Our future

The Neil Sachse Foundation aims to be recognised as a Centre of Excellence for Spinal Cord Injury Research and Treatment in the near future. This will make the Neil Sachse Foundation a forerunner in the search to find a cure for spinal cord injury here in Australia.

Scientific advances are taking place across the world, and the Neil Sachse Foundation wishes to continue to play an active part in this. To do so effectively, we envisage conducting research and testing new technologies sourced from around the world. After successful testing, we then aim to apply them via clinical trials.

Currently, Australia does not have any clear path for research and new technology to move from the laboratory into application to humans. The Neil Sachse Foundation Centre of Excellence will change this situation by providing an avenue to clinical trial.

The Neil Sachse Foundation Centre of Excellence for Spinal Cord Injury Research and Treatment will:

At this point, the first project for the Centre of Excellence will be to refine the delivery system for the nerve regeneration technology and from there, move into clinical trials. There are three types of trials, a safety trial, an efficacy trial and a recognition trial, as outlined below. Each of these needs to be successful before the technology can move into commercial application.

Project One:

  1. New Delivery System for previous completed research (nerve regeneration technology)
  2. Stage 1 Trial – Safety Trial. Application of nerve regrowth technology to 5 people. 3 year timeframe
  3. Stage 2 Trial – Efficacy Trial. This trial identifies and measures the amount of recovery/return of function. 3 year timeframe
  4. Stage 3 Trial – Recognition Trial. This trial applies the technology to a large number of patients, therefore making the sample representative. In addition, a number of medicos oversee the trial, resulting in a recognised, peer-reviewed treatment

If sufficient funding is found, a number of projects can occur concurrently. As the Neil Sachse Foundation is committed to applying research through clinical trials, other technologies can be sourced internationally and then tested and applied here through our established system.

We aim to create a pipeline of products to go to trial as not every treatment that is trialled in humans will be successful. We believe that, by facilitating a number of trials, there is a greater likelihood of finding one that is successful in humans. Scientific advancements in any field are slow and outcomes cannot be known before the trial occurs. This pipeline of products will facilitate an avenue to find a treatment that successfully transfers to humans, through increasing the number of trials.

Project Two:

  1. International Investigation of complementary treatments
  2. Test treatments in the research laboratory
  3. Bring to clinical trial
    a. Stage One Trial
    b. Stage Two Trial
    c. Stage Three Trial