Machines Like Us

A team of Alberta and Saskatchewan health scientists has been awarded a $2.25-million team grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to study how best to heal and regrow nerves damaged by injury or disease.

The Western Canada Regeneration Initiative aims to develop an implantable microchip device that will send out electrical signals to encourage nerve fibers to grow together and connect to one another. This could reduce pain and suffering for millions of people with peripheral nerve damage from injury or disease.

U of S neuroscientist Valerie Verge, an expert in growth factors and regeneration of sensory nerves, is part of the team. “We hope that down the road this research will not only help people with nerve injuries, but also degenerative diseases as well,” she said.

Dr. Rémi Quirion, Scientific Director at the CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction, says the team is doing amazing research. “They are merging the best of neuroscience with cutting-edge technology and engineering to explore novel virgin territories that could revolutionize treatments of spinal cord injures in future years,” he said.

Team leader Dr. Doug Zochodne, a University of Calgary professor of neurosciences, says that at present, repair strategies are often only partly successful, and people experience neuropathic pain as a major side effect.

“At present, we have regeneration tubes that we implant for people who have suffered traumatic injuries. But these tubes are, at best, a passive bridge between nerve endings,” he said.

The team is close to knowing how to use computer chips to assist the regeneration process and avoid scarring and long-term damage, said Verge, who is also director of the Cameco MS Neuroscience Center.

University of Saskatchewan