Spinal cord injuries are progressive neurodegenerative conditions that have extremely limited medical recourse.  During his PhD studies, Andrew Mark Louw sought to apply molecular biology and nanoscience to alter the outcomes of these life altering injuries. 

Two primary obstacles to spinal regeneration are addressed by the research: inflammation and neuron guidance. Inflammation is responsible for progressive secondary tissue damage after injury and is caused by continuously active immune cells – which Andrew Mark Louw showed can be effectively turned off by nanoparticle mediated gene therapy.  Concurrently, damaged neurons have a remarkable ability to regenerate lost connections, but they have also lost the same guidance they once experienced in infancy – Andrew Mark Louw provides a solution by employing aligned nanofibers to show recovering neurons the way.

This work could also be applied to regeneration after peripheral nerve injury and other neuro-inflammatory and neurodegenerative disorders such as multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

The PhD degree was completed at the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Science and Technology, Aarhus University.

This résumé is prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Monday, 15 June 2015 at 13.15
Place:  Building 1593, room 012, the Lecture Theatre, iNANO House, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, Aarhus University
Title of dissertation: The Application of Nanoscience for the Treatment of Spinal Cord Injuries
Contact information: Andrew Mark Louw, e-mail: amlouw@inano.au.dk, tel.: +45 8715 6722, mobile: +45 6081 2147
Members of the assessment committee:
Senior Lecturer Dr James Phillips, Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, University College London, United Kingdom
Associate Professor Åsa Fex Svenningsen PhD, Institute for Molecular Medicine, Neurobiology Research, University of Southern Denmark
Senior Researcher Morten Foss (chair), iNANO, Aarhus University
Main supervisor:
Professor Jørgen Kjems, iNANO and Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University
Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English.

The defence is public.
The dissertation is available for reading at the Graduate School of Science and Technology/GSST, Ny Munkegade 120, building 1521, room 112, 8000 Aarhus C.