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2011 Finalist

Medical Research Translation
Professor Alan Mackay-Sim

2011 Finalist

People's Choice Awards
Alan picks at noses to repair spinal cord injuries



Professor Mackay-Sim’s work involves taking an individual’s cells, growing them in the lab and then transplanting them into their injured spinal cord. The cells used come from the nose where they normally help regenerate the sense of smell after damage. This promises to be a new therapy to treat spinal cord injury.

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Ever since he was child, Alan Mackay-Sim has wanted to know how the body works. "I was fascinated as a kid about how my body worked. It's always been about the brain and its control over the body. ‘How does my leg know what to do?'"


He boldly told his school career advisor he wanted to become a brain researcher and quickly switched from psychology to biology while at university in order to find a science with a more tangible connection to health.


In the end, that fascination boiled down to expertise in the workings of a specific cell in the nose called the olfactory ensheathing cell. This cell is vital for the lifelong regeneration of the nasal nerve cells - providing the scaffolding for the nerve development between the nose and the brain which gives us our sense of smell.


But Alan's groundbreaking research uses the cell in a different context altogether, literally transplanting it into the spinal cord. Animal studies by Alan and his team suggest that there it may be able to repair the catastrophic damage that paralyses between 250 and 300 Australians every year.


The first human trial to test the safety of transplanting the olfactory ensheathing cells into the spine under rigorous clinical trial conditions was directed by Alan in Brisbane between 2005 and 2008. It saw three participants with significant spinal fractures have between 12 million and 20 million of their own lab-cultivated nasal cells transplanted into their spines as part of a controlled blind study.


After three years' careful monitoring, the trial demonstrated that the procedure is safe. At the same time, while the participants had such significant spinal injuries that improvement wasn't expected, one recipient did have a marked enhancement in sensitivity to touch and pin pricks.


Plans are now underway to do further safety trials in Australia and internationally in Italy, the UK, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Australia.


Expectations are high because previous trials by Alan and his team have shown that the cells can help to repair less significant spinal damage in paraplegic rats.


"We were able to demonstrate that the cells in the nose could have the reparatory effect in studies of rat paraplegia."


But he says the great challenge, as with the development of any drug treatment, is replicating the results from animal studies in humans.


"I'm confident that we'll get some other safety data and then that will be an impetus to move to the next stage trials in the neck injuries where we have more hope of repair of the tissue. That's where I really want to go forward."


"It seems more like an adventure rather than a challenge."


Alan is the Director of the National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research at Griffith University. He entered his research in the Eureka Prize for Medical Research Translation.

I would like to ask you where and when you were born. I would also like to know where you studied, where you live and your marital status. I would like to know this because in science we need to choose a scientist and write a report about them and I have chosen you.
I grew up in Sydney. I went to Macquarie University. I am married. I have been a Queenslander since 1987!
If this experiment is a success, could this help other people with disabilities whom their body does not respond or co-operate with their body? i.e cerebral palsy
Unfortunately not. Our treatment is for people with injury to the spinal cord caused by a trauma, like a car accident or a fall. Cerebral palsy happens during brain and spinal cord development and is an even more complicated thing to try to mend.
With your research, will it be able to increase the healing time if the spinal accident was not permanent? For example if they just fracture or damage their spine and have to be put in a Halo for a certain time would this research increase the speed of healing?
Our treatment can't help the spine. We are trying to fix the spinal cord - the part of the nervous system running down the middle of the spine. You are talking about fracture of the bones of the spine, which can break without hurting the spinal cord inside.
Are olfactory ensheathing cells going to replace the need for sourcing stem cells from a foetus? Does using a recipients own cells reduce the risk of rejection?
There are a lot of cells being tried for transplantation including olfactory ensheathing cells and stem cells from adult tissues. Their advantage is that they reduce the risk of rejection and they do not form tumours. They will reduce the need for stem cells from a foetus.
How did you get into the medical profession?
At high school I decided to do research on the brain. I did a science degree and then a PhD on the sense of smell. Soon after that I learned that the sense of smell regenerates and repairs itself throughout life. Imagine that, a part of the nervous system that can repair itself. The idea really got me that if we understood this better we could use it to repair the brain or spinal cord.

Entrants

Professor Alan Mackay-Sim
Griffith University, QLD