Dr. Adam Ferguson is a Professor in the Neurological Surgery Department at UCSF and Co-Director of the UCSF Brain and Spinal Injury Center. His career has been devoted to advancing the field of neurotrauma research, with a focus on spinal cord injuries and traumatic brain injury. Through his authored research publications, he has contributed to our understanding of mechanisms and outcomes of various neurological conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic back pain. As the Principal Investigator of several NIH-sponsored projects, including the Pan-Neurotrauma Data Commons and the Translational Outcomes Project for Neurotrauma (TOP-NT), he has led efforts to harness big data and data science for discovery and rehabilitation in translational neurotrauma research. With a commitment to advancing scientific knowledge and enhancing patient outcomes, his research has made significant contributions to the fields of neurological surgery, neurotrauma, and open data science.
Dr. Mark H Tuszynski is a Professor of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego, and the Founding Director of the UCSD Translational Neuroscience Institute. He received his undergraduate and M.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis), clinical training in neurology at Cornell University Medical Center in New York, and a Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Tuszynski’s research focuses on central nervous system plasticity in animal models of learning, Alzheimer’s disease, and spinal cord injury. He investigates nervous system stem cells, growth factors, and gene delivery tools in many of these studies. In 2001, Dr. Tuszynski began the first human clinical trial of gene therapy to treat an adult human neurodegenerative disease, testing the effects of nerve growth factor gene delivery in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Carolyn J Sparrey is a Principal Investigator at ICORD and an Associate Professor in the School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering at Simon Fraser University. She obtained her B.A.Sc. from the University of Waterloo and her M.A.Sc. from the University of British Columbia. Dr. Sparrey completed her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco in Neurological Surgery. Dr. Sparrey’s research focus is on biomechanics and biomaterials. She studies the mechanical characterization of neurological tissues. She also works on modeling and simulating injuries and diseases, including accident reconstruction. Dr. Sparrey also designs and evaluates injury prevention devices.
