Sousa Lab

Research focus

ERC Advanced Grant · 2024

The roadmap enabling spinal cord regeneration in mammals

It is widely documented that the adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS) does not regenerate. This failure results from the inhibitory scar environment and the decline of developmental growth programs. Overturning this dogma, the PI recently demonstrated that the spiny mouse (Acomys cahirinus) regenerates spontaneously the spinal cord, with robust functional recovery. Her current preliminary data support that an early switch occurs in the injured Acomys spinal cord, allowing scar reversion and activation of a regenerative program. In CORDheal, this exceptional non-model organism will be used to address the knowledge gap on the mechanisms enabling a mammal to regenerate the CNS. The…

From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.