Silver’s spinal cord research receives major recognition

Professor Jerry Silver of the Department of Neurosciences at the School of Medicine has received two highly coveted awards in his field, the 2003 Ameritec Prize and, with James Fawcett, Ph.D., of Cambridge University, the 2003 Reeve-Irvine Research Medal for Spinal Cord Repair.

Both awards recognize his research for significant accomplishment toward a cure for paralysis. The Ameritec Prize specifically was given for his work demonstrating that degenerating white matter which develops after a spinal cord injury does not always inhibit nerve regrowth. The Ameritec Foundation described as elegant his experiments that overturned a long-standing belief that nerves could not regrow in the face of traumatic injury. The Reeve-Irvine Research Medal is presented to individuals who have made recent critical contributions to promoting repair of the damaged spinal cord and recovery of function. It acknowledges the most meritorious science, a proven body of work that has withstood the test of time and scrutiny, as well as other enriching contributions to the field.

Silver received the Ameritec Prize at a special recognition dinner in New Orleans, La., on Nov. 8. The prize is given by the Ameritec Foundation, a charitable, non-profit public benefit foundation based in Covina, Calif. It provides funding for the $40,000 prize. The winner is selected by a Scientific Advisory Board of internationally known medical researchers.

Later in the month, Silver went to New York City to receive the second award at the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation annual fund-raising gala. This prize is given by the Joan Irvine Smith and Athalie R. Clarke Foundation for scientific excellence and achievement, and is intended to stimulate interest and research in nerve regeneration and the development of rational therapies for spinal cord injury.

Silver’s work has unveiled major molecular roadblocks to regeneration. He discovered that a family of molecules (called proteoglycans) that form in the scar can prevent nerves (or axons) from regrowing following spinal cord injury. He has provided elegant demonstrations that once past the molecular barriers formed at the scar, severed adult nerve fibers are actually capable of extending rapidly and for long distances through injured white matter tracts.

The Ameritec Foundation stressed that Silver’s work has broadened the focus of the research community beyond “white matter inhibition” in the search for potential strategies to enhance regeneration. Indeed, recent research from around the world has shown that enzymatic removal of the proteoglycan barrier at an injury site enhances regeneration in the spinal cord and has provided experimental support for the importance of these molecules. Silver’s work has greatly increased understanding of the factors that inhibit axonal growth after injury and provide firm rationales for the development of potential therapeutic strategies aimed at improving regeneration in the central nervous system and ultimately allowing functional recovery after spinal cord injury.

Silver was born in Cleveland and earned his undergraduate degree in biology in 1970 from the Cleveland State University. He completed Ph.D. training in 1974 in the Department of Anatomy at Case with mentorship from Arthur Hughes, Sc.D. He was awarded the Herbert S. Steuer Memorial Award for Meritorious Original Research in Anatomy. He then moved to the Children’s Hospital Medical Center of Harvard University for postdoctoral training with Richard Sidman, M.D., in the departments of neuroscience and neuropathology. Working with Sidman, he became interested in the role of glial cells in guiding axons during development of the mammalian optic pathway. After two years as a research assistant he served briefly as an instructor in ophthalmology and neuropathology at Harvard Medical School before moving back to Cleveland and the Case School of Medicine. After joining the faculty in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Genetics at Case in early 1979 he began his long-standing interest in the role of the glial scar and reactive astroglial extracellular matrix during axon regeneration in the brain and spinal cord. Silver is currently a professor in the Department of Neurosciences in the School of Medicine at Case. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Cleveland Clinic. His activities include teaching of second-year medical students. He serves as chairman of the Phase 2 Nervous System Committee. He is also one of several founding scientists and serves on the scientific advisory board of Acorda Therapeutics.

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