Today's conversation features my co-host Jason Stoffer, our new development director, Quinn Brett, and their filmmaker and adventure buddy Robbie Prechtl. Last year, Jason and Quinn completed a rim to rim trip of the Grand Canyon on handcycles(!). They were accompanied by Rob and a team of friends who came along for the adventure and assistance. In case you don’t know, doing a rim to rim journey through the Grand Canyon means descending down to the basin of the canyon and then coming back up on ...
Feb 02, 2024•1 hr 14 min
Every year, U2FP puts on an annual science and advocacy symposium. It's a two day event where we bring together people from the SCI community, researchers, clinicians, industry representatives, and funders in an effort to educate our community about the science of curative therapies. We also hope it provides them with a better understanding of the scientific enterprise. But it’s also a conference to educate folks in the scientific community by hearing directly from individuals who live with a sp...
Jan 19, 2024•14 min
Today we are speaking with Dimitry Sayenko. Dimitry is an MD, PhD and an associate professor in Neuromodulation and Nuerosurgery at Houston Methodist Hospital, in Houston, Texas. Our conversation starts off with an exploration of Dimitry’s fascinating beginnings, studying muscle atrophy and bone density in the context of aerospace in both Russia and the U.S. We also talk about his current work studying transcutaneous electrical stimulation and end with a lively exchange of when new discoveries s...
Jan 05, 2024•1 hr 9 min
Today’s conversation is a highly anticipated one. For years we’ve been hearing about the groundbreaking work of Jerry Silver to render the injury scar permeable to axon growth. That work led to development of the pharmacologic NVG-291 and the associated company NervGen Pharma. The research has finally advanced to a human SCI clinical trial, led by Monica Perez, PT, PhD, who's today's guest. Dr. Perez is the scientific chair of the Arm and Hands Lab at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and a Professor of P...
Dec 19, 2023•1 hr 14 min
Today we’re talking with Ceren Yarar-Fisher, PhD, PT. Dr. Yarar-Fisher is Vice Chair of Research of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in the Dept. of Neuroscience at The Ohio State University. She’s also the director of clinical research at the Belford Center for Spinal Cord Injury. In this episode, we start off exploring the unique origins of Ceren’s interest in science and later spinal cord injury. We also talk about her research interest in SCI functional recovery through rehabilitation an...
Dec 01, 2023•1 hr 18 min
Our guest today is Meghan Moynihan. Megan is the executive director of the Institute for Functional Restoration, or IFR, a not-for-profit organization based at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. The IFR seeks to further functional recovery in spinal cord injury by developing commercial strategies to get that research to market. We discuss Megan's background as a researcher and her unique perspective based on 17 years with the Food and Drug Administration along with her current w...
Nov 17, 2023•51 min
Our conversation today is with David McMillan, an assistant professor at the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, Department of Neurological Surgery, and Director of Education and Outreach for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. Jason and Julie recorded this interview with David onsite at this year's Science and Advocacy Symposium in Minneapolis, where we had a booth set up. The conversation is more casual than our usual ones and is completely unscripted. David was walking ...
Nov 03, 2023•37 min
Today’s episode is a bit different. We’re turning the mic towards our own work here at U2FP to let you in on what’s cooking. Jason and Matthew begin by discussing some unique developments with our Team U2FP racers involving extreme heat, adaptive trikes, and a trek along the rim of the Grand Canyon(!). We also discuss U2FP’s upcoming symposium, including how we designed the spinal stim panel, our focus on approaches that combine more than one curative avenue (eg stimulation + stem cells, etc) al...
Oct 13, 2023•34 min
Today we are talking with Yi-Kai Lo and Katie Velez of the SCI research and tech company, Aneuvo. Anuevo has been busy working with investors, the FDA, and multiple research sites to clinically deploy the ExaStim, a novel transcutaneous stimulation device. The goal of their current ASPIRE study is to improve upper limb function. We discuss Dr. Lo’s background in tech and how he was inspired to put that training to use in the field of spinal cord injury. We learn about his drive to pursue challen...
Sep 29, 2023•1 hr 4 min
The topic of today’s conversation is the Vagus nerve. In Latin, Vagus means wandering or straying, which this conversation does a fair bit of due to the interesting subject matter. Our guide on this path is Dr. Patrick Ganzer of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. Dr. Ganzer gives us a great overview of the vagus nerve including its possible evolutionary benefits, early explorations and its unique attributes. More importantly, Dr. Ganzer explains how the vagus nerve can be stimulated to open a ...
Sep 15, 2023•1 hr 5 min
Today's guest is Dr. Kim Anderson, a friend and a very influential researcher who we have a really great conversation with. We begin with the story of her spinal cord injury along with her early studies and research, and that leads into one of the things she’s known for: her work on patient preference as a result of directly surveying the spinal cord injury community. Finally, we explore how this trajectory in her work influenced the research community going forward. I think you're going to enjo...
Sep 01, 2023•1 hr 2 min
Today, our guest is Louise Phipps Senft. Louise is the mother to a son with an SCI, and founder of Blink of an Eye, a nonprofit organization that is committed to addressing that initial moment when everything changes after a spinal cord injury. A big theme of this conversation is trauma. And one of the things that arises in our dialogue with Louise is how this emotional trauma kind of goes under or undiagnosed – both with the injured person AND with the family and the extended community. Louise ...
Aug 18, 2023•1 hr 14 min
What you are about to hear is one of the richest conversations we’ve ever had on the show. Our guests today are Gabriel Rodreick (Matthew’s son) and Julie Censullo (CureCast producer) who are here to discuss an audio-art project they created together called “Life Begins in the Stillness” - which we play at the top of the episode. We then dive into their relationship with spinal cord injury, with each other, with art and with the creative process. This conversation goes deep into the ripple effec...
Aug 04, 2023•1 hr 37 min
CureCast co-host Jason Stoffer was injured 5 and ½ years ago. Earlier this year, his friend Lewis Johnson sustained a spinal cord injury. The similarities are uncanny: they were both in the same career field; they both went to the same inpatient hospital; and they both attended the same inpatient rehab facility. For Jason, the big question on the table is this: What has changed in 5 years? What progress are we making? Are newly injured folks getting the same message I got from my clinicians? We ...
Jul 21, 2023•1 hr 16 min
What if we could take all the neural trash that forms in the spinal cord after an injury, the stuff that hinders connectivity, and turn it into treasure? This is the idea behind cellular reprogramming. Today's podcast guest, Dr. Arshak Alexanian, is a biochemist and the Chief Scientific Officer at the Wisconsin biotech firm, Cell Reprogramming & Therapuetics, LLC. We met Dr. Alexanian not too long ago while advocating for our $3M SCI Research Grant bill in the Wisconsin legislature. Dr. Alex...
Jul 07, 2023•55 min
Today's guest on the podcast is Kym Eisner, the executive director of the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation. This year happens to be the Neilsen Foundation’s 20th anniversary. For those who are unfamiliar with the Foundation, its namesake Craig H. Neilsen, was an entrepreneur who sustained a spinal cord injury in 1985 and formed the foundation in 2002. This was an attempt to catalyze research and support for people living with a spinal cord injury. In the last 20 years, The Neilsen Foundation has cont...
Jun 23, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Have you ever wondered what it feels like to participate in an SCI clinical research trial? How do you find out about these trials? How do you find out about these trials? Does anyone make a recovery? What are some reasons that you might take the leap - or not? On today’s podcast, you’ll get some answers to these questions and many more. Our guests, Mandy Mackenzie and Laura Grabowski, have each participated in a number of clinical trials and we’ve put them in the hot seat to give you an idea wh...
Jun 09, 2023•1 hr 16 min
Today’s episode is a rebroadcast of our conversation with Grégoire Courtine from two years ago. Dr. Courtine has been pivotal in the successful application of epidural stimulation in humans with SCI, in both his research and device commercialization. In this episode, we talk about Dr. Courtine’s motivation to study spinal cord injury and epidural stimulation in particular. We discuss the translation of his early rodent model research into humans and the mechanism of the therapy, such as targeted...
May 12, 2023•33 min
Today our guest is Dan Hellenbrand, a renaissance man of sorts. Dan sustained a cervical injury (C5-6) as a carpenter back in 2003 and ended up going back to school to become a SCI researcher, as well as an advocate for curative therapies. We have an interesting conversation about early physical therapy, the role of belief and competition with yourself and how that aids recovery. We also discuss Dan’s research and interest in mitigating early damage at the injury site, acute versus chronic injur...
Apr 28, 2023•1 hr 5 min
Today's conversation is a rebroadcast of our interview with Samuel Stupp back in 2022. We thought it was a good time to revisit this conversation, given Dr. Stupp’s most recent publication, which you can learn more about below in the summary review done by U2FP’s science writer, Sam Maddox. More info and research links here: https://u2fp.org/get-educated/curecast/episode-76.html As always, please share your thoughts with us via email at curecast@u2fp.org. Thanks for listening!
Apr 14, 2023•58 min
Today’s episode revisits important elements and loose ends of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) that didn’t fit neatly into the arc of our first three conversations on this topic. We’re calling this installment the ‘Junk Drawer’ - not because we consider these loose ends to be junk, but because they represent the multi-directional potential of stimulation’s promise that are on the horizon. This includes strategies we haven't fully broached such as combination therapies and clinical trials that are i...
Mar 31, 2023•1 hr 14 min
Today we talk with Bill Murphy, a bioengineer out of the University of Wisconsin Madison. We recently met Dr. Murphy when he came to the Wisconsin Capitol in support of our $3M SCI Research Grant bill back in January. Bill’s team has been working on developing biomaterials to improve the body’s ability to receive and utilize Chondroitinase ABC (ChABC). ChABC is an enzyme that holds lots of promise for jump starting axon regeneration, a key element for repairing the damaged spinal cord. But ChABC...
Mar 17, 2023•1 hr 13 min
This is the third and final (for now) installment of our 101 tour of spinal stimulation. We're joined again by Sam Maddox, U2FP's Scientific Advisory Board Director and veteran science journalist. Today, we discuss the commercialization of spinal stim, detailing the path that these therapies will need to traverse to arrive at the market. We talk about how labs and businesses are organized and review some of the challenges they face, including obtaining FDA approval, getting funded, and organizin...
Mar 02, 2023•1 hr 13 min
We’re continuing our conversation around spinal cord stimulation in part 2 of this multi-episode series with Sam Maddox, a long-time SCI science writer and U2FP’s Scientific Advisory Board Director. Today we’re going to focus on what’s happening currently with some spinal stimulation researchers, what clinical outcomes they are targeting, how they are connected to each other and how their approaches differ. Additionally, you’ll hear Matthew and Sam share the insight they gained from their time a...
Feb 16, 2023•1 hr 5 min
Jason and Matthew talk with U2FP Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) Director and Science Writer, Sam Maddox in the first part of our series on Spinal Stimulation. We’ve been thinking about the need for a discussion on what spinal stimulation is, why it's been studied so extensively, who are the influential scientists and players in the space, the trajectory of where and how it started as an exploration for restoring function in SCI, and - most importantly - what this all means for folks with a spin...
Feb 03, 2023•52 min
Jason and Matthew interview Jim Harris, a wilderness photographer who was injured in 2014. Jim was recently featured in Outside Magazine regarding his experience with psilocybin and its connection to some restored mobility. This conversation is a follow-up to our previous podcast with Dr. Jessica Nielson on the potential use of psilocybin after SCI. However, in this episode, we specifically focus on one of our community member's direct experience with exploring the use of psychedelics and his ad...
Jan 19, 2023•1 hr 24 min
The research of psychedelics as a therapeutic for anxiety, depression, and PTSD has gained a lot of traction over the last decade. Given their potent effects on the nervous system, what are the unique benefits and possible side effects of psychedelics for the SCI population? And further, what is their potential to elicit functional recovery? If you ask the community, it doesn’t take long to find anecdotal evidence that the benefits go beyond just the psychological realm. Read Jim Harris’ account...
Dec 17, 2022•57 min
Matthew and Jason talk with Ann Van de Winckel, a researcher and physical therapist at the University of Minnesota, Medical School, who is doing fascinating work to help restore body awareness below the level of injury - yes, you read that right - using cognitive multisensory rehabilitation (CMR). Dr. Van de Winckel’s work is showing reductions in neuropathic pain, sensation and motor recovery with people who’ve suffered from spinal cord injury. This discussion spans Ann’s unique blending of Eas...
Oct 19, 2022•1 hr 16 min
This episode features Thomas Cloyd, who is competing in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon for Team U2FP next Sunday, October 9th. Thomas’ reasons for joining Team U2FP go well beyond just this race. His history with U2FP goes back almost a decade when he helped Matthew Rodreick and others in the SCI community pass the SCI/TBI Research Grant bill here in Minnesota in 2015. That bill was the catalyst for U2FP’s Cure Advocacy Network (CAN), which has now passed over $25M in SCI research funding ...
Sep 30, 2022•54 min
Jason and Mathew talk with Andrew Park, a clinician-researcher at Craig Rehabilitation Hospital in Denver, Colorado. Jason met Andrew while in Denver for one of U2FP’s Cure Advocacy Network stakeholder meetings last February. During that meeting, Andrew’s passion for his work became evident. In this podcast, we talk about what’s behind that passion, including: his path to becoming a researcher; his research interests and philosophy; a system-level path to functional recovery for the SCI communit...
Sep 07, 2022•1 hr 22 min
