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IImagine six of the world’s best scientists, locked in a room, ready to take on the world’s most devastating and incurable condition: spinal cord injury paralysis.
Exaggeration? Well, yes. The doors will not be locked at the Paul D. Coverdell Center at the University of Georgia.
Paralysis has been called incurable since the days of the Pharaohs, when a pictogram on the wall of an Egyptian tomb grimly noted: “Of paralyzed soldiers, deny them water, let them die – there is nothing that can be done.” Until today, that was the world’s opinion.
“Spinal Cord Injury: What Are The Barriers to Cure?”, a one-day workshop, a unique example of scientific cooperation: working together, isolating obstacles to paralysis.
And the scientists?
And an invited panel of more experts with equally impressive credentials, such as:
The result will be a “facts and needs” position paper, to bring together what must be done to alleviate the devastating condition of spinal cord injury paralysis.
Hosted by the UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, in cooperation with THE SHEPHERD CENTER, the event will take place MARCH 29TH, at Paul D. Coverdell Center, 500 D.W. Brooks Drive, Room 175, Athens, GA 30602 on March 29, 2008, 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM.
On Friday, March 28th, Mrs. Alana Shepherd is hosting a special tour of the new SHEPHERD CENTER for media and workshop speakers from 4-6 PM including a light supper. RSVP required.
For more information, email: info@bedfordresearch.org
Register online at: http://www.bedfordresearch.org/spinalworkshop
Registration fee is $35.00 per person.
For additional press information, contact:
Allison Kiessling at 781-718-7894, or
Loch Jones at 310-480-1234
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—- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE —-
March 10, 2008
WRITER: Rebecca Ayer, 706/583-0578, alea@uga.edu
CONTACT: Allison Kiessling at 781-718-7894, or
Loch Jones at 310-480-1234
Athens, GA. – The University of Georgia will be the host site for the Spinal Cord Workshop, a day long event that brings together leaders in neurosurgery, neurology and basic science, to identify current barriers and solutions to restoring spinal cord function following injury.
The workshop, titled “Spinal Cord Injury: What Are The Barriers To Cure?,” will be held March 29 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Paul D. Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences on the University of Georgia campus.
The Bedford Stem Cell Research Foundation, the UGA Regenerative Bioscience Center and the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, will conduct and organize the event.
The goal of the workshop is to bring together medical and scientific expertise to identify barriers to reversal of the neurologic damage that follow spinal cord injury, and describe what is needed to overcome those barriers. The emerging field of stem cell therapy may hold special promise, but specifics about cell differentiation, method of delivery and outcome measures need to be developed. The leaders in the field need the support and collaboration necessary to realize the potential for spinal cord injury cures that now exists.
During the morning session, the workshop’s faculty will present each of the major areas of research. During the afternoon session, the faculty will focus on summarizing and targeting the current barriers in each area. At the end of the day, all these presentations will culminate in a list of these barriers and discussion of next steps for moving the research forward.
The workshop will produce a “facts and needs” positions paper for education and emphasis on specific resources to cure spinal cord injury, sooner rather than later.
Workshop faculty are:
Created in 1996, the Bedford Stem Cell Research Foundation is a Massachusetts-based public charity and biomedical institute that exists to conduct stem cell and related research for diseases and conditions that currently have no cure.
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