Connie Chen

IR2-10-GT
January 2, 2018
Project Proposal
Turn in #5

Project Proposal
Research Title: Reconnecting the brain and the body with axon regeneration for spinal
cord injuries.

Overview of Research:
Spinal cord injury is a serious problem that doctors and scientists do not yet have a
treatment that can provide for full functional recovery. I did my research on multiple existing
treatments that maybe are not yet ready for wide use for one reason or another. After briefly
touching on each treatment and why or why not they do not work, I move onto the factors of
axon regeneration that either inhibit or promote it, or both. Factors such as the glial scar,
scientists do not know enough about and yet both inhibitory and promotional abilities have been
discovered about the glial scar. Similar with the glial scar, PTEN is also a factors that showed
promotional abilities towards axon regeneration, but inhibitory abilities to the body as a whole,
as deletion of this molecule could potentially lead to cancer. These are both factors that need to
be looked into more to help with the general understanding of axon regeneration.

Background and History of the Issue:

Spinal cord injury is a serious problem that impacts thousands of people every year.
There are two nervous systems in our body that make up the complete nervous system: the
central and peripheral nervous systems (CNS and PNS). While the central nervous system
consists of simply just the brain and the spinal cord, the peripheral nervous system consists of all
the nerve cells not located in the brain and the spinal cord. Central nervous system nerve cells are
nerves that are located in the central nervous system, and each nerve cell, regardless of CNS or
PNS, consists of a nerve body cell and an axon that can extend three feet from the body cell. The
axon is responsible for sending signals from the body cell to the target cells, and they cause
muscle contraction in muscle cells by an influx of sodium ions. In spinal cord injury, the axons
are damaged and therefore unable to send messages to target cells.
There exist treatments that provide relief for the injury, but many of them are still in the
experimental process and are therefore not yet practically useful. These include, electrical
stimulation, which involves using the still intact neuro systems in encouraging action potential
and muscle contraction. There are other more controversial treatments such as cell
transplantation which involves transplanting stem cells or schwann cells to support regeneration
and provide a more stable environment. These techniques, although sound very hopeful on the
theoretical level, raise moral questions on the experimental aspect of the treatment. Basic
research scientists are continuously striving to find answers as to what factors affect the
regeneration of axons and how they can either inhibit or promote them to get a positive result.
Problem Statement and Rationale:
Research Question and Hypothesis:
Axon regeneration is critical for full recovery after serious spinal cord injury and
due to the significance of the injury, finding a treatment is essential. There are many different
therapies for spinal cord injury that already exist and have been researched, but there are still
many aspects of axon regeneration that are not understood, but are important to the process.
Basis of Hypothesis:
I hypothesized this because I understood that axon regeneration was critical in
finding a permanent treatment for spinal cord injuries. In hypothesizing that not enough was
known and that more information needs to be found, I have the research of many previous
experiments to show that much information has already been found, but with the support of the
fact that no treatment has really been found to widely treat spinal cord injury, I can hypothesize
that not enough information is known and more needs to be found.
Research Design:
I am aiming to do descriptive research, where I take other people’s research to
describe them and connect them to similar other researches. For my data collection, I plan on
doing a primary data analysis. This is because I am unable to do physical lab research myself,
and also because I lack the resources to do it. I also feel like doing questionnaires and surveys
would not be as effective as doing a primary data analysis because this is a very specific topic
and would not work with broad questions to fit many experts’ area of expertise.
Operational Definitions:
Axon regeneration: the regrowing of axons after spinal cord injury and having
them connect back to the correct target cells
Central Nervous System: Neurons located in the brain and the spinal cord
Peripheral Nervous System: Neurons located everywhere else except for the brain
and the spinal cord.
Schwann Cells: cells in the peripheral nervous system that encourage
remyelination of the axons
Remyelination: the healing of the myelin sheath on the axon which promotes
signalling which is damaged after injury
Product Overview:
I believe that throughout the course of the year, I aim to be able to present my findings to
biology classes to really inspire the newer generation to have these future scientists get interested
in spinal cord injuries and aim to fix the issue. I was considering presenting my findings to
experts, but because I am not finding anything new or anything that they don’t already know, I
feel as if that would be pointless and a waste of time. I would do this in a similar way as I did the
marketing presentation, but it would be more focused on my research and going in depth, than
talking about independent research as a class.
Logical Considerations:
I think that for logical considerations, one big obstacle in my way is people’s interest. I
have to find a way to make it appealing to the younger generation in a way that they don’t find it
boring or too complicated to understand. I think that is one of the biggest obstacles because my
topic is very difficult to understand, and will more than bore them if they are not absolutely
entranced by the topic. Because I do want to appeal more to the younger generation and future
scientists and doctors, that will be, I think, my biggest obstacle.
Timeline:
March:
1) Editing paper and talking with advisors about it
2) Start thinking about the visual display board
3) Begin designing the website and adding things onto it
4) Begin thinking about data collections and how I want to do it
5) Begin thinking about doing another presentation in other bio classes
April:
1) Starting the visual display board
2) Continuing to edit paper
3) Continuing to add to website and making it look better
4) At this point I hope to start my data collection and maybe finish it by the end of this
month
5) Consider doing my presentation around this time to a biology GT class and begin
planning with one of the teachers
May:
1) Finish up the final project
2) Finish up technical powerpoint and present it.
3) Think if my research could be used to get into a lab or receive outside of school research
opportunities