The Clinical Importance of Motor Neuron Degeneration After Spinal Cord Injury

Presented by Colin Franz, MD, PhD; Assistant Professor in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Neurology, Shirley Ryan AbilityLabs and Northwestern University

Dr. Franz is a physician and scientist at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and Northwestern University and sees patients at the Lois Insolia ALS Clinic at the Les Turner ALS Center at Northwestern Medicine. His clinical subspecialties include neuromuscular medicine, electrodiagnostic medicine, and neuromuscular ultrasound. He see patients for (i) peripheral nerve injuries, (ii) nerve or tendon transfer rehabilitation, (iii) diaphragm muscle weakness, and (iv) motor neuron diseases such as ALS. He is the director of the Electrodiagnostic (clinical) and Regenerative Neurorehabilitation (research) laboratories at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab hospital. His research is heavily inspired by the patient populations he cares for. His laboratory team takes a highly technology-oriented approach to precision neurorehabilitation. Some of his current studies include transient (resorbable) implanted devices to deliver therapeutics to regenerating axons, to making human neurons derived from patient-derived pluripotent stem cells to determine and isolate how individual genetic factors effect neurotrauma outcomes.