History of the Center

The origins of KSCIRC trace back to a collaboration between Dr. Shields and John Johnson, M.D. In 1988, they established a joint Spine Research Laboratory to investigate fundamental scientific questions related to the treatment of spinal cord and spine injuries. During the early 1990s, they partnered with other university leaders, including Fred J. Roisen, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology, to advance neuroscience research at the University of Louisville. An internal planning process ultimately identified Neuroscience as one of the university's five designated areas of research excellence, alongside Birth Defects, Cardiovascular Disease, Oncology, and Genetics & Molecular Medicine. This designation helped drive a period of sustained growth and development in neuroscience research.

The designation of Neuroscience as a research excellence area was soon reinforced by two major funding initiatives that accelerated growth and strengthened the university's focus on central nervous system (CNS) research.  In 1994, the Kentucky Spinal Cord and Head Injury Research Trust (KSCHIRT) was established.  This trust, funded by surcharges on Kentucky traffic tickets, was initially used to fund grants at the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky in the areas of spinal cord injury (SCI) and head injury. At this time, Dr. Shields began adding research expertise to his department by recruiting two faculty with strong research interests in CNS injury, Dante J. Morassutti, M.D., and David S.K. Magnuson, Ph.D. Then in 1995, the UofL obtained a five year, $2.6M NSF EPSCoR grant to build infrastructure in support of developmental neurobiology.  This enabled the UofL to accelerate its recruiting and support of faculty whose research focused on various aspects of CNS development, injury, plasticity, and/or regeneration.

Subsequently the KSCHIRT instituted a program to fund endowments at the UofL and the University of Kentucky to assist in the growth of human capital and infrastructure. This funding, which required matching dollars, spawned a truly unique partnership between the University of Louisville and Norton Healthcare who joined together to match those funds, leveraging the KSCHIRT funding with private donations (Norton Healthcare) and "Bucks for Brains" (UofL). "Bucks for Brains" is a unique program, instituted by Kentucky's Governor, Paul Patton, which uses a portion of the Commonwealth's budget surplus to fund research initiatives at the Universities of Louisville and Kentucky.

With the new funding, Dr. Shields & the University of Louisville recruited Dr. Scott Whittemore from the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis to become the first Director of the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center in 1999. In 2001, KSCIRC moved to its current location in the Medical Dental Research Building, occupying the 6^th floor. 

Dr. Whittemore & Dr. Shields recruited a number of faculty to KSCIRC over the next decade, greatly expanding basic research and translational research. While Norton Healthcare and the University separated in 2008, KSCIRC expanded during the following years with new grants, faculty, and research.  Continuing to grow, KSCIRC has more than doubled in size with basic research expanding to multiple floors in the MDR building and the founding and expansion of both adult and pediatric translational research programs in the Frazier Rehabilitation Institute. 

Since 1998, KSCIRC has trained nearly 70 graduates, many of whom have gone on to successful research careers and made significant contributions across a wide range of scientific disciplines.