Interview of Prof. Wise Young

During the 48th ISCoS Annual Scientific Meeting that was held from the 21st to 24th of October 2009 in Florence, the Wings for Life team (Dr. Vieri Failli and Wolfgang Illek) met the spinal cord injury specialist Prof. Wise Young who was conducting pioneering interventional clinical SCI-trials in the 1990s. Among other activities Prof. Young leads a research laboratory in the Cell Biology & Neuroscience department of the Rutgers University and is regularly posting on the “CareCure Community”, a forum that he created to provide the latest information on spinal cord injury and related conditions. This encounter was the occasion for Wings for Life to have a short interview of Prof. Young to highlight his thoughts on the foundation and the future of the spinal cord injury research field.

Wings for Life: Prof. Young, what do you think of the Wings for Life foundation?
Wise Young: Wing for Life has great scientific taste in its choice of projects to fund. I am very impressed.

Wings for Life: What is your opinion on the Scientific Advisory Board?
Wise Young: You have a star-studded board.

Wings for Life: How do you see the devolvement of the field, being a pioneer in SCI research?
Wise Young: It is time for us to do clinical trials. Many therapies and theories are ready to be tested. For almost all of human history, spinal cord injury was considered to be a dead-end condition with no hope for recovery. Beginning with the discovery that acute spinal cord injury can be ameliorated to the discoveries that spinal cord can regenerate if the injury site is bridged, sustained growth support is provided, and growth inhibitors are blocked, we need to translate these findings from laboratory to clinical trials. There is too much fear of failure and a preoccupation with the difficulties of trials. But this is precisely what clinical trials are for, to ascertain whether a potentially promising therapy is effective and safe. If not, we need to know and stop wasting time and resources on what does not work. If it is effective, we need to go ahead and determine the best dose and circumstance for restoring function.

Accordingly, Wings for Life understands its role to also promote early stage clinical interventional trials (Phase I/II). This is the reason why the foundation already started a clinical program in order to (i) improve the quality of life of people living with a spinal cord injury and (ii) achieve a meaningful restoration of the lost functions.