Every year, approximately 400 Australians suffer a spinal cord injury (SCI), as a result of an accident at work, on our roads and sports fields, with most of these people being injured when they are aged between 15 and 24.
Forty years ago, once confined to a wheel chair a person was given little hope of walking again, today very little has changed.
The Neil Sachse Foundation was established to fund major special projects to find effective treatments and a cure for spinal cord injury.
The Neil Sachse Foundation Spinal Cord Injury Research Centre (NSFSCIRC), based in the University of Adelaide’s Health Sciences Department. This partnership with the Adelaide University aims to create a centre of excellence in spinal cord injury research and treatments, and will be one of only three of its kind in the world.
At the centre we are currently developing an intervention drug that has the potential to enable a person who suffers a spinal cord injury to regain full motor function, instead of living life in a wheelchair. This drug has already proven to be effective in treating Traumatic Brain Injury, and is in commercial hands. The University believes this same drug will deliver a successful outcome when used for Spinal Cord Injury.
