• Accomplishments
• Contact

• Research
• Spinal Cord Injury Projects
  • Bone Marrow Grafts for Spinal Cord Repair
  • Corticospinal Regeneration
  • EphA4 Peptide Inhibitors for Neurotrauma Treatment
  • Macrophage Cytotoxicity after SCI
  • Matrix Technology for Spinal Cord Repair
  • National Study of Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Outcomes
  • New Treatments for Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries
  • Novel Sodium Channel Blockers
  • Singing in Spinal Cord Injury
  • Sleep Health in Tetraplegia
  • Spinal Cord Recovery in the Opossum
• Traumatic Brain Injury Projects
• Targeted Initiatives
• Completed TBI and SCI Projects
• Program Grants

Spinal Cord Recovery in the Opossum

Mechanisms of Recovery Following Spinal Cord Injury in Neonatal Mondodelphis Domestica (South American Opossum)

Chief Investigator: Professor Norman Saunders
Associate Investigators: Associate Professor Kate Dziegielewska, Dr Samantha Richardson, Professor Dalton Dietrich, Dr Helen Stolp, Dr Jessie Truettner, Dr Paul Samollow
Lead Organisation: University of Melbourne
VNI Funding: $1,095,114
Project Start Date: 01-Feb-07

Project Summary:
The aim of this project is to understand the mechanisms by which an immature spinal cord, unlike the adult one, is able to repair itself following injury. The study will be in a marsupial, South American Opossum because marsupials are born at an extremely early stage of development; thus experiments can be carried out in the newborn rather than in the unborn foetus. This ""proteomics"" study will determine changes in gene products (proteins) that occur in spinal cords between an age when recovery occurs (one week after birth) and an age when it does not (one month after birth).