Individual Research Grants

Curing paralysis and the loss of function that spinal cord injuries cause will take a carefully orchestrated series of interventions, each tailored to the individual patient.  For this reason, the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation's Individual Grants Program, its largest and most comprehensive, supports research on a variety of fronts, including axon growth and guidance, remyelination, cellular replacement, rehabilitation and neuroprotection.  These projects are investigator initiated, meaning that scientists conceive of and plan their research projects based on state-of-the-art knowledge and technologies.  Findings from these studies can reach beyond spinal cord injury to impact other devastating diseases such as Parkinson's Alzheimer's, Multiple Sclerosis, ALS, and stroke. For more detail on the individual research grants program please visit the Individual Grants page in the scientists' section of the CDRF website.

Core Pilot Program

The new CDRF Core Pilot Program offers scientists working in other areas of neuroscience the opportunity to see if their research has relevance to spinal cord injury. Successful applicants can access the resources of the CDRF Spinal Cord Injury Laboratory at the University of California Irvine to design and conduct experiments in SCI animal models. For more detail on the Core Pilot Program please visit the Core Pilot Program page in the scientists' section of the CDRF website.

NeuroRecovery Network

The endgame for CDRF is to translate discovery science findings to the clinic and to that end, the Foundation, through a Grant/Cooperative Agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has created the NeuroRecovery Network.  This is a strategic program to develop specialized Centers to deliver intensive activity-based rehabilitation treatments to people with spinal cord injury and other select neurological disorders, based on continually evolving scientific and clinical evidence.  The initial treatment offered is Locomotor Training using body weight support on a treadmill.  In this new form of rehabilitation, patients are hoisted over treadmills and helped to move their feet in stepping motions.  Over time, as they repeat the stepping movements again and again and gradually bear more weight, their spinal cords below the injury level seem to reawaken and activate the leg and foot muscles involved in walking and standing.  The NeuroRecovery Network is the latest in CDRF's expanding research strategy to develop and deliver effective therapies to people who are spinal cord injured. For more detail on the NeuroRecovery Network please visit the NeuroRecovery Network page in the scientists' section of the CDRF website.

International Research Consortium on Spinal Cord Injury

The mission of the Foundation's International Research Consortium on Spinal Cord Injury is to promote repair and functional recovery in the chronically injured spinal cord.  The Consortium does this through collaborative research focused on leveraging the intrinsic capacity of the adult brain and spinal cord to repair and remodel themselves after injury.  Consortium members believe that tissue repair, activators and enhancers of regeneration, inhibitors of growth, and physical therapy and training are the cornerstones of reversing damage to the spinal cord.  Their strategy is to integrate them into carefully orchestrated therapies to maximize recovery of mobility, function, and independence. For more detail on the International Research Consortium on Spinal Cord Injury please visit the International Research Consortium on Spinal Cord Injury page in the scientists' section of the CDRF website.

North American Clinical Trials Network (NACTN)

Until CDRF launched its North American Clinical Trials Network (NACTN), there was a notable lack of infrastructure in place for sharing data and standardizing treatment protocols across North American research centers.  NACTN, with five leading clinical research centers and a biostatistical center, has filled that void.  The Network's singular focus is to bring promising therapies out of the laboratory and into their proper place in the quest for a cure, in a manner that provides incontrovertible evidence of effectiveness and safety.  The Network is collaborating with a similar-minded European consortium to define the "natural history" of spinal cord injury, create an international database of carefully characterized spinal cord patients, and refine outcome measures for treatment.  In the process, the groups are building the foundation for a global cross-collaboration that will help speed therapeutic development and get useful therapies to people who need them. For more detail on the North American Clinical Trials Network please visit the North American Clinical Trials Network page in the scientists' section of the CDRF website.