Research Team

The only group of researchers in the Delaware Valley and one of the leading teams in the world dedicated to studying the pathophysiology and treatment of spinal cord injury are based in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy of the Drexel University College of Medicine. This team conducts state of the art studies that are likely to shape the design of future clinical trials. The spinal cord research center is supported by a NIH Program Project grant and individual federal, foundation and biotechnology grants. Investigators in the center include 11 faculty members of the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy as well as 4 affiliated faculty from clinical and engineering departments.  They are aided by postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, residents and research physicians who come from all over the world to contribute to these experiments. These students and fellows are supported by a NIH Training Grant and Foundation funds.

Itzhak Fischer, Ph.D. - Molecular Neuroscience, Stem cell biology
Professor and Chair
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy  

Simon Giszter, Ph.D. - Neurophysiology and Kinematics
Associate Professor
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy

B. Timothy Himes, Ph.D. - Recovery of function after SCI
Instructor
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy

John Houle, Ph.D. - Neurotransplantation Strategies in SCI
Professor
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy

Michel Lemay, Ph.D. - Neural engineering
Associate Professor
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy

Marion Murray, Ph.D. - Neuroanatomy, Pharmacological strategies in SCI
Professor
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy

Birgit Neuhuber Stone, Ph.D. - Transplantation of stem cells in SCI
Assistant Professor
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy

Ramesh Raghupathi, Ph.D. - Traumatic brain injury
Associate Professor
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy

Ilya A. Rybak, Ph.D. - Computational Neuroscience, modeling spinal cord circuits and neural control of locomotion
Professor
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy

Jed Shumsky, Ph.D. - Behavioral assessment of function after SCI
Research Associate Professor
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy

Young-Jin Son, Ph.D. - Synaptic plasticity and repair in muscle and spinal cord.
Assistant Professor
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy

Alan Tessler, M.D. - Neurology of SCI
Professor
Department of Neurology, Neurobiology and Anatomy

Affiliated faculty
Karen Moxon, Ph.D. - Neural robotics
Associate Professor
School of Biomedical engineering, Drexel University

Anthony Burns, MD - Neuro-rehabilitation
Assistant Professor
Jefferson University College of Medicine

Eric Schwartz, MD - Neuro-radiology, MRI
Assistant Professor
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Scott Stackhouse, Ph.D. - Physical Therapy
Assistant Professor
Arcadia University

Postdoctoral Fellows and residents
Yoshikazu Hayashi, MD (Orthopedic surgery)
Takahiko Mitsu, MD (Urology)
Ajay Bakshi, MD (Neurosurgery
Yang Cao, MD (Neurology)
Veronica Toms, Ph.D. (Neurosciece)
Corey Hart, PhD (Neuroscience)

Graduate Students
Vanessa Boyce - Ph.D. Program
Joe Bonner - PhD Program
Harra Sandrow - PhD Program
Elizabeth Dugan - PhD Program
Ubong Ime Udoekwere - PhD Program
Angelo Lepore - PhD Program

Collaborators:

Modified Fibroblasts
Mark Tuszynski, University of California, San Diego
Michael Beattie, Ohio State University
Jacqueline Bresnehan, Ohio State University

Stem cells
Mahendra Rao, NIA
Jeff Koscic, Yale University
Evan Snyder, Burnham Institute

Behavior and rehabilitation
John Dittuno, Jefferson University College of Medicine

Biomaterials
Margaret Wheatley - School of Biomedical Engineering, Drexel University
Peter Lelkes - School of Biomedical Engineering, Drexel University
Anthony Lowman - School of Engineering, Drexel University