Plenary #1 - ISRT Lecture
Tracks
Plenary Room
Erato
Thalie
Clio
Risso 6
Risso 7
Risso 8
| Tuesday, November 5, 2019 |
| 9:05 AM - 9:50 AM |
| Muses North (Plenary Room) |
Overview
“How rodents, robots and artificial neural networks are helping develop new potential therapies for spinal cord injury“ - Ass. Prof. Lawrence Moon
Speaker
Dr Lawrence Moon
University Reader (Associate Professor) And Research Group Leader
King's College London, University Of London
How rodents, robots and artificial neural networks are helping develop new potential therapies for spinal cord injury
Abstract
Work with animals has led to promising new therapies being tested in humans after spinal cord injury. I’ll give a brief review of some of the high-profile examples.
e.g., cell therapies for spinal cord injury (Geron; Japan product); epidural stimulation (e.g., Courtine’s work).
I will describe how my team is developing ways to accelerate the evaluation of novel therapies in rodent models of spinal cord injury. We have build small in-cage robots to assess dexterity in mice and rats. We use artificial neural networks to analyse videos of rodent movements to determine which therapies improve walking and grasping. Our next step is to assess hindlimb spasm automatically with a view to finding a cure rather than a treatment for spasm. I’ll describe experimental findings by us and others that reduces spasm by treating muscles with a growth factor that re-wires circuits from muscles to motor neurons.
e.g., cell therapies for spinal cord injury (Geron; Japan product); epidural stimulation (e.g., Courtine’s work).
I will describe how my team is developing ways to accelerate the evaluation of novel therapies in rodent models of spinal cord injury. We have build small in-cage robots to assess dexterity in mice and rats. We use artificial neural networks to analyse videos of rodent movements to determine which therapies improve walking and grasping. Our next step is to assess hindlimb spasm automatically with a view to finding a cure rather than a treatment for spasm. I’ll describe experimental findings by us and others that reduces spasm by treating muscles with a growth factor that re-wires circuits from muscles to motor neurons.
Biography
Lawrence Moon is a University Reader (Associate Professor) in the Department of Pharmacology at King’s College London (U.K).
His research group is based in the Neurorestoration cluster at the London Bridge campus. He obtained first class honours in his undergraduate degree at the University of Oxford and was awarded his Ph.D. for work relating to the use of chondroitinase ABC in a model of brain injury in Prof. James Fawcett’s lab at the University of Cambridge.
His postdoctoral training was in Prof. Mary Bartlett Bunge’s lab at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis where in collaboration with Prof. Fred Gage’s lab he identified a novel set of genes which promote regrowth of injured CNS axons in vitro and in vivo.
His lab in London uses rodent models of spinal cord injury and stroke to evaluate candidate therapies for neural repair, including Neurotrophin-3 (www.lawrencemoon.co.uk).
His lab is currently funded by the International Spinal Research Trust, the Brain Research Trust, the Rosetrees Trust and the UK’s Medical Research Council.
For fun and to accelerate research, his team also use 3D printing, custom electronics and artificial neural networks to automate and improve many of the methods they use in the lab. He is a co-founder of Research Devices Ltd (www.ResearchDevices.com) with the goal of providing novel in-cage solutions for rodent behavioural testing.
