The objectives for this contract are to (1) undertake replications of promising published studies reporting interventions to promote recovery after spinal cord injury focusing especially on strategies to promote regeneration and interventions in a sub-acute or chronic injury setting;(2) compare the efficacy of different individual treatments and treatment combinations. The overall reationale of the replication project is to determine the reproducibility and robustness of potential SCI treatments so as to identify potential therapies suitable for translation to pre-clinical and eventually clinical testing. We propose to carry out a minimum of 5 studies that involve manipulations to enhance axon regeneration or 10 studies of interventions during the acute post-injury period designed to enhance recovery of function, or a combination of the two as determined through selection by an independent Scientific Steering Committee. These replications will be augmented with additional groups or analyses that test either combination strategies that make sense within the framcwork of the methods of the original studies or provide a direct comparison of the original work with novel treatment groups or both.
