Spinal Cord Injury Research Centre

🌍 International Day of Persons with Disabilities 🌟 Today, we join the global community in celebrating the resilience, achievements, and contributions of individuals with disabilities. At SCIRC, we’re proud to work alongside and advocate for people with disabilities, striving to make advancements that improve lives and create a more inclusive world. This year’s theme, “Transformative solutions for inclusive development: the role of innovation in fueling an accessible and equitable world,” resonates deeply with our mission. Through innovative research on spinal cord injuries, we are committed to overcoming challenges and advocating for equality. Let’s honor this day by recognizing the immense potential of every individual and reaffirming our dedication to creating a society where accessibility and inclusivity are the norm—not the exception. 💙 Together, we can make a difference. #InternationalDayOfPersonsWithDisabilities #IDPD2024 #InclusionMatters #AccessibilityForAll #SpinalCordInjuryResearch

Congratulations to these outstanding members of the SCIRC team for their incredible achievements! 🌟 We are so proud of all of you and can't wait to see the impact you'll continue to make in the future. 🎉 Professor Jane Butler: Research Australia Frontiers Award Finalist & HDR Supervisor of the Year at UNSW SBMS 🎉 Dr. Annie Palmero: Tow Awards Allied Health, Nursing, & Midwifery People’s Choice 🎉 Chiettha Prajnadewie: Tow Awards PhD Top Up Scholarship, People’s Choice – Clinical Division Oral Presentation, & Australasian Autonomic Neuroscience Meeting – Best Poster Award Your passion and dedication inspire us all. Here's to your continued success and future contributions to advancing research and healthcare! 🙌👏 #SCIRCteam #TowAwards #ResearchExcellence #InnovativeLeaders #ProudMoment"

Community engagement event November 2024 🥳 Check out this reel for some clips of last year's community engagement event held at NeuRA and some of our speakers who were in attendance. Spaces are limited so ensure you RSVP by next week to reserve a space to listen to our very own panel discussion and enjoy some yummy treats. Drop us a DM if you attended last year's event and some feedback on your experience. 👏

🌳 💜 Jacaranda Appreciation Day (unofficial) Sometimes the team takes a break from our serious research pursuits to appreciate the beauty of local nature! This Jacaranda tree was planted around the time that NeuRA (Neuroscience Research Australia) was founded; so around this time each year, when the blooms are out, we gather in the courtyard with banana bread and cups of tea to pause and admire the tree 🍞 ☕ This is also a great time to bring the team together and informally reflect on the year. Let's see how much we can achieve before our Jacaranda blooms again.

Join us for our 2024 Community Engagement Event on November 14th! 😁 After the success of last year's event, we are delighted to announce that our community event will be returning this year in the Neuroscience Research Australia building in Randwick. Register your place by using the QR code below for a panel discussion, useful insights into the current research here at NeuRA and tasty treats! 🍰

Our September newsletter has launched 😍 This quarter brought many exciting podcasts from Simon and Claire, an insightful interview from Jane, the City to Surf run represented by some of our NeuRA staff and the disability expo which formed new connections and friends between us and the community. This one is worth a read! If you would like to sign up to our quarterly newsletters or keep up to date with the current trials, please click on the link to be a part of our database: https://buff.ly/3ZFAS7c 🤗

🎉 Congratulations to Chiettha on her well-deserved Arc PGC Research Award! 🎉 We are incredibly proud to announce that Chiettha, a PhD student in our Spinal Cord Injury Research Centre, has been recognized for her exceptional efforts in fostering a supportive and growth-oriented environment for Higher Degree Research (HDR) students. Her dedication and commitment to enhancing the academic, social, and overall wellbeing of her peers truly sets an example for the entire research community. Milestones like this showcase the incredible achievements within our team and will be featured in our upcoming newsletter, which will be released next week! Stay tuned for more exciting updates from our team. #ResearchExcellence #SpinalCordResearch #HDRCommunity #ArcPGCAwards #ProudMoment #NewsletterComingSoon

The Phases of Research: Advancing Therapies for Spinal Cord Injuries Our new study eWALK 2 is a Phase 3 trial - but what does this mean? Our studies go through various phases to ensure that treatments are both safe and effective. Here’s a quick overview: Phase 1: Safety First In Phase 1, we test the therapy with a small group of participants to assess its safety, feasibility and checking for any side effects. These small studies help us refine our methods and set the foundation for future phases. Phase 2: Early Efficacy This phase involves a larger group of people to evaluate how effective the therapy is in improving function and quality of life for those living with spinal cord injuries, whilst further evaluating safety. Phase 3: Confirming Efficacy In this phase, we conduct a larger trial to confirm the therapy’s benefits and ensure it’s ready for broader clinical use. We compare it to existing treatments or a placebo. Phase 4: Long-Term Impact After approval, we continue studying the therapy to assess its long-term safety and effectiveness in everyday use. #SCI #SpinalCordResearch #TherapiesForSCI #ClinicalTrials #ResearchThatMatters

Watch out for us and our #eWalk trial on Channel 10 news. A past participant reflects on his time in the trial and demonstrates some of the walking training at NeuRA (Neuroscience Research Australia), with SpinalCure Australia and Spinal Cord Injuries Australia 🎥 Today at 3:30 pm and 5:00 pm. 📩 If you're interested in the trial email: ewalk@neura.edu.au

Let's talk about recruitment! 🫠 Prof. Jane Butler of the SCIRC team has written a fantastic piece for SpinalCure Australia on navigating the complexities of clinical trial recruitment in which she discusses both the barriers and solutions. An important question that many people have is 'How will this clinical trial benefit me? ' Jane shares her insight into this query by reporting that ' As researchers, we cannot guarantee that anyone will benefit from our clinical trials. We need to do the study to discover if new treatments work. If successful, then they can be made available clinically as treatments for everyone with a SCI. Volunteering to be a part of a clinical trial can be a very positive experience. It gives people the opportunity to contribute to and engage with the very forefront of SCI research and to try new treatments that have the potential to help us reach our goal of finding a cure.' Another question raised in this article was 'what are the barriers for partaking in a clinical trial?' We would love to hear your answers and suggestions either in our DM's or the comment section below. To read the full article click on the link below 😀 #SpinalCordInjury #SCI