“When I was doing my residency in orthopaedic surgery, we treated a lot of patients - young and old - who’s lives were turned upside down after suffering a spinal cord injury. I was really struck by how we could surgically fix the broken bones of the spine, but we really didn’t have anything to “fix” the injured spinal cord and reverse their paralysis. Seeing the devastating effects that spinal cord injury had on patients and their families really made me want to pursue a career in this area, with the goal of establishing treatments for paralysis and improving the lives of these individuals.”
AN OVERVIEW
Research in the Kwon Lab aims to shed new insights into the early management of acute SCI, established biomarkers of injury severity, and improved modeling of traumatic SCI in order to better simulate the human condition in the laboratory setting. We are proud to lead an internationally recognized and globally connected spinal cord injury program at UBC, and anticipate that these ongoing efforts will improve the lives of those who suffer this catastrophic injury.
Situated at ICORD within the beautiful Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, right next to Vancouver General Hospital, the Kwon Lab focuses on “bench-to-bedside” and “bedside back to bench” bi-directional translational research. The Kwon Lab strives to facilitate global collaboration, notably through the International Spinal Cord Injury Biobank (ISCIB), in an effort to accelerate the development of treatments for SCI.
NEWS AND EVENTS
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FIRST PLACE WINNER
Adam Doelman takes 1st place in the Best Oral Presentation Category at the 2023 Society for Pelvic Research (SPR) Annual Meeting for his abstract entitled “Wireless Catheter-Free Pressure Sensors to Assess Neurogenic Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction in a Porcine Model of Spinal Cord Injury.”
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Symposium AWARDS
Kwon Lab Sweeps The ICORD Trainee Symposium: Cam, Adam and Farnaz, win 1st prizes in the Post-doc, PhD Student and Master’s student categories at the ICORD trainee symposium!
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Mend the GAP
The Mend the Gap team recently received $24 million from Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund 2020 Transformation stream to investigate using biomaterials—and soft gels in particular—to heal the injury. Click here for the CTV News Article.
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ISCIB
International Spinal Cord Injury Biobank: The SCI Biobank collects and stores specimens and associated data from individuals who have sustained at SCI. This information is available on request to researchers globally. Click here to visit the website.