Hello, my name is Scott Simon, and I'm an Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at Penn State Hershey, where I'm the Division Director of Cerebrovascular Surgery, as well as have a subspecialized practice in cerebrovascular and endovascular neurosurgery. I'm here to welcome you to New Neurons, the Future of Regenerative Therapy. I have nothing to disclose. The cascade of damage after an infarction is quite intimidating. Of course, there's the primary injury, in which energy fails, and there's acidosis. This leads to excitotoxicity, free radical release, and finally, necrosis, apoptosis, and then the resorption of the damaged tissue. There's also secondary degeneration of partially injured neurons. There's also transneural degeneration across networks and region of the brain or spinal cord. And each step represents a very hostile environment to cell growth. What are some of the new strategies that can help decrease disability or restore function? Placement of pluripotent stem cells that can mature into neurons. Another strategy is conversion of activated injury response cells into neurons by manipulating gene expression. And then there's the developing brain-machine interface to restore function. Perhaps the solution is a combination of all of these. To help us examine each of these strategies, we have a very impressive list of faculty that I'd like to introduce you to now. First, we have Gary Steinberg, who's the Bernard and Ronnie LaCrute William Randolph Hearst Professor in Neurosurgery and Neurosciences and Professor by Courtesy of Neurology, the Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery, the Director to the Stanford Moyamoya Center, and the Founder and Co-Director of the Stanford Stroke Center. Dr. Steinberg is Principal Investigator in the clinical trial, the study of modified stem cells and stable ischemic stroke, as well as the lead author of multiple landmark publications with regard to stem cell therapy for stroke. Professor Gong Chen is the former Professor and Vern M. William Chair in Life Sciences at Penn State University and is currently the Professor and Director of Brain Repair Center at GHM Institute of CNS Regeneration at Jinan University in China. He's investigating the role of transcription factors to convert reactive astrocytes into functional neurons via viral vector and has authored many papers to that effect. Cindy Morshead is Professor and Chair, Division of Anatomy, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto. She enjoys cross appointments in the Donnelly Center for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, and the Rehabilitation Science Institute. She studies stem cell migration, cell kinetics, differentiation, and cell lineage dynamics, as well as the development of stem cell-based strategies to treat multiple neurological disorders. She works on the application of bioengineering strategies, such as electric field application, to activate resident neural stem cells and enhance tissue repair. And she's also examining cellular reprogramming by the conversion of one cell type to another. And finally, Daniel Rubin is an investigator with BrainGate Clinical Trial, attending neurointensivist in the Division of Neurocritical Care, faculty in the Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery, and the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and instructor at the Harvard Medical School. His research is focused on the application of computational neuroscientific principles to clinical problems and the development of novel tools and technologies to improve the outcome of patients admitted with acute neurological injury.

regenerative therapy

brain damage

infarction

stem cells

neurological disorders