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Jamin Lee, PhD, has been awarded a QSI RENU Fellowship to support a new regenerative engineering project aimed at restoring natural breathing after high cervical spinal cord injury. The project, titled “Xenografting Spinal Cord Organoids with Integrated 3D Fluidic Architectures for Spinal Cord Injury Repair,” targets a critical unmet need in neurorehabilitation by developing implantable spinal cord organoids and dissolvable scaffolds to rebuild the neural pathway between the spinal cord and the diaphragm, with the long-term goal of reducing dependence on mechanical ventilation.
High cervical spinal cord injuries can break the connection between the brain and the nerves that control the diaphragm, the main muscle used for breathing. When this pathway is damaged, people may lose the ability to breathe on their own and become dependent on a ventilator. This limits mobility and independence, often requires long hospital stays, and greatly affects quality of life. Current treatment options, such as nerve transfers or injections of individual nerve cells, have shown only modest success in rebuilding these complex connections.
In this project, we use spinal cord organoids derived from human stem cells together with small, dissolvable scaffolds that direct and sustain new nerve connections. These organoids contain many motor neurons, the cells that send signals to muscles, and are positioned to connect with injured nerves that control the diaphragm. The bioresorbable scaffolds help keep the organoids alive and properly aligned while new nerve pathways form. Over time, the scaffolds naturally break down once they are no longer needed, which may reduce the need for additional surgeries.
The research team will test this approach in preclinical models of spinal cord injury to determine whether spinal cord organoids can survive, integrate with the host tissue, and restore diaphragm activity. Demonstrating improved breathing function in these models would be a meaningful step toward future therapies for people with spinal cord injuries who rely on ventilators. In the long term, this combination of organoid technology and dissolvable scaffolds could provide a general platform for repairing other types of nerve damage, with the goal of improving independence and quality of life for patients.
The project is led by Jamin Lee, PhD, at the Querrey Simpson Institute for Regenerative Engineering (QSI RENU) Center, with Colin K. Franz, MD, PhD, and John A. Rogers, PhD, serving as co-advisors. Together, the team leverages QSI RENU’s advanced capabilities in organoid engineering, bioresorbable materials, and translational neurotechnology to develop and refine this spinal cord injury repair strategy, with the long-term goal of advancing it toward future clinical applications in partnership with Shirley Ryan 嫩B研究院 and Northwestern Medicine.
