spinal Cord Injury Lab) to expand its capacity to translate discoveries made in basic science research to studies in humans with spinal cord injury. We hope to better understand how changes in the nervous system brought about by treatment can be enhanced to improve recovery or gain recovery in patients that don’t improve with current therapeutic interventions.
http://www.shepherd.org/research/spinal-cord-injury