New research fellowship to develop therapies for spinal injuries

A new research fellowship will help a University of Queensland neuroscientist investigate how to use the brain’s own stem cells to aid people with spinal injuries.

Dr Natalie Bull has been awarded the inaugural Perry Cross Research Fellowship, a two-year appointment that will see her look at how stem cells generate new nerve cells to restore movement in people who have suffered a spinal injury.

The fellowship was set up by the Australasian Spinal Research Trust and named after motivational speaker and former Young Queenslander of the Year Perry Cross.

Mr Cross, who as a 19 year-old suffered a serious spinal injury playing rugby and is now a quadriplegic and campaigner for spinal injury research.

He will attend the launch to be held at the Queensland Brain Institute at UQ on the 4th Floor of the Ritchie Building (Interaction Room, C Wing) at 1.45pm, on Tuesday, October 14.

Miss Bull said she was thrilled to get the fellowship as it would allow her to work in an exciting and new area of science.

“No other labs in the world are doing this type of work,” she said.

“Adult neural stem cell research is an exciting field and rapidly changing and I will be there to be part of it.”

Director of the QBI Professor Perry Bartlett said it was a great achievement to have the first fellowship winner at UQ.

“It is a great honour for one of our young scientists to win the inaugural award,” Professor Bartlett said.

“This research will be looking for a way to stimulate new nerve cell production in the damaged nervous system in a non-invasive way, which is a different approach from other research in this area.”

Media: For more information contact Dr Natalie Bull (telephone 0439 743 814) or Andrew Dunne at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2802).