Joe E. Springer

Biography:

Joe Springer is a Professor of Neuroscience and Interim Director of the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center at the University of Kentucky. His lab was one of the first to demonstrate the potential therapeutic potential of riluzole as a treatment for acute spinal cord injury (SCI) and riluzole is now in phase III clinical trials. His lab also was the first to characterize the molecular signaling events linking mitochondria associated caspase-dependent activation and apoptotic oligodendroglia cell death in SCI. Most recently, his lab is collaborating with Dr. Wangxia Wang, who is a recognized expert in miRNA biology to examine the role of mitochondria in regulating the cellular activity of inflammatory miRNA following traumatic brain injury.