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BRRC News
Stephen Nadeau, M.D.
Medical Director
Brain Rehabilitation Research Center This past year, the BRRC and the Malcom Randall Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center successfully launched a collaboration
with the University of Florida to develop a translational neurorehabilitation research program. The Translational Research in
Rehabilitation Initiative (TRRI) will seek, through animal experimentation, to translate discoveries in the neurobiology of
neuroplastic responses to stroke into pharmacological and cellular adjuvants to behavioral rehabilitative therapies in human subjects.
As we begin the TRRI, the BRRC will provide partial salary support for three new Department of Neuroscience faculty members, to be
recruited through a faculty search already underway under the leadership of Ronald Mandel. Our VA will provide research space and
the College of Medicine and the Office of the Vice President for Research of the University of Florida have committed to providing
necessary start up funds. In the long run, the TRRI will be primarily supported by investigator initiated grants funded by the VA
and the NIH.
The enormous complexity of the neuroplastic response to stroke provides tremendous opportunities for interventions that might
potentiate recovery, even as it poses daunting challenges. The list of possible adjuvants ranges from small molecules that may
favorably alter brain signal transduction (e.g., d-amphetamine, d-cycloserine, suldanifil, statins) to neurotrophins (basic
fibroblast factor, nerve growth factor, osteogenic protein-1, bone morphogenetic protein-7, erythropoietin) to antibodies that
will block receptors that inhibit axonal growth (e.g., the Nogo receptor) to cells that can potentially amplify the neuroplastic
response through simultaneous engagement of a number of molecular mechanisms (e.g., marrow stromal cells, human umbilical cord blood
cells) to neural precursor cells. Animal research will enable us to identify optimal candidates, define optimal timing and dosage in
relation to time of injury and time of behavioral therapy, understand mechanism of response, and establish safety. Human studies
will enable us to further refine the behavioral engines we need to test the efficacy of adjuvants in human trials.
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