In a study in the journal Environmental Research, researchers compared blood samples of people participating in the . The researchers found that people living in greener neighborhoods showed immune patterns consistent with lower chronic inflammation, including lower levels of several circulating immune cells linked to inflammatory activity, such as monocytes, natural killer cells, B cells and some white blood cell types.

“The study also found evidence of a shift toward a more regulated immune profile, suggesting that nearby trees and vegetation may do more than improve quality of life – they may also influence the body’s immune system in ways that support cardiovascular health,” said Daniel Riggs, assistant professor in UofL’s and first author of the study. “While the study cannot prove cause and effect, the findings add to growing evidence that greener residential environments may be an important public health resource for reducing inflammation and promoting long-term health.”

The findings provide additional support for preliminary findings from the Green Heart Louisville Project showing that people living in neighborhoods where the number of trees and shrubs was more than doubled had lower levels of a blood biomarker of inflammation than those living outside the planted areas. Those living in the greened area had 13-20% lower levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) than those living in the areas that did not receive additional trees and shrubs. Higher levels of hsCRP are strongly associated with a risk of cardiovascular disease. Higher CRP levels also indicate a higher risk of diabetes and certain cancers.

The recent study evaluated the immune function of Green Heart Louisville Project participants based on the greenness of their residential environment prior to the addition of trees for the project.

“These studies show that greener neighborhoods don’t just look better; they appear to educate our immune system in ways that may reduce chronic inflammation and disease risk,” said Aruni Bhatnagar, director of the Envirome Institute. “They align with the Envirome Institute’s mission of identifying environmental conditions that shape human health and translating those insights into strategies for improving the health of our communities.”

UofL in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, Washington University in St. Louis, Hyphae Design Laboratory and others to study whether and how living among more densely greened surroundings contributes to better heart health.

The project design, a multi-phase transformation supported by $6.75 million in combined city and state funding, features expanded sidewalks, increased tree canopy and extensive landscaping. New curb extensions will introduce seating areas and further soften the urban environment. By enhancing pedestrian infrastructure, the project aims to create a street that is safer and more welcoming to the thousands of employees, students and patients who traverse the district daily.

In collaboration with city officials and project partners Gresham Smith and Pace Contracting, LOUMED has begun project construction for the project in the 300 block of East Chestnut Street. This location allows the new work to physically and visually connect the streetscape to LOUMED Commons, a public park opened in November 2025 that converted a vacant lot into vital green space, and to enhance UofL’s Health Sciences Center.

The project is located within the study area of Greenprint, a 10-year initiative coordinated by UofL’s and its affiliated Urban Design Studio. Greenprint integrates science-based greening strategies into downtown Louisville’s growth and redevelopment, optimizing new green spaces so they can have the greatest impact on human health. The initiative links separate projects like LOUMED Commons and the Chestnut Street improvements, ensuring a shared commitment to creating a cooler, cleaner and healthier Louisville.

The Chestnut Street Improvement Project is informed by walkability studies and temperature monitoring conducted by UofL’s Center for Geographic Information Sciences (ULCGIS), which recently became part of the Envirome Institute. Using drone-mounted thermal imaging sensors to map surface temperatures across project areas, ULCGIS staff identify hot spots and provide data to help guide planting strategies that can cool the city and support healthier, more comfortable microenvironments. Researchers will continue to monitor the impact of this greening on the local microclimate and human health and comfort to develop a replicable national model for greening urban pedestrian areas in other cities.

Construction for the Chestnut Street project is proceeding in a phased approach to minimize disruption. Work on the current block is scheduled for completion later this year. Crews will then immediately begin improvements on the three subsequent blocks extending east from South Preston to South Clay streets, with the full eastern section projected to be complete in 2027.

Watson, who works in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, focuses on comparative genomics and immunology, also known as immunogenomics. This expertise earned a place on a multidisciplinary team led by Penn State, Washington University and the who recently generated the first : chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, Bornean orangutan, Sumatran orangutan and siamang. Watson, and members of his lab team assisted in undertaking the large project, utilizing their niche expertise to help identify and analyze the ape genes related to immunity. 

The ape genome findings published in help scientists better understand species-specific genes that may have played a role in the species’ survival and development. Geneticists like Watson are discovering the narrative of evolution by studying and translating genomes into actionable information. Genomic differences between humans and our close genetic relatives may direct future advancements in understanding human health and clinical research.

“I like to think that when you understand more about the biology of these regions, you understand more about how they can be useful to humans in the health setting,” Watson said.

Piecing together the ape genome puzzle

The complete sequencing of the six ape genomes revealed novel genes and variants related to diet, immunity and cellular activity. 

“The regions that harbor antibody genes are very complex parts of the genome, and we still actually don’t understand them that well, even in humans,” Watson said. “We don’t know much about their evolutionary histories. While we now understand they are places in our genome that have very particular characteristics, we lack a clear understanding of how quickly they can diversify and take on new functions within and between species.”

The complete genomes of the six ape species have been sequenced thanks to technological advancements that have made genomic sequencing cheaper and more efficient. However, the process for sequencing a genome is not as simple as running it through a single computer program, as seen in sci-fi movies like “Jurassic Park.” Watson describes the sequencing process as similar to completing a jigsaw puzzle. Laboratory researchers break up chromosomes into small pieces of DNA, analyze them and put them back together to understand the whole. 

“We’re now to the point where — with a lot of effort through the input of a lot of people — we can fully reconstruct genomes, and it doesn’t cost you a billion dollars to do it,” Watson said, referring to the rough cost of the original of the early 2000’s. 

Technological developments have allowed today’s researchers to analyze much larger DNA pieces, so the change in sequencing difficulty is like having fewer pieces of a puzzle to put together.

Despite the progress, this work remains an intense process requiring experts like Watson, who helped identify and describe the ape genes that contribute to immune responses. For the Watson Lab and other immunogenomic researchers, future advancement in our genetic understanding of immunity will require sequencing of many more individual apes and humans to better identify gene variations across these species.

Students are critical to the research

Watson and his team were just one branch of a large team of scientists piecing together and organizing the jigsaw of the six ape genomes. The amount of work needed in genetics to sequence, annotate and store genetic information is great, which leaves space for rising biology students. 

“Students are critical to our research enterprise. All of us were once students; it’s where you start,” Watson said, regarding the future of genetic studies. “The future of the system we have built in this country wholly depends on our ability to continue to recruit and effectively train students who are interested in scientific research.”

For Watson and his team of UofL researchers, the work to understand the genetic story of humans’ adaptive immune system continues with more of our close relatives. The Watson Lab recently completed . The study included a curated public database of more than 1,000 previously unidentified alleles and is available with the team’s January 2026 article published in .

By carefully combining information from previous studies with the results from these two recent clinical trials, the researchers showed that the therapies tested in the recent trials now show stronger evidence of meaningfully improving outcomes in children with high-risk Group 3 medulloblastoma.

High-risk Group 3 medulloblastoma is a fast-growing and notoriously hard-to-treat childhood brain cancer. Because so few children are diagnosed each year, even large national studies can enroll only a handful of patients. In one of the trials, only 10 children with this tumor type received the new therapy. In another, only 43 children were treated, despite the fact that the trial was open in dozens of cancer centers in the United States.

Unfortunately, these numbers are too low to thoroughly evaluate a therapy’s effectiveness using traditional analysis methods.

“These small numbers make it extremely difficult for traditional statistical methods to show with certainty whether the therapies truly work,” said , a neurosurgeon and scientist at UofL and who led the reanalysis study. “As a result, promising treatments for these children can remain in limbo – not because they fail, but because the evidence isn’t strong enough using traditional approaches.”

To overcome this challenge, the UofL team used a novel statistical approach called dynamic borrowing via Bayesian models, which carefully “borrows” information from previous studies to strengthen the results of new trials. The idea is to let the model learn how similar the past and present data are, and to borrow more past data that match and less when they differ. The researchers ran 10,000 computer simulations using this process, ensuring that the findings remained both reliable and not artificially inflated.

Using this method, they reanalyzed data from two recent national trials and found a greater than 90% probability that the therapies tested in the clinical trials truly do provide benefit for children with high-risk Group 3 medulloblastoma. The therapies that had limited statistical power under traditional analyses now appear strongly promising under the new approach and as a result, may warrant renewed consideration as effective treatment options.

For children and families facing the devastating diagnosis of this aggressive cancer, these findings bring renewed hope that these treatments are not only worth trying but also are likely to be effective.

The research team in September.

“This work is part of a larger effort at UofL to modernize how we design, conduct and analyze clinical trial data, helping scientists and physicians learn as much as possible from the small, precious data that take years to collect in rare diseases,” Mistry said. “Our goal is to make the most of every patient’s experience – past and present – to improve the care of future patients. It is our way of honoring every child and adult who participates in clinical trials by ensuring their contributions continue to shape the treatments of tomorrow.”

Mistry, who was profiled in the  also led a team that recently published the , showing the composition of tumors at the genomic level, combined with clinical information such as patient age, tumor location and survival outcomes. This  is a free, publicly available tool that promises to speed up the discovery of treatments for brain and nerve tumors, especially rare ones that have had limited research attention, like Group 3 medulloblastomas.

This project was supported by the Kentucky Pediatric Cancer Research Trust Fund and the Kentucky Department for Public Health. Mistry’s work also is supported by the Louisville Clinical and Translational Research Center at UofL and by a UofL Presidential Scholars award.

Young, who will begin his new position in March, comes to Louisville from Memphis, most recently serving as director of operations/technology and business development for the Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Simulation at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

With more than a decade of expertise in academic health care simulation, he will lead the design, development, integration and strategic direction of the Academic Simulation Center. Young received a bachelor of science in biomedical engineering from the University of Alabama Birmingham, and master of business administration degree from the University of Tennessee at Martin.

“This position will be vital to promoting a contemporary, innovative and impactful Simulation Ecosystem for UofL,” said Jeffrey Bumpous, executive vice president for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. “We are fortunate to have Jarrod Young, an established leader in health sciences simulation, to make the center a learning, research, workforce development and community engagement powerhouse for the region.”

Young said the leadership and vision of the university and local clinical partners shows that Louisville is committed to impacting the future of health care by investing in interprofessional education and training.

“I am honored to join the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center as we collectively aim to support the future of clinical education and patient care through health care simulation,” Young said. “My vision is to support the current health care simulation experts at the university with my knowledge and experience growing a large health science simulation center into a world-class program.”

The new $280 million building on the Health Sciences Center Campus will house the Academic Simulation Center as well as serve students and faculty from UofL’s Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry and Public Health and Information Sciences. The space will foster collaboration that supports goals of the university’s and contribute to the elite level of health care education in the region. The university plans to complete the building by fall 2029. 

“Physics was the one class that really resonated with me. Being good at both math and science just sort of led me to engineering,” Kellem said.

After earning his associate’s degree at ECTC, transferring to the University of Louisville’s was a natural next step for the Nelson County, Ky., native.

Kellem had excelled academically at ECTC and he continued to excel at UofL, where he has a 3.9 GPA. He will graduate this month, earning a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering.

“I decided to go for mechanical engineering because I didn’t want to pick anything that was too specialized. Mechanical engineering seems to be like the most general engineering program. You get lots of experience in different fields.”

While at UofL, Kellem explored a wide variety of engineering opportunities through work at the Louisville Automation and Robotics Research Institute and Speed School’s co-op program. His outstanding academics led him to membership in the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, Mortar Board and Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.

Kellem completed his co-op experiences with SCHOTT North America – Home Tech, where he worked in quality control for heat-resistant glass such as would be used in a fireplace window or glass cooktop.

“That was probably the most fun I’ve ever had working,” Kellem said. “I enjoyed the quality control because it involved physical tests, having their data broken down and analyzed to look for trends. I found ways to optimize the cutting process and even helped develop a way to cut at a much faster rate. I think quality control is something I’d be good at as a career.”

He enjoys working in a team environment, particularly engineering group projects. For his capstone project, Kellem’s group designed and built a conveyor belt.

“Teaming up with other people kind of makes it a little easier to parse through stuff because I can bounce ideas off of other people. Sometimes you explain things to them, they explain things to you, and things make a little more sense.”

Valuable mentor support

Kellem said Mike Miller in the College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development’s was especially helpful. Miller mentored Kellem, who has an autism diagnosis, in developing relationships and connecting with other offices at the university.

“My first two years here, he was pretty much helping me get through everything I needed to do. He was helping me schedule things. He was talking to different offices on my behalf. He actually got me a ton of scholarships that I would not have gotten. That was definitely helpful,” Kellem said.

The Autism Training Center helps neurodivergent students navigate many aspects of university life, from connecting with social and academic organizations to ensuring they get the right parking permit. The center also helps faculty members provide an environment that fosters success for the students.

Miller is impressed with Kellem’s work ethic and willingness to stretch – joining clubs, making friends, exploring new situations.

“He is just an amazing student.” Miller said of Kellem. “There is not anything this young man will not attempt. He has drive and leadership capabilities.”

After graduating this month, Kellem and his family plan to celebrate with a vacation in Orlando, Fla.

In January, he will turn his focus to landing a job in engineering.

DIU works with companies to rapidly prototype and scale technologies for national defense and currently operates OnRamp Hubs across the U.S. in Arizona, Hawaii, Kansas, Ohio and Washington. The addition of OnRamp Hub: Kentucky presents an opportunity for talent and technology companies across the state.

“The University of Louisville is establishing itself as a national leader in defense technology and innovation,” said Senator Mitch McConnell, who supported UofL’s selection for the hub. “Today’s announcement will bring a Defense Innovation Unit OnRamp Hub to Kentucky with UofL as the commonwealth’s delivery partner. I am proud that UofL will create new opportunities for defense companies, researchers and students to contribute directly to our national security.”

Multiple areas of established infrastructure at UofL will contribute to the hub’s mission, including a nationally ranked research enterprise, particularly assets within the J.B. Speed School of Engineering, such as defense-focused facilities in additive manufacturing, robotics, cybersecurity and micro and nano technology. Support mechanisms for innovation commercialization and existing partnerships with regional defense and manufacturing entities also will contribute to the hub’s goals.

“We are immensely grateful for the opportunity to engage the talents and assets at the University of Louisville to strengthen our nation’s security, while elevating manufacturing businesses and innovators across Kentucky,” said UofL President Gerry Bradley.

UofL has demonstrated success in outreach and education for Kentucky’s manufacturing businesses through the Kentucky Manufacturing Extension Partnership (KY-MEP), which provides support and networking for Kentucky manufacturers. This expertise will translate directly to OnRamp endeavors, giving UofL a leg up in launching the hub’s collaboration and programming efforts.

“Kentucky has a long and proud history of contributing to America’s security and the launch of this DIU OnRamp Hub builds on that legacy. It will be a game-changer, speeding innovations to our warfighters and providing a dedicated space for innovators to receive mentoring and rapidly deploy tech that strengthens national defense,” said Will Metcalf, UofL associate vice president for research development and strategic partnerships.

William Fortune, a Kentucky native, has been named director of the Kentucky’s Defense Innovation OnRamp Hub, bringing more than two decades of military and civilian leadership experience and a strong background in deploying and operationalizing new technologies.

Kentucky’s Defense Innovation OnRamp Hub, overseen by and supported with funding from the DIU, is located in a dedicated, state-of-the-art collaboration space at 300 East Market St. on UofL’s J.D. Nichols Campus for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Fortune will lead a team of full-time personnel, in offering a suite of comprehensive programming at the hub designed to lower barriers to entry and speed development of new innovations. These services will disseminate the expertise present at UofL for the benefit of Kentucky businesses, building a unified defense innovation ecosystem to support warfighter needs.

_____________

The Defense Innovation OnRamp Hubs are a strategic initiative by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) designed to lower barriers to entry for the talent and technology found in academia, startups and commercial companies. Recognizing that the best-of-breed technology can be found across the country, DIU currently has OnRamp Hub locations approved in eight states. These hubs serve as accessible entry points – local “front doors” – for innovators to collaborate directly with the DoW.

The Green Heart Louisville Project is a groundbreaking scientific study that is testing the hypothesis that introducing more green trees and shrubs into a neighborhood can directly lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death worldwide.

“Receiving this award is a great honor not only for our investigators, but also our partners and communities,” said Aruni Bhatnagar, director of the at University of Louisville and project leader for Green Heart Louisville. “It validates years of work which has shown that thoughtfully planned greening can improve cardiovascular and community health, and it affirms that the Green Heart project is not only good science, but also a model for how to improve human health in urban environments. The recognition gives us new momentum to scale this work across Louisville and beyond.”

The Witte-Sakamoto Family Medal in City and Regional Planning was established in 2019 by William Witte, an alumnus of the Weitzman School, and his wife, Keiko Sakamoto to recognize a firm, team or professional for an exemplary plan that advances the field of plan making in at least four of the following areas: social equity, environmental quality, design, public health, mobility, housing affordability and economic development. The juries for the Witte-Sakamoto Family Medal and Prize were chaired by Megan Ryerson, UPS Foundation Chair of Transportation, chair of city and regional planning, and professor of city and regional planning and electrical and systems engineering at Weitzman.

“Green Heart Louisville exemplifies a holistic way of looking at public health – a marriage of design, planning and science to emulate,” said Fritz Steiner, dean and Paley Professor at Weitzman, and a member of the jury who selected Green Heart Louisville for the award.

Launched in 2018 by UofL’s Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute with support from The Nature Conservancy, the study investigates whether and how living among more densely greened surroundings contributes to better heart health. The Green Heart team applied the treatment – the addition of thousands of mature trees and shrubs – to the center of a four-square-mile area in south Louisville.

The first clinical outcomes from the study, , indicate that people living in neighborhoods where the number of trees and shrubs was more than doubled showed lower levels of a blood marker of inflammation than those living in the control area. General inflammation is an important risk indicator for heart disease and other chronic diseases.

The Green Heart Project’s work to establish a scientific link between nature – specifically urban greenery – and human health is already influencing projects worldwide. The first clinical outcomes announcement garnered widespread national media attention. Many research papers, posters and talks on the project have been delivered to both scientists and laypeople since the project’s inception, and robust research and outreach for the project continues.

Other notable events included:

• Presentations by Jewish Heritage Fund grant awardees
• The Health Equity Keynote: “From Algorithm to Bedside: Building Trustworthy AI for Health Communities”
• The Louisville Clinical & Translational Research Center Annual Symposium
• The Immersive Technology Summit at Kornhauser Library
• A series of presentations by the Center for Integrative Environmental Health Sciences
• The Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute Health and the Environment Symposium

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) also hosted a dynamic panel discussion, “Consent to Research with Confidence: Design, Delivery and Documentation,” along with two workshops:

• “Protocol Considerations from Legal and Privacy: What to Know Before IRB Submission”
• “Fraudulent Research Participants to Return of Secondary Findings and Points in Between: Learn from the IRB”
  

  

Poster sessions showcased outstanding research contributions from across the academic community, including graduate students, medical residents and fellows, postdoctoral scholars, research staff, faculty and participants in distinction and leadership programs. Winners, listed below, were announced following the keynote address.

R!L is also proud to co-sponsor the Kentucky Science Center’s “Pulse of Surgery” Program, which engages 8th – 12th grade students in STEM fields. The program includes a live-streamed open-heart surgery and interactive sessions with health care and research professionals to explore career pathways in medicine and science.

A recording of the keynote address is available on the and are available on Flickr.

Research!Louisville 2025 Winners

Master’s Basic Science Graduate Student Award

• 1st Place: Rachel Ferrill
• 2nd Place: Kasey Kropp
• 3rd Place: Yu Tian

Doctoral Basic Science Graduate Student Award

• 1st Place: Katelyn Sheneman
• 2nd Place: Deepa Karki
• 3rd Place: Mary Nancy Walter

Engineering Co-op Student Award

• Habiba Ramy

Engineering Master Student Award

• 1st Place: Walid Mohamed
• 2nd Place: Mostafa Abdelrahim
• 3rd Place: Mohamed Khudri

Engineering Doctoral Student Award

• 1st Place: Mohamed Azam
• 2nd Place: Sienna Shacklette
• 3rd Place: Ismat Almadani

School of Dentistry Basic Science Student Award

• 1st Place: Abigail Hacker
• 2nd Place: Autumn Pipkin
• 3rd Place: Vanessa Weisshaupt

School of Dentistry Clinical/Translational Research Award

• 1st Place: Judy Alatassi
• 2nd Place: Ashley Gearlds
• 3rd Place: Rachel Pan

School of Dentistry Social/Behavioral/����ֱ��al Award

• 1st Place: Rebecca Counts
• 2nd Place: Venkat Hemant Akurati
• 3rd Place: Marciana Castillo

Rhonda A. Hoffman Medical Student Award

• 1st Place: Rebecca Duffy
• 2nd Place: Brian Hart
• 3rd Place: F. Andrea Yeargin

Postdoctoral Fellow Award

• 1st Place: Ting Wang
• 2nd Place: Easton Ford

Research Associate Award

• Sweta Ghosh

Research Staff Award

• 1st Place: Scott Garza
• 2nd Place: Ahmed Abdelbaset-Ismail

School of Medicine Medical Resident Award

• Ademilola Tejuoso

School of Medicine Clinical Research Fellow Award

• Imad Majeed

Public Health & Information Sciences Master’s Program Student Award

• Eliana Lopez Baron

Public Health & Information Sciences PhD Program Level Award

• Anika Mehta

Public Health & Information Sciences Basic Research Award

• Jennifer Tinman

Public Health & Information Sciences Research & Practice Award

• Olufunmilayo Babarinde

Faculty Award in Basic Science

• Petra Haberzettl

Faculty Award in Clinical Science

• Subathra Marimuthu

Ruth Greenberg Award for Excellence in Medical ����ֱ�� Research

• 1st Place: Joelle Hirst
• 2nd Place: Nimra Khan
• 3rd Place: LIAM Team: Kristie Vail Schultz, Mustafa Al-Kawaaz, David Neuberger and Brian Williams

Leslie Martin Medical ����ֱ�� Student Award

• Temiloluwa Haastrup

Professional & ����ֱ��al Development Award

• Marciana Castillo

Excellence in Health Disparities Research Award

• 1st Place: Gbemisola Owolabi
• 2nd Place: Sidney Johnson
• 3rd Place: Jacob Warr

Nursing Graduate Student

• 1st Place tie: Joelle Hirst and Amani Abdulabi

Nursing Graduate Student Oral Presentation Award

• Shubha Sapkota

Postdoctoral Symposium: Oral Presentation Award

• 1st Place tie: Johnnie Newton and Belinda Petri

Distinction Track Business and Leadership Award

• Wiley Cain

Distinction Track Global and Public Health Award

• Gbemisola Owolabi

Distinction Track Medical ����ֱ�� Award

• Nikita Nair

Distinction Track Physician-Scientist Development Award

• Olivia Ossege

Distinction Track Research Award

• Caroline Ploeger

Distinction Track Urban Primary Care Award

• Elizabeth Baier

By Anne Noe

Researchers in UofL’s provided a combination therapy to five children with complete paralysis. The children, ages 7-12, took part in a clinical study in which they received external electrical stimulation over the spine, combined with activity-based therapy and encouragement to consciously intend to step. During the study, the children all gained the ability to take steps and experienced unexpected improvements in sensation, bladder function, transferring and other abilities. The study was published in the.

“We have found that electrical stimulation can “charge” the spinal cord, making it possible for a paralyzed individual to step voluntarily,” said Andrea Behrman, professor in the UofL Department of Neurological Surgery and director of the Center for Pediatric NeuroRecovery, who led the study. “This ability increases over time when the stimulation is combined with locomotor training and mental intent to step.”

Stimulation + activation + intent

In the study, children who were completely paralyzed for more than a year, unable to move below their level of spinal injury, participated in a series of 60 sessions that included noninvasive, transcutaneous (through the skin) electrical stimulation of the sensory nerves to the spinal cord and specialized physical therapy.

The electrical stimulation was applied with a specially designed technique for external electrical stimulation developed by Yury Gerasimenko, now gratis professor of the UofL Department of Physiology. The technique consisted of several small stimulators, about the size of a quarter, placed on the child’s skin over the sensory nerves of the spinal cord. During the sessions, electrical stimulation was applied through the pads while the children took part in physical therapy known as activity-based locomotor training.

This therapy consists of researchers and therapy technicians manually facilitating the child’s legs in stepping motions as they lay on their side on a table with their legs suspended and also during assisted walking with part of their body weight supported over a treadmill. In addition, the children were encouraged to consciously attempt to step.

Over the course of the study, the children were able to initiate and control the stepping themselves. After various numbers of sessions, they were able to take steps over ground, voluntarily initiating the steps both with and without the stimulation present. Three to six months after the sessions were completed, all of the children still were able to take steps with and without the stimulation.

“The results we see with this study confirm what I have learned more and more over the last two decades working with children with spinal cord injury,” Behrman said. “Your spinal cord is more than a conduit or a pipeline for nervous system messages. It processes information and is smart like your brain. The spinal cord can’t decide to go to Starbucks for coffee, but it can help you with more automatic movements such as sitting up better and taking steps. It also works somewhat like a battery and needs the right charge to help produce steps and respond to therapy.”  

For many years, the medical community as a whole has believed that after injury in which communication along the spinal cord was interrupted and the patient could not move on their own, that function below the injury could never be restored. As a result, treatment for most people with complete paralysis included helping them adapt to mobility with wheelchairs and other forms of assistance.

For the parents of children participating in Behrman’s studies and clinical care, even the small gains achieved through the sessions have a significant positive impact on their child’s quality of life and often, their health.

Kalyn MacIntyre, whose son Malcolm participated in the study, said that even three years after the study concluded, he retains many of the benefits he gained from his sessions.

“He can still step on the treadmill, he can kick a ball consistently. He can now feel when he needs to go to the restroom and his overall health has been good,” Kalyn said, adding that he also has sensory gains. “I don’t know what his future is as far as walking. I just want him to be functionally capable of doing things on his own – to have more independence – and I want him to be healthy. We have more of that here because of this study.”

The personal connection

One of the most challenging aspects of the research is motivating the children during long training sessions.

“We can have the most beautifully designed study, but if a child can’t get into it and you can’t help them be successful, it will not work,” Behrman said. “You can’t just come in and say, ‘Do this 50 times.’ For each child, you must figure out how to connect with who they are.”

To engage them in the activities, Behrman and the therapists working with the children have cultivated the art of motivation by incorporating their personal interests. One child in the study was a basketball player before he was injured, so Behrman used a whistle to encourage him to go faster or drive harder, similar to when he was running drills for basketball.

For Malcolm, the research staff devised a point system to reward him for every time he was able to kick a ball. Behrman recalled one session when she told him that instead of the 10 or 20 points he received for kicking the ball off the treadmill, she would award him 10,000 points if he could kick the ball to hit a target on the opposite wall.

On the next try, Malcolm’s kick sent the ball sailing across the room, squarely hitting the target.

Previous success

Previously, researchers at UofL achieved remarkable success in restoring function to adults with spinal cord injury in studies using surgically implanted electrical spinal cord stimulators. In one study, adults who were completely paralyzed were able to take steps over ground with stimulation after a series of intensive physical therapy sessions and mental intent to take steps.

This new study shows that similar results can be achieved without the invasive procedure. In addition, the adults could only step when the stimulator was on, whereas the children in Behrman’s study were able to step long after the stimulation sessions had ceased.

For additional photos and video clips, visit . All images courtesy University of Louisville. The images with “study image” in the name were captured during the study sessions, 2021-2023.