West Haven, Connecticut––Clair Russell Hesselton, President of United Spinal Association, will present a check for $100,000 to Yale University Medical School’s Center for Neuroscience and Regeneration Research on Monday, December 19, 2005 at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Haven, Connecticut. Committed to restoring function in people with spinal cord injury (SCI) and multiple sclerosis (MS) the Yale Center is a collaborative effort of United Spinal Association, Paralyzed Veterans of America, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Yale. United Spinal has contributed over $7.9 million to the Center since its founding in 1988.

“This award exemplified United Spinal Association’s commitment to this Research Center and its quest for a cure for spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis,” said Hesselton. Thanking the Association for its generous contribution, Director Stephen Waxman, MD, PhD, recalled how United Spinal Association has provided the Center with more then just funding. “They have also given us a vision, a vision to restore function to people with disorders such as SCI and MS, restoring vital functions––the ability to walk, the ability to see, the ability to feel. These goals have been central to our mission.” Dr. Waxman and Dr. Robert Alpern, dean of Yale University School of Medicine will be accepting the check on behalf of the Center at the Monday morning ceremony.

Among a number of significant breakthroughs, the Center for Neuroscience and Regeneration Research has demonstrated that transplanting stem cells has the potential to restore myelin and conduction in the injured spinal cord. Yale scientists have also made groundbreaking discoveries on the molecular basis for chronic, “neuropathic” pain, which is an excruciating response to normally painless stimuli and is suffered by nearly half of all individuals with SCI and MS.

United Spinal is a major source of research funding for spinal cord injury and disease. Since the 1970s, they’ve allocated over $52 million for research and professional development, including the Yale Research Center. In November, 2004 Congress passed legislation to rename the Bronx VA, the “James J. Peters Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center,” honoring United Spinal’s late executive director. In January, 2005, the Spinal Cord Damage Research center at the Peters VAMC––another research group funded by United Spinal––was awarded a $12 million grant from the VA for an important new study on techniques for treating pressure ulcers. The Association also sponsors the largest annual professional SCI/D conference in the country.