We convened our first-ever Cure Summit on Friday 25 October at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), bringing together key SpinalCure funded researchers along with renowned Australian SCI research experts to discuss collaboration opportunities, while also brainstorming new ideas and blue-sky thinking in the SCI space.
Led by SpinalCure CEO Kathryn Borkovic and Executive Director Duncan Wallace, the meeting was attended by Professor Marc Ruitenberg from the University of Queensland who leads research investigating the inflammatory and immune response to acute SCIs, Professor Jane Butler and the Spinal Cord Injury Research Centre (SCIRC) team from NeuRA leading the Project Spark neurostimulation clinical trials, as well as Professor Sylvia Gustin and her colleagues from the NeuroRecovery Research Hub at UNSW, who lead The Avatar Project which SpinalCure has helped to facilitate as a result of lobbying efforts with the NSW Government, as well as Dr Ramón Martinez-Marmol from the Queensland Brain Institute.
Exploring cross-pollination between acute and chronic SCI research
According to SpinalCure Executive Director Duncan Wallace, a key takeaway from the meeting was the potential to better align research in the acute and chronic stages of SCI. Specifically, there is an opportunity for a collaboration between the Ruitenberg Lab and NeuRA SCIRC teams to explore neurostimulation as an experimental therapy for SCI patients in the acute phase (i.e. a new injury).
“To date, the neurostimulation work that we’ve funded via our Project Spark clinical trials has tested the therapy on chronic-stage SCI patients, which is more than one year post injury,” explained Duncan. “Bringing NeuRA’s expertise in this area together with Marc Ruitenberg’s laboratory work identifying biomarkers (from blood samples) that accurately predict the recovery of acute-stage SCI patients, unlocks the opportunity to test neurostimulation as a treatment for newly injured people.”
Guiding the course of Australia’s first national Roadmap to a Cure
Another important component of the meeting was a think-tank discussion about SpinalCure’s national Roadmap to a Cure, which is currently in the consultation phase and flagged for launch in the first half of 2025. The first of its kind in Australia, the Roadmap will not only serve to guide SpinalCure’s research efforts, but we also hope it will bring stakeholders together to work on an agreed set of priorities.
“The meeting served as a great opportunity to get some of Australia’s top cure-focused SCI researchers across the progress that we’ve made with the Roadmap and take them on the journey with its development,” added Wallace. “Our discussion also helped flesh out additional factors that will help advance cure-focused SCI research in Australia such as introducing a national database of volunteers for SCI clinical trials and the facilitation of an SCI patient biobank. Overall, our path to a cure is becoming much clearer,” he concluded.
Our sincere thanks to Professor Jane Butler and the NeuRA team for hosting the meeting, and to all the scientists who gave up their time to make it a success.
