(Press-News.org) East Hanover & Summit, NJ – February 11, 2025 – The Tim and Caroline Reynolds Center for Spinal Stimulation at Kessler Foundation is proud to announce the implantation of a spinal cord epidural stimulator in an individual with paralysis, marking a significant advancement in spinal cord injury treatment and rehabilitation. The surgical procedure was funded by the Joseph and Cheryl Marino Family Foundation and performed by neurosurgeon Robert F. Heary, MD, at Overlook Medical Center in Summit, NJ, part of Atlantic Health System, home of the Atlantic Neuroscience Institute.
This groundbreaking procedure, combined with intensive training, has the potential to improve individuals’ motor and autonomic function.
Gail Forrest, PhD, director of Kessler Foundation’s Reynolds Center, emphasized, “This success underscores the potential of epidural spinal stimulation to change lives.”
This protocol is part of an NIH-funded exploratory and development research study through The BRAIN Initiative to investigate bladder function and locomotor ability in individuals who have lived with spinal injury for less than 12 months. Once implanted, the device delivers electrical impulses directly into the spinal cord that potentially allow individuals to regain critical bodily functions, prospectively improving bladder function, motor control, and quality of life.
Claudia Angeli, PhD, assistant director of the Reynolds Center, anticipates future success. “We are eager to expand our understanding of the benefits of spinal cord epidural stimulation in our endeavor to make this technology more accessible to all with spinal cord injury,” Angeli said.
Chief Medical Officer of Kessler Foundation and co-director of the Reynolds Center, Steven Kirshblum, MD, added: “Kessler Foundation is excited to be the first in New Jersey to harness the potential of epidural spinal stimulation, a potentially groundbreaking therapeutic technology. The goal is to build upon the wealth of existing neuromodulation research and enhance the lives of individuals with spinal cord injury across multiple domains, potentially paving the way for improved function and quality of life in the future.”
Kessler Foundation is proud to collaborate with Atlantic Health System as future surgeries are planned to continue this important research.
With the support of the Reynolds Foundation and other donors, the Tim and Caroline Reynolds Center for Spinal Stimulation at Kessler Foundation is transforming the potential for recovery after spinal cord injury. To date, more than 70 individuals with paralysis have contributed to the steady progress at the Reynolds Center.
About Kessler Foundation
Kessler Foundation, a major nonprofit organization in the field of disability, is a global leader in rehabilitation research. Our scientists seek to improve cognition, mobility, and long-term outcomes, including employment, for adults and children with neurological and developmental disabilities of the brain and spinal cord including traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and autism. Kessler Foundation also leads the nation in funding innovative programs that expand opportunities for employment for people with disabilities.
About Atlantic Health System
Atlantic Health System is at the forefront of medicine, setting standards for quality health care in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the New York metropolitan area. Powered by a workforce of 21,000 team members and 5,440 affiliated physicians dedicated to building healthier communities, Atlantic Health System serves more than half of the state of New Jersey including 14 counties and 7.5 million people.
The not-for-profit system offers more than 550 sites of care, including its eight hospitals: Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, NJ, Overlook Medical Center in Summit, NJ, Newton Medical Center in Newton, NJ, Chilton Medical Center in Pompton Plains, NJ, Hackettstown Medical Center in Hackettstown, NJ, Goryeb Children’s Hospital in Morristown, NJ, Atlantic Rehabilitation Institute in Madison, NJ and CentraState Medical Center in Freehold, NJ.
The system includes Atlantic Medical Group, part of a physician enterprise that makes up one of the largest multispecialty practices in New Jersey with more than 1,700 physicians and advance practice providers. Joined with Atlantic Accountable Care Organization and Optimus Healthcare Partners they form part of Atlantic Alliance, a Clinically Integrated Network of more than 2,500 health care providers throughout northern and central NJ.
Atlantic Health System provides care for the full continuum of health care needs through 30 urgent care centers, Atlantic Visiting Nurse, and Atlantic Health Virtual Visits. Facilitating the connection between these services on both land and air is the transportation fleet of Atlantic Mobile Health.
Atlantic Health System leads the Healthcare Transformation Consortium, a partnership of six regional hospitals and health systems dedicated to improving access and affordability, has a medical school affiliation with Thomas Jefferson University, is home to the regional campus of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Morristown and Overlook Medical Centers, and is the official health care partner of the New York Jets.
For media inquiries, contact:
Sara Jane Samuel, PhD, MPH, SSamuel@KesslerFoundation.org
Robert Seman, Robert.Seman@AtlanticHealth.org
For those interested in participating in a spinal stimulation research study, contact:
Neuromodulation@KesslerFoundation.org
END
Kessler Foundation in partnership with Overlook Medical Center is first in NJ to implant novel spinal stimulator
State-of-the-art therapy uses electrical stimulation of the spinal cord combined with months of intensive training to restore function for individuals with spinal cord injury
2025-02-11
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Study reveals how physical activity impacts sleep quality in older adults during COVID-19 pandemic
2025-02-11
“[…] we found that PA may be associated with the sleep quality of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic and that reduced levels of PA during the COVID-19 pandemic period had a negative association with the quality of sleep of older adults in social isolation.”
BUFFALO, NY—February 11, 2025 — A new research paper was published in Aging (Aging-US) on January 15, 2025, in Volume 17, Issue 1, titled “Association between physical activity practice and sleep quality of older people in social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and Health Guidelines and future studies ...
ADHD symptoms and later e-cigarette and tobacco use in youths
2025-02-11
About The Study: In this cohort study of U.S. youths, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms were associated with the onset of nicotine and tobacco use. The findings highlight the importance of early diagnosis and effective treatment of ADHD to alleviate symptoms and reduce the risk of later nicotine and tobacco use.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Sean Esteban McCabe, PhD, email plius@umich.edu.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media ...
Prepandemic prevalence of dietary supplement use for immune benefits
2025-02-11
About The Study: This study has 3 findings in a prepandemic context. First, approximately 1 in 9 U.S. residents used a dietary supplement for perceived immune benefits (supplements to prevent colds or boost the immune system), and such usage varied by several sociodemographic and health characteristics. Second, label claims related to immune benefits consistently appeared on over half of dietary supplements taken for perceived immune benefits. Lastly, the prevalence of dietary supplement use for perceived immune benefits due to a doctor recommendation and dietary supplement use exclusively for perceived immune benefits were both generally ...
Born to heal: Why babies recover, but adults scar, after heart damage
2025-02-11
Study in experimental animals reveals fundamental differences in how immune system drives healing based on age
Newborn immune systems see, then eat dying cells, triggering production of bioactive lipids
Findings open the door to developing treatments that could ‘reprogram’ adult immune systems
CHICAGO --- Newborns with heart complications can rely on their newly developed immune systems to regenerate cardiac tissues, but adults aren’t so lucky. After a heart attack, most adults struggle to regenerate healthy heart tissue, leading ...
SNU researchers develop soft robot that crawls, climbs, and shape-shifts to move in new directions
2025-02-11
A new type of soft robot can crawl like a worm, climb cables, and suddenly snap into a completely different shape to move in a new direction—all controlled by a single air input. This breakthrough, developed by researchers at Seoul National University, introduces a fundamentally new way for soft robots to move and adapt to their surroundings.
A Leap Forward in Soft Robotics
Soft robots, made from flexible materials, are known for their ability to bend and stretch. However, until now, they struggled to precisely control motion and required complex ...
Mystery solved: New study reveals how DNA repair genes play a major role in Huntington's disease
2025-02-11
A new UCLA Health study has discovered in mouse models that genes associated with repairing mismatched DNA are critical in eliciting damages to neurons that are most vulnerable in Huntington's disease and triggering downstream pathologies and motor impairment, shedding light on disease mechanisms and potential new ways to develop therapies.
Huntington’s disease is one of the most common inherited neurodegenerative disorders that typically begins in adulthood and worsens over time. Patients begin to lose neurons in specific regions of the brain responsible for movement control, motor skill learning, language and ...
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute announces launch of Center for Sepsis Epidemiology and Prevention Studies (SEPSIS)
2025-02-11
Boston, MA – The Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute is proud to announce the launch of the Center for Sepsis Epidemiology and Prevention Studies (SEPSIS). This pioneering center of excellence is dedicated to advancing understanding, prevention, and management of sepsis, a life-threatening condition caused by a dysregulated immune response to infection.
The SEPSIS Center will be led by Dr. Chanu Rhee and Dr. Michael Klompas, internationally recognized leaders in sepsis surveillance, prevention, treatment, and policy. Both serve as faculty at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and bring a wealth of expertise and a shared commitment ...
New perspectives for personalized therapy of brain tumors
2025-02-11
Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and ShanghaiTech University have developed an innovative method for growing brain tumors of individual patients in the laboratory that mimic the original structure and the molecular property of the parental tumor as closely as possible. Drug tests in this model were found to correlate very well with actual patient responses, making it a valuable method for investigating therapies.
Tumor organoids, i.e. mini-tumors grown from surgical material in the culture dish, ...
IEEE researchers provide mathematical solutions to study 2D light interaction in photonic crystal lasers
2025-02-11
Laser diodes are semiconductors that generate light and amplify it using repeated reflection or ‘optical feedback’. Once the light has achieved desirable optical gain, laser diodes release it as powerful laser beams. Photonic crystal surface-emitting lasers (PCSELs) are advanced laser diodes where the optical gain is typically distributed laterally to the propagating light within a photonic crystal (PC) structure. They differ from traditional lasers by separating gain, feedback, and emission functions, offering scalable single-mode power and innovative ...
New joint project to investigate quantum repeaters designed to provide for secure quantum communication networks of the future
2025-02-11
There are reports of IT sabotage, cyber espionage, and other acts of hybrid warfare almost every day. Communication networks based on quantum physics could help eliminate threats of this kind. Researchers throughout Germany have already been working on developing those networks based on quantum repeaters for several years. In January 2025, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) started funding a new research project, entitled Quantenrepeater.Net (QR.N), which aims to demonstrate the viability of quantum repeaters over test networks outside the protected lab environment. The BMBF will be providing a total of EUR 20 million over three years. ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Milky Way-like galaxy M83 consumes high-speed clouds
Study: What we learned from record-breaking 2021 heat wave and what we can expect in the future
Transforming treatment outcomes for people with OCD
Damage from smoke and respiratory viruses mitigated in mice via a common signaling pathway
New software tool could help better understand childhood cancer
Healthy lifestyle linked to lower diverticulitis risk, irrespective of genetic susceptibility
Women 65+ still at heightened risk of cervical cancer caused by HPV
‘Inflammatory’ diet during pregnancy may raise child’s diabetes type 1 risk
Effective therapies needed to halt rise in eco-anxiety, says psychology professor
Nature-friendly farming boosts biodiversity and yields but may require new subsidies
Against the odds: Endometriosis linked to four times higher pregnancy rates than other causes of infertility, new study reveals
Microplastics discovered in human reproductive fluids, new study reveals
Family ties and firm performance: How cousin marriage traditions shape informal businesses in Africa
Novel flu vaccine adjuvant improves protection against influenza viruses, study finds
Manipulation of light at the nanoscale helps advance biosensing
New mechanism discovered in ovarian cancer peritoneal metastasis: YWHAB restriction drives stemness and chemoresistance
New study links blood metabolites and immune cells to increased risk of urolithiasis
Pyruvate identified as a promising therapeutic agent for ulcerative colitis by targeting cytosolic phospholipase A2
New insights into the clinical impact of IKBKG mutations: Understanding the mechanisms behind rare immunodeficiency syndromes
Displays, imaging and sensing: New blue fluorophore breaks efficiency records in both solids and solutions
Sugar, the hidden thermostat in plants
Personality can explain why some CEOs earn higher salaries
This puzzle game shows kids how they’re smarter than AI
Study suggests remembrances of dead played role in rise of architecture in Andean region
Brain stimulation can boost math learning in people with weaker neural connections
Inhibiting enzyme could halt cell death in Parkinson’s disease, study finds
Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning
UNDER EMBARGO: Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning
Scientists target ‘molecular machine’ in the war against antimicrobial resistance
Extending classical CNOP method for deep-learning atmospheric and oceanic forecasting
[Press-News.org] Kessler Foundation in partnership with Overlook Medical Center is first in NJ to implant novel spinal stimulatorState-of-the-art therapy uses electrical stimulation of the spinal cord combined with months of intensive training to restore function for individuals with spinal cord injury