congrats and more

Chris,
Congratulations on you guy's award for the Swiss pavilion. We were just talking about your entry yesterday with Sameena, and were betting that you guys will either win, or win a placement at least, the boards looked so awsome.
"additionally" :)
I wanted to leave you with a laundry list of treatments and research that I found on SCI since your accident. You probably already know of all these, but what the hell:
1. Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden: has been experimenting with grafting nerve axons taken out from other muscles in the body onto the spinal cord, because these nerves have the ability to regenerate, unlike the Spinal cord nerves...experiments successful in rats. This procedure is also called the Schwann cell transplant.
2. Functional Electrical Stimulation (this is probably what you are doing already). This method basically awakens dormant nerve paths.
3. Clinical trial at William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan. http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00378664;jsessionid=FC0C09A4E3458BBEA655CE0F82188F7B?order=35
The website does not explain how this procedure works, but they describe it as lumbar to sacral ventral nerve re-routing procedure, and it is supposed to improve performance in all the areas affected by SCI in these regions. I know your injury is at somehwere in the lower T-s, but maybe it is close enough. Worth finding out. I also included a link to North American clinical trials, if you want to sift through these. http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/search/term=Spinal+Cord+Injury
4. Treatment with ProCrod. This is a drug idea developed by a company called Proneuron Biotechnologies, and in 2004, it was in phase II FDA Clinical Trials. I am not sure if it is still in clinical trials or not. Basically the concept for this drug is that a type of blood cell called macrophage is isolated from the patient’s own blood, activated through a proprietary process and then injected directly into the patient’s injured spinal cord at the site of the lesion. These cells somehow promote healing and growth in spinal cord cells, which is important in them regaining functionality.
5. There is some stem cell research as well, but I actually have not read about this.
OK, that is all for today, I am taking off for the long weekend, and you should enjoy is, too in beautiful Colorado. Yeah, that's right.
Boja