Funds are requested for five years to support the Core Facilities of the Spinal Cord Injury Center. These facilities have a critical role in providing an environment for intensive and rigorous investigations of spinal cord injury. The primary role of the Core Facilities will be provision of surgical, basic physiological monitoring, biochemical, histological, and computer support for the investigators in the laboratory. Service contracts for the instruments used by all the investigators will be carried by the Core Facilities. Dr. Vincent DeCrescito will be charge of the core facilities, staffed by two half-time senior technicians. A half- time secretary will provide the administrative support for the Center. In addition, the Core Facilities will support two postdoctoral spinal cord injury fellows, one of whom will have a basic science background (Ph.D) and the other will have a clinical background (M.D. post-residency). The fellowships will be two years long and are aimed at training well-qualified scientists and clinicians to become independent investigators in basic and clinical spinal cord injury research. Each fellow will rotate through the different projects during the first year of the two-year fellowship and then spend the second year working one of the projects.
