Karen Minassian is part of an international research team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) Lausanne and the Uni-Klinik Lausanne (Switzerland) with the participation of the Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at MedUni Vienna.
Having already published the article "Activity-dependent spinal cord neuromodulation rapidly restores trunk and leg motor functions after complete paralysis" in February, the team has now been able to build on this by publishing the article "The neurons that restore walking after paralysis".
A class of neurons has been identified that provides the critical impetus for restoring walking ability after spinal cord injury resulting in paraplegia. Studies at the Medical University of Vienna are currently investigating whether this type of neuron can also be detected in the human spinal cord.