Professor Mary Galea wins Churchill Fellowship

Professor Mary Galea, School of Physiotherapy, has been awarded a 2007 Churchill Fellowship which will enable her to travel to the United States, Canada, Switzerland and the UK to investigate active rehabilitation programs for people with spinal cord injury.

Professor Galea’s research program is concerned with understanding the mechanisms underlying motor deficits and promoting recovery following nervous system injury. She has undertaken anatomical and behavioural studies using animal models of spinal cord injury, and was part of a team that identified a critical role for the molecule EphA4 in blocking regeneration following spinal cord injury. With these findings and those of other research teams around the world, there is now a real prospect of treatments for spinal cord injury in humans.

In parallel with these advances, the role of rehabilitation, both in preventing or reversing the associated musculoskeletal changes and in promoting axonal sprouting, has received new prominence. Although techniques such as functional electrical stimulation and supported treadmill training have been shown to have positive effects on musculoskeletal and neurological function, these are not used routinely in clinical practice in Australia.

Professor Galea will investigate how these techniques are being used in leading spinal cord injury centres overseas, in order to facilitate the more widespread adoption of these active rehabilitation programs in Australian centres.

This should not only result in improved health and functional outcomes for people with spinal cord injury, but will also maximise the effects of the new treatments as they become available and improve the potential for participation of Australian spinal cord injury centres in future clinical trials.

Churchill Fellowships are awarded by the Churchill Trust in Australia and provide financial support to enable Australian citizens to travel overseas to undertake an analysis, study or investigation of a project or an issue that cannot be readily undertaken in Australia.

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