$5 Million Gift Advances New Possibilities for Spinal Cord Recovery

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• Jade Griffin - [email protected]

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The University of California San Diego has received $5 million from an anonymous donor to support innovative research and treatment for debilitating spinal cord and neurological injuries. With the funding, UC San Diego has launched the Spinal Therapeutics, Engineering, Limb and Life Advancement (STELLA) Initiative, an ambitious new effort focused on advancing spinal cord recovery through neural restoration.

The STELLA Initiative will bring together UC San Diego scientists, engineers, clinicians and other experts to accelerate research and clinical translation for spinal cord injuries and related neurological conditions. By integrating regenerative science, precision surgical delivery, bioelectric medicine and advanced diagnostics, the initiative aims to develop new therapeutic strategies that may one day improve function, mobility and quality of life for people living with devastating spinal and neurological injuries.

"UC San Diego is renowned for bringing together world-class researchers across disciplines to take on many of society's most complex challenges," said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. "With funding from this generous gift, our faculty in neurological surgery, neurosciences, engineering, and regenerative medicine will collaborate to advance innovative new approaches to spinal cord recovery and neural restoration, pushing the boundaries of what is possible for patients and their families."

Spinal cord injuries can change lives in an instant. Because the spinal cord carries signals between the brain and body, injuries can affect movement, sensation, strength and bodily function below the site of injury. Current treatments, including physical and occupational therapy, can help patients with spinal cord injuries, but they are not curative. Despite decades of research, no definitive treatment exists to reverse paralysis or fully restore lost function.

For the family behind the gift, the STELLA Initiative represents a source of hope shaped by their own experience with spinal cord injury.

"This cause is deeply personal," the family stated. "Our granddaughter's journey has given us a firsthand understanding of the challenges that come with spinal cord injury, but also the resilience, hope and progress that's possible. We believe in the work being done by Dr. Alex Khalessi and Dr. Shadi Dayeh and their teams at UC San Diego. Their work is not only pushing the boundaries of science, but redefining what recovery and possibility can look like. This is about creating real change - and a future where spinal cord injuries no longer limit what's possible."

The initiative will be led by Alexander A. Khalessi, MD, MBA, professor and chair of neurological surgery at UC San Diego School of Medicine, chief innovation officer at UC San Diego Health, and assistant vice chancellor for innovation in UC San Diego Health Sciences. Other initiative leaders include Shadi Dayeh, PhD, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering whose work focuses on advanced neural interface technologies and Mark Tuszynski, MD, PhD, director of the UC San Diego Translational Neurosciences Institute.

"We are grateful for this special gift," said Barbara Jung, MD, associate vice chancellor and dean at UC San Diego School of Medicine. "A personal relationship expanding into a vision to help others - the STELLA Initiative is a testament to how impactful we can be when patients, physicians and donors come together to push the envelope on what is possible."

The STELLA Initiative will build on UC San Diego's existing expertise in spinal cord injury research and care, including work in stem cell-based therapies, biomaterial scaffolds, neural interface technologies, advanced imaging and surgical innovation. By developing approaches that account for the severity, location, timing and biological characteristics of each injury, researchers hope to create treatment models that can be adapted for many patients over time.

"Patients and their families are our inspiration in neurosurgery," said Khalessi. "With world-class neuroscience and engineering partners at UC San Diego, we are making determined progress in our technical approaches to the most challenging neurological diseases."

The STELLA Initiative's work will be organized initially around three scientific pillars:

• Intelligent diagnostics and targeted therapeutics, developing technologies to better map injury zones and guide localized treatments, including neuromodulation strategies designed to activate and repair specific motor circuits,
• Personalized regeneration, focusing on patient-specific regenerative therapies, including approaches that use a patient's own cells to develop neural cells tailored to their injury,
• And precision delivery, which will advance surgical and minimally invasive methods to deliver therapies safely and effectively to the injury site.

The gift will also provide funding to seed innovative research projects, integrate data science and predictive modeling, and advance clinical trials and precision medicine programs for pediatric and adult patients. In addition, it will support the development of manufacturing standards for devices and biologics, helping move promising therapies from the laboratory to clinical use.

"My mission as an engineering researcher is to develop safe and effective translational technologies that improve lives, while bringing together people with complementary expertise to address grand challenges of the central nervous system," said Dayeh. "This wonderful gift strengthens an already exceptional collaboration across UC San Diego's engineering, clinical and scientific communities, and comes at a uniquely important moment to expand and accelerate our efforts to improve recovery and quality of life for people living with spinal cord injury."

"Restoring function after spinal cord injury will likely require multiple approaches working together," said Tuszynski. "Our work has shown the potential of neural stem cells to promote regeneration and rebuild connections across an injured spinal cord. STELLA brings together complementary expertise in regenerative medicine, bioengineering and neuromodulation, giving us an opportunity to advance these approaches in parallel and determine how they can ultimately be translated to patients."

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