A $2.28 million federal grant from the National Institute on Disability & Rehabilitation Research will be used by the Kessler Foundation to fund the Northern New Jersey Spinal Cord Injury System (NNJSCIS).
NNJSCIS is a system of care, research, education and dissemination to improve the quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries (SCI).
The five-year grant will be used to “continue to examine obstacles to recovery and full participation in our community,” said Trevor Dyson-Hudson, M.D., co-director of NNJSCIS and interim director of SCI research at Kessler Foundation.
“Everything changes for the person with spinal cord injury, not just mobility,” Dyson-Hudson added. “That’s why we also look at factors that are important to overall quality of life, like access to medical care, pain management, employment and aging with a spinal cord injury. What we learn here in New Jersey furthers research for all people with spinal cord injury.”
Kessler Foundation’s work will include a study of “a combination therapy using dalfampridine, a drug recently approved to improve walking in patients with multiple sclerosis, with a standardized program of locomotor training,” according to a news release about the grant. Locomotor training is described as a rehabilitative intervention that has improved walking and other functional outcomes in people with SCI.
