Material properties of the spinal cord

Carolyn Sparrey wants to help develop new technologies and devices that prevent and improve treatment of spinal cord injuries. She’s working toward that goal by researching the biomechanical properties of the spinal cord to determine how tissues deform under various forces. This may provide new insights about the reasons the spinal cord deforms so rapidly during trauma. Sparrey ultimately wants to develop sophisticated mathematical models that simulate the injury process and accurate spine models. These models will provide valuable new tools to help in the assessment of new therapies, such as drug treatments and rehabilitation protocols for treatment of spinal cord injuries.