In 1995, actor Christopher Reeve was injured in a horseback riding accident, leaving him quadriplegic - paralyzed from the shoulders down. He became a tireless advocate and a passionate supporter of research. 

Christopher’s dream was for those living with spinal cord injuries to have a better quality of life, and one day to walk again. 

More than 25 years later, thanks to advances in surgical approaches, neuroprotective drugs, and gene therapy using stem cells, that dream is becoming closer to reality.

Featuring:
Dr. Laureen Hachem is a Senior Neurosurgery Resident and PhD Candidate at UHN’s Krembil Brain Institute and the University of Toronto.

Dr. Michael Fehlings is a Neurosurgeon and Senior Scientist at UHN’s Krembil Brain Institute and a Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto. Dr. Fehlings also holds the Campeau-Tator Chair in Brain and Spinal Cord Research at UHN.

John Ruffolo is the Founder and Managing Partner of Maverix Private Equity, a private equity firm focused on technology-enabled growth and disruption investment strategies. He is currently living with a spinal cord injury.

Additional resources:
UHN’s Spinal Cord Injury Clinic
Dr. Fehlings’ Laboratory for Neural Repair and Regeneration website
Dr. Fehlings interview on Season 1 of Your Complex Brain, ‘Revolutionary Advances in Spinal Cord Injury
PSI Foundation feature story on Dr. Laureen Hachem
Toronto’s Top Grad Dreams Big – Toronto.com feature story on Dr. Laureen Hachem as a high school student
The Globe and Mail feature story on John Ruffolo

The Your Complex Brain production team is Heather Sherman, Jessica Schmidt, Dr. Amy Ma, Kim Perry, Alley Wilson, Sara Yuan, Meagan Anderi, Liz Chapman, and Lorna Gilfedder.

The Krembil Brain Institute, part of University Health Network, in Toronto, is home to one of the world's largest and most comprehensive teams of physicians and scientists uniquely working hand-in-hand to prevent and confront problems of the brain and spine, such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, epilepsy, stroke, spinal cord injury, chronic pain, brain cancer or concussion, in their lifetime. Through state-of-the-art patient care and advanced research, we are working relentlessly toward finding new treatments and cures.

Do you want to know more about the Krembil Brain Institute at UHN? Visit us at: uhn.ca/krembil

To get in touch, email us at [email protected] or message us on social media:
Instagram - @krembilresearch
Twitter - @KBI_UHN
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/KrembilBrainInstitute

Thanks for listening!