Assistant Professor Harini Sundararaghavan is trying to solve a problem. Traditional thinking about spinal cord injuries was that neurons could not regrow, resulting in permanent paralysis. However, new research suggests that it is the environment around the neurons that prohibits them from growing, not the neurons themselves. Now Dr. Sundararaghavan and researchers in her laboratory in the Department of Biomedical Engineering are working to mimic the natural properties of neural tissue and replace scar tissue with a more favorable material that neurons can grow on and reconnect healthy tissue around an injury.

Dr. Sundararaghavan's work has potential implications for individuals with peripheral and spinal cord injuries, and as injured veterans return from recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq there is a growing need. "The ultimate goal is to help people who are severely injured," Dr. Sundararaghavan says, "because right now there is no treatment for people who are quadriplegic or paraplegic."

To support this kind of research, Dr. Sundararaghavan and faculty researchers like her rely on grants and private funding. While research universities offer faculty members start-up funding, researchers need external sources of support to continue their laboratory work and fund graduate research assistants, high-technology equipment, cell cultures and more.

In the below video, Dr. Sundararaghavan describes the current research and work going on in her laboratory.