Griffith University was recently awarded an NHMRC ideas grant for $715,000 which will help investigate and develop “self-assembling, self-adhering nerve bridges for large gap nerve injuries”.

CONGRATULATIONS to the Clem Jones Centre for Neurobiology and Stem Cell Research and the Spinal Injury Project team leaders A/Prof James St John and A/Prof Jenny Ekberg from Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery & Griffith Health; along with Dr Matthew Barton from School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University, and Dr Brent McMonagle from Menzies Health Institute Queensland for their NHMRC Ideas Grant success! This project also looks forward to collaborating with Prof Randy Bindra from Griffith Health & Gold Coast Health.

Peripheral nerve injury is a major health problem and is particularly devastating. It can affect nerves of the face, hands, arms and throat in particular. Large-gap nerve injuries are the most difficult to repair and current technologies are inadequate. This project aims to test a new technology developed by Dr Mo Chen, Bioengineer on the SIP Team, to generate robust, rapid self-assembling nerve bridges that are made entirely of nerve cells to repair large-gap peripheral nerve injuries in animal models.

This project is a spin-off from the Spinal Injury Project at Griffith University that is funded by the Perry Cross Spinal Research Foundation and the Motor Accident Insurance Commission. The Spinal Injury Project is optimising the cellular nerve bridge technology to repair chronic spinal cord injuries, so it is wonderful that the technology is now being expanded to repair other regions of the nervous system.