Travis Roy has always set goals for himself.

Growing up the son of a rink manager in Yarmouth, Maine, Roy might as well have been born with a hockey stick in his hand. As a prep school star, he dreamed of skating for a Division I college en route to a long career on the ice.

On Oct. 20, 1995, his dream came true … for 11 seconds. Continue Reading »

The fourth annual Kelly Brush Century Ride kicked off early on Saturday morning to cool temperatures and thick crowds at Middlebury College, where cyclists in the benefit ride gathered before pedaling off on 25-, 50- or 100-mile routes.

This year, 495 cyclists participated in the ride, which raises money for the Kelly Brush Foundation, which supports spinal cord injury research. The foundation also funds ski racing safety programs and provides adaptive sports equipments to individuals with spinal cord injuries. As of press time, this year’s race has raised a record-breaking $200,000, and officials were still tallying up the last donations. Continue Reading »

ScienceDaily — Research led by a scientist at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center has shown injecting biomaterial gel into a spinal cord injury site provides significantly improved healing. The project that also included researchers from Purdue University and Arizona State University indicates that a “practical path” to treatment may be found for spinal injury patients. Continue Reading »

How do you turn on (or off) a nerve cell that is no longer connected to the brain? You might try a molecular “light” switch. This new piece of technology is being used by investigators at Case Western Reserve University, led by Dr. Jerry Silver, to help restore breathing and bladder function following a spinal cord injury.

Following a spinal cord injury, “signals from the brain can no longer reach the relevant muscles. The idea is to make the neurons controlling those muscles light-sensitive; the cells could then be turned on or off with an implanted light source.” Continue Reading »