Research collaborators

Dr. Brent Reynolds

University of Florida

Dr Reynolds is at the Department of Neurosurgery, University of Florida.  He received his Ph.D. in 1994 from the University of Calgary during which time he and Sam Weiss discovered the existence of a stem cell in the adult central nervous system, challenging a century old dogma that the adult brain was unable to produce new neurons.  He co-founded NeuroSpheres Ltd. where he was Vice-President of Research and in 1999 published the first report on the transdifferentiation of cells derived from one germ layer into functional cells of another germ layer.  Dr. Reynolds holds 20 US patents related to neural stem cells and his lab is currently focused on studying in situ manipulation of neural stem cells, transplantation of defined populations of stem cell progeny for cell replacement strategies and understanding the role that solid tissue cancer stem cells play in tumour initiation and metastasis.

Dr. Kathy Traianedes

St. Vincent's Hospital Melbourne

Dr Kathy Traianedes (Ph.D) has a research background in molecular biology and cell biology of matrix, specifically derived from bone from the University of Melbourne, St. Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research.
Dr. Traianedes spent over seven years in the USA initially as a CJ Martin Fellow with post-doctoral positions at Harvard University, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and the Division of Endocrinology at the University of Texas Health Science Centre at San Antonio.
This was followed by three years in industry at Osteotech Inc., one of the largest bone processing companies in the USA, as the Allograft Scientist undertaking collaborative research studies in bone matrix and in a product development role. Prior to the PhD, Dr. Traianedes obtained a Masters Degree in Biochemistry working in Diabetes research.

Prof. Stephen Livesey

St. Vincent's Hospital Melbourne

Stephen was co-founder and formerly, Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer of LifeCell Corporation, New Jersey USA.  Dr Livesey received his Bachelor of Medical Science in 1974, his medical degree (M.B.B.S) in 1977 and PhD (MacFarlane Burnet Fellow) in 1985 from the University of Melbourne.  In 1985, as a C.J. Martin Fellow, he became a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Endocrinology Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas, and subsequently, Associate Director, Cryobiology Research Center at UTHSC.  In 1986, Professor Livesey co-founded LifeCell Corporation and served as a consultant to the company.  In 1988, Professor Livesey was a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow at St. Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia.  In 1991 Dr Livesey became a full-time employee of LifeCell Corporation as Vice President of Scientific Development and in 1993 as Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer.  Professor Livesey is the inventor of the company’s tissue matrix and cell preservation technology. In April 2003, he came back to Australia to join the Australian Stem Cell Centre and became the Chief Scientific Officer in June 2003.  In July 2006 to August 2008, he was the Chief Executive Officer.  Professor Livesey maintains an active research interest in matrix biology, stem cell biology and spinal cord injury at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne.  

Dr. Stephen Davies

University of Colorado

Dr. Davies is known in the SCI community for his early studies in demonstrating that spinal scar tissue presents a barrier to axon regeneration and his research with decorin, a molecule that inhibits scar formation.  Recently his lab has shown that decorin also has a direct effect on neurons, essentially desensitising them to the inhibitory effects of scar and myelin associated molescules and increasing the rate of axon growth by 15 times.  This discovery has important implications for treatment of chronic SCI where levels of these inhibitors are known to be especially high.  Concurrently Dr. Davies' team has also pioneered a line of research that focuses on making the right kinds of astrocyte support cells for SCI repair.  Astrocytes make up more than 70% of all cells in the human brain and spinal cord and it is now widely recognised that they play a key role in the formation and activity circuits in the normal and injured nervous system.  Working with Dr. Jeannette Davies and collaborators at University of Rochester, NY, the Davies research team have discovered that by treating multi-potent neural stem cells called glial restricted precursor cells (GRPs) with specific signaling molecules they can for the first time, generate a specific subtype of astrocytes that promote a high degreee of axon regneration and functional recovery when transplanted to adult rat spinal cord injuries.  The Davies lab has also shown that inflammatory signals commonly found in the injured spinal cord can turn "naive" transplanted stem cells into highly undesirable "scar like" astrocytes that fail to promote recovery and instead induce severe pain syndromes.  Controlling scar formation, the sensitivity of neurons to inhibitors and transplanting beneficial subtypes of astrocytes are promising new approaches to treatment of both acute and chronic spinal cord injuries.

Dr Jeannette Davies

University of Colorado

Dr. Jeannette Davies has been working in the field of spinal cord injury and central nervous system regeneration with Dr Stephen Davies  sinc 2001.  Early studies by the Davies team of scar formation in adult rat spinal cord indicated that adult glial precursors already within spinal cord tissue contributed to scar formation after spinal cord injury.  These studies predicted that "naive" precursors or stem cells transplanted into sites of spinal cord injury might also be directed to form scar tissue rather than more actively promoting spinal cord repair.  Working with collaborators at the University of Rochester, NY, we have demonstrated that rodent glial restricted precursors do indeed present an inhibitory environment when transplanted directly into sites of spinal cord injury and do not promote functional recovery.  However controlled predifferentiation of the same glial precursor cells into a specific subtype of beneficial astrocyte in tissue culture prior to transplantation to the injured spinal cord promoted alignment of injured spinal tissues, nerve fibre regeneration, protection of injured neurons and most importantly robust functional recovery.  In seeking to provide a novel, effective therapy for people with spinal cord injury, our recent efforts have focused on the development of human glial precursor derived astrocytes (hGDAs).  We have identified a specific subtype of human GDAs that appears to be particularly suitable for further development torwards clinical application in treating acute and chronic human spinal cord injuries.

Dr Fabrizio Gelain

University of Milan-Bicocco

Dr. Gelain's research interests include design and characterisation of novel functionalised self-assembling peptides and electrospun scaffolds for tissue engineering applications and in particular, for the regeneration of spinal cord injuries and stroke.  His research, spanning from basic science to translational research, aims at the development of effective therapies in the fields of regenerative medicine and nanomedicine.  In details he developed of ad hoc functionalised self-assembling peptide substrates for three-dimensional Neural Stem Cell cultures and their transplantation, he discovered and characterised a new class of hierarchixcally self-assembling peptides.  He discovered new functional motifs binding Neural Stem Cells and assessed their subsequent usage in in vitro and in vivo experiments.  He developed and tested nanostructured composite scaffolds for the regeneration of chronically injured spinal cords and sciatic nerve transections.

Dr. Gustavo Moviglia

Maimonides University

Dr. Moviglia is a physician, director of the Centre for Investigation in Tissue Engineering and Cellular Therapy (in Spanish, CIITT) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

He graduated 34 years ago at Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina.  During his course of studies and up to 10 years after his graduation, he worked as a Cellular Biology trainee while under various doctorate fellowships in Argentina and the USA, reporting to the National Committee of Scientific Investigation in Argentina.  For the last 24 years he has been devoted to cellular therapy, having started his activity in 1986 in Atlanta Laboratory, Georgia, USA, where he worked in cancer immunotherapy.  In 1992 he began his work applied to autoimmune diseases and the Central Nervous System.  Among his main works there is an autologous T cell vaccine (TBH) for treating cancer.  He adapted the use of this vaccine together with the application of dendritic cells; developed original techniques for obtaining antitumor autologous reactive T lymphocytes and generated a vaccine capable of blocking specifically regulatory T lymphocytes that promote tumor development.  In the neurological field, he contributed with the development and optimisation of the T lymphocyte vaccine for the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases.  He has been a pioneer in the use of this technique for the treatment of autoimmune activity associated with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Muscle Dystrophy and Adrenoleucodystrophy.  He has developed the BEN method (combination of three different cellular techniques) for the repair of Central Nervous System lesions.  At present, he explores the use of extracellular matrices for recovering tissue in situ and for repairing organs and tissue structures in vitro.

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