title: Leveraging biomedical informatics for assessing plasticity and repair in primate spinal cord injury.
abstract: Recent preclinical advances highlight the therapeutic potential of treatments aimed at boosting regeneration and plasticity of spinal circuitry damaged by spinal cord injury (SCI). With several promising candidates being considered for translation into clinical trials, the SCI community has called for a non-human primate model as a crucial validation step to test efficacy and validity of these therapies prior to human testing. The present paper reviews the previous and ongoing efforts of the California Spinal Cord Consortium (CSCC), a multidisciplinary team of experts from 5 University of California medical and research centers, to develop this crucial translational SCI model. We focus on the growing volumes of high resolution data collected by the CSCC, and our efforts to develop a biomedical informatics framework aimed at leveraging multidimensional data to monitor plasticity and repair targeting recovery of hand and arm function. Although the main focus of many researchers is the restoration of voluntary motor control, we also describe our ongoing efforts to add assessments of sensory function, including pain, vital signs during surgery, and recovery of bladder and bowel function. By pooling our multidimensional data resources and building a unified database infrastructure for this clinically relevant translational model of SCI, we are now in a unique position to test promising therapeutic strategies' efficacy on the entire syndrome of SCI. We review analyses highlighting the intersection between motor, sensory, autonomic and pathological contributions to the overall restoration of function. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Spinal cord injury.
authors.affiliation: Brain and Spinal Injury Center (BASIC), Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA (UCSF), United States.
authors.forename: Jessica L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Nielson
authors.affiliation: Brain and Spinal Injury Center (BASIC), Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA (UCSF), United States.
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Haefeli
authors.affiliation: Brain and Spinal Injury Center (BASIC), Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA (UCSF), United States.
authors.forename: Ernesto A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Salegio
authors.affiliation: Brain and Spinal Injury Center (BASIC), Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA (UCSF), United States.
authors.forename: Aiwen W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Brain and Spinal Injury Center (BASIC), Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA (UCSF), United States.
authors.forename: Cristian F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Guandique
authors.affiliation: Brain and Spinal Injury Center (BASIC), Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA (UCSF), United States.
authors.forename: Ellen D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Stück
authors.affiliation: California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC), University of California, Davis, CA (UCD), United States.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hawbecker
authors.affiliation: California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC), University of California, Davis, CA (UCD), United States.
authors.forename: Rod
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Moseanko
authors.affiliation: California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC), University of California, Davis, CA (UCD), United States.
authors.forename: Sarah C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Strand
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA (UCLA), United States.
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zdunowski
authors.affiliation: Center for Neural Repair, Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA (UCSD), United States.
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Brock
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA (UCLA), United States.
authors.forename: Roland R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.affiliation: Center for Neural Repair, Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA (UCSD), United States.
authors.forename: Ephron S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Rosenzweig
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, United States.
authors.forename: Yvette S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Nout-Lomas
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), United States.
authors.forename: Gregoire
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Courtine
authors.affiliation: Reeve-Irvine Research Center (RIRC), University of California, Irvine, CA (UCI), United States; Departments of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care, Neurology, and Anatomy & Neurobiology, University of California, Irvine, CA, United States.
authors.forename: Leif A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Havton
authors.affiliation: Reeve-Irvine Research Center (RIRC), University of California, Irvine, CA (UCI), United States; Departments of Anatomy & Neurobiology, Neurobiology & Behavior, and Neurosurgery, University of California, Irvine, CA, United States.
authors.forename: Oswald
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Steward
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA (UCLA), United States.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Reggie Edgerton
authors.affiliation: Departments of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care, Neurology, and Anatomy & Neurobiology, University of California, Irvine, CA, United States; Veterans Administration Medical Center, La Jolla, CA, United States.
authors.forename: Mark H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Tuszynski
authors.affiliation: Brain and Spinal Injury Center (BASIC), Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA (UCSF), United States.
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Beattie
authors.affiliation: Brain and Spinal Injury Center (BASIC), Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA (UCSF), United States.
authors.forename: Jacqueline C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Bresnahan
authors.affiliation: Brain and Spinal Injury Center (BASIC), Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA (UCSF), United States. Electronic address: adam.ferguson@ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: Adam R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Ferguson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008490:Medical Informatics; D009043:Motor Activity; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D020127:Recovery of Function; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D058630:Spinal Cord Regeneration; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Autonomic function; Big-data; Bioinformatics; Motor function; Non-human primate; Plasticity; Recovery; Sensory function; Spinal cord injury; Statistics; Syndromics; Translation