Year 3

We are on schedule with our research plan, having made progress on the last two AIMs of the proposal according to schedule. The goal of the 4th AIM was to transplant cells to the spinal cord of rats and see if they connect to muscle in the limbs that had been engineered to express an attractant for the processes of the cells in the spinal cord. We confirmed that we can induce the muscle in the limbs to express the attractant, and have the cells in the spinal cord survive, differentiate appropriately, become connected in the spinal cord to other circuits, and extend processes. In addition, we have evidence that these treatments benefit the locomotor ability of the rats. We wrote a scientific article concerning some of this work, and it was accepted for publication in an excellent journal. The goal of the 5th AIM was to document regulatory oversight for the project, to ensure compliance with FDA policies. We have generated FDA-compliant paperwork for all of our studies to date. Thus, our progress is in line with the original proposal.