Abstract #11

Presenter

Bio to be added

Authors

Veronica Hirsch-Reinshagen^{1 2}, Adam Velenosi^{2 3}, Sarah R. Morris^{2 4}, Kevin Dong^{2 3}, Pushwant Mattu¹, Zahra Samadi-Bahrami^{2 3}, Sureyah Nassimbwa^{2 3}, Eslam Abdelaziz ^{2 3}, Piotr Kozlowski^{2 5}, G. R. Wayne Moore^{1 2}, Cornelia Laule^{1 2 4 5}, Brian K. Kwon^{2 6}

¹Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada.

²International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada.

³Praxis Spinal Cord Institute, British Columbia, Canada.

⁴Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada.

⁵Department of Radiology, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada.

⁶Department of Orthopedics, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada.

CanMEDS:
Collaborator, Scholar

The International Spinal Cord Injury Biobank: Neuropathological contributions to global translational research in traumatic spinal cord injury

Abstract

Much of the scientific research dedicated to traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI) has focused on animal models of tSCI. Our understanding of human tSCI is hampered in part by lack of biospecimens from patients. This gap in knowledge represents an important void in tSCI translational research, as biological differences between animal models and the human condition need to be considered in the development of therapeutic approaches. Herein we introduce the International Spinal Cord Injury Biobank (ISCIB; www.sci-biobank.org), a Vancouver-based, multi-user biorepository with global range and the mission of accelerating therapeutic development in SCI, including tSCI, through improved biological understanding of human SCI. Certified by the Canadian Tissue Repository Network, ISCIB will be introduced to the community of Canadian neuropathologists as a possible resource for research or post-mortem spinal cord donation. We describe the translational research gap that ISCIB is helping to fill; its structure, governance, and certification; how data and samples are accrued, processed and stored; the process through which samples and data are shared with global researchers; and finally, an example of novel clinicopathological insights we are gathering in human tSCI. By expanding awareness of the existence of ISCIB within the community of Canadian neuropathologists, we hope to further the mission of this pioneering world-class SCI biorepository.