Conference: International Society of Posture and Gait Research, June 25-29, 2017, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.
Conference Highlight: The ISPGR world congress demonstrated the breadth and depth of expert research in gait and posture. The symposiums exemplified translational research applicable for real life.
Conference Summary: The International Society for Posture and Gait Research invited Dr. Gregoire Courtine from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland to give a keynote address on the restoration of leg movements in different experimental models of spinal cord injury.
Dr. Courtine presented a study in which his research team delivered electrical and chemical stimulation to specific regions of the spinal cord to awaken nerves and generate leg movement. Specifically, the researchers injected chemicals into the spinal cord, and then carefully implanted electrodes to excite the nerves. This complicated and extensive intervention coupled with physical training promoted neural remodelling and neuroplasticity in the spinal cord.
In another study, his team sought to re-establish voluntary control of locomotion in a model of spinal cord injury by using a wireless brain to spine technology. The team was able to demonstrate that this technology could successfully restore complex locomotor movements.
With the findings from these models, Dr. Courtine and his team are now able to apply these novel interventions in preliminary clinical studies to promote spinal cord neural remodelling and neuroplasticity in humans with spinal cord injury.