Spinal repair trial offers new hope

Medical research that transforms lives takes brilliance, teamwork and resources. It can also take decades, which is the case as scientists launch an ambitious clinical trial to restore movement in patients with paralysis. The goal is to promote new nerve connections by surgically implanting the patients’ own cells into the site of their spinal cord injuries. The operations, on 30 patients from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, will be conducted at the Gold Coast Hospital by Brisbane-based neurosurgeons. They are working in tandem with a team headed by James St John, head of the Clem Jones Centre for Neurobiology and Stem Cell Research at Griffith University.

Such progress, over time, depends on funding no less than on scientific endeavour, which is why philanthropic and taxpayer support is being put to outstanding use in this trial.

Funding has come from several sources, public and private, including the spinal injury community and the Perry Cross Spinal Research Foundation, which raised $8.5m to support the work, which involves bioengineers, medical doctors, biological scientists and educators. Perry Cross, who became a C2 ventilated quadriplegic after a rugby accident in 1994, has dedicated his life to helping find a cure for paralysis.

As Natasha Robinson reports, the project is the culmination of the groundbreaking research of the late Australian stem cell expert and Australian of the Year Alan Mackay-Sim, whose work led to the first operation, in Poland, that enabled a paralysed man to walk again.

The potential of the work to transform countless lives underlines why philanthropy matters, and why governments must ensure that scarce public research funding is never wasted on second-rate, ideologically driven projects.