[urlhttps://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/technology/science/aussie-scientists-on-the-cusp-of-helping-paraplegics-walk-again/news-story/f9b08d720ecc7c0de0b3844f60be85f7][/url]

THE impossible dream of helping paraplegics walk is within the grasp of Australian scientists who have managed to get paralysed mice moving again.

It’s happening thanks to the work of two separate groups of scientists at Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus, a location more renowned for its meter maids and beaches than its scientific breakthroughs.

In two years, Associate Professor James St John hopes to begin human trials of a new treatment that will see nasal cells transplanted into a “bridge” in the spinal cord of a paralysed person to regenerate damaged nerves.

The concept has been proven in other research globally using mice or rats and electrical impulses to stimulate nerves.

This Griffith study is different in that it uses nasal cells to simulate nerve growth.

“We’ve tested it in mice and we can regenerate motor and sensory function to a degree but we are nowhere near full function yet,” he said.

In 2014 a Polish man, Darek Fidyka, 40, who was paralysed after being stabbed in the back, was able to recover some sensory movement after such a procedure.

Associate Professor St John is building on work by 2017 Australian of the Year retired Professor Alan Mackay-Sim who showed olfactory ensheathing cells from the nose could be safely taken from people with paraplegia, grown in the lab then transplanted back into the human body.

These cells are used because of their unique capacity to regenerate nerve cells in the brain.

The team is now working on ways to purify the nasal cells, improve the nerve “bridge” they need to grow on and figure out how to transplant them into the injury site without causing further damage.

However, simply transplanting stem cells is not enough to get someone walking again.

Patients will need long term rehabilitation, the brain will have to be retrained to remember how to walk and take in sensory queues from the paralysed site.

That’s where the work of a second group of biomechanical researchers at Griffith University comes in.

They are working on exoskeletons they want to wire to the human brain and connect to muscles, bypassing the damaged spinal cord.

These machines could be used to support paralysed people while they learn to move again after the nasal cell transplant.
Griffith University Professor David Lloyd and team use computer modelling to create individualised 3D devices and implants used by orthopedic surgeons, and wants to use these technologies to help paraplegics.

However, he needs approximately $330,000 in funding to make this happen, money he says is hard to get from agencies like the National Health and Medical Research Council who don’t tend to fund these kinds of very new and innovative projects.

The idea is to use an exoskeleton, like a bike or a robotic walking machine, which assists a person to walk above a treadmill or over the ground.

This device would be connected to an EEG that records electrical activity in the brain and signals sent to the muscles.

The system would also be linked to electrodes attached to the patient’s muscles and would signal those muscles to move.

In theory, this would allow the mind to control the exoskeleton, and if used in conjunction with cell therapy, could help stimulate the spinal cells to regenerate.

its just around the corner.. god bless all those scientists