Achievement

The Rutgers IGERT has developed a unique multidisciplinary paradigm of treating traumatic injuries using an encapsulation approach related to transplanted human stem cells. The work of several IGERT trainees such as Andrea Gray, Mehdi Ghodbane, and David Dong, illustrates the success of using alginate encapsulated mesenchymal stem cells to ameliorate the inflammatory signals following spinal cord injury. Analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid indicates that the encapsulated MSCs facilitate the conversion of the classical, pro-inflammatory M1 macrophages to anti-inflammatory M2 macrophages.