Charles Hubscher, PhD Research Focus

Research focus

Dr. Hubscher’s research involves a multidisciplinary approach geared toward understanding the circuitries and neural mechanisms underlying urinary, bowel and sexual functions.  Our research since the mid-1990’s has focused on the impact of spinal cord injury on pelvic organ functions with the goal of developing more effective therapeutic approaches for translation directly to the clinic. Translational studies since 2014, through collaborations at The University of Louisville’s Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center at Frazier Rehab Institute, have involved pre-clinical and clinical experiments being done in parallel. Various combinations of neurophysiological, behavioral, immunohistochemical, molecular and neuroanatomical techniques are being used in Dr. Hubscher’s pre-clinical laboratory. Clinical assessments include urodynamics, anorectal manometry, ultrasound of the upper and lower urinary tract, and various internationally standardized questionnaires. We work collaboratively across multiple disciplines that include experts in urology, gastroenterology, neurosurgery, physical medicine & rehabilitation, and bioengineering to employ a research driven “Discovery-to-Recovery” approach.

Current projects

1) Effects of activity dependent plasticity on recovery of bladder and sexual function after spinal cord injury (National Institutes of Health): The goals in the current phase of this ongoing multi-disciplinary study incorporating critical cross viscero-visceral intersystem interactions are a) to investigate in a controlled laboratory setting and then with mobile at-home monitoring the extent, severity and frequency of occurrence of autonomic dysreflexia with respect to daily bladder and bowel function, in conjunction with identifying potential underlying mechanisms by examining urinary biomarkers for several specific vasoactive hormones, and b) to regulate cardiovascular function therapeutically as part of bladder and bowel management using spinal cord epidural stimulation in order to normalize blood pressure.

2) Functional mapping with lumbosacral epidural stimulation for restoration of bladder function after spinal cord injury (National Institutes of Health): The goals of this spinal cord epidural stimulation (scES) project are a) to determine the optimal stimulation parameters for bladder storage and emptying in SCI research participants already implanted with the scES Medtronic device (16 electrode array from L1-S1); b) to quantify the long-term effects of daily bladder training using optimal scES parameters; c) to assess secondary benefits (bladder medication usage, susceptibility to urinary tract infections, indirect cardiovascular, bowel and sexual function benefits) of long-term bladder training; d) to enable dynamic human in-the-loop sensor feedback learning algorithm-controlled neuromodulation of micturition pathways and cardiovascular function in the home environment and improve the transition from bladder storage to voiding in the home-setting by flexibly adjusting the preset parameters; and e) to address with a small animal model the impact of scES location and stimulation parameters on bladder and bowel function in intact, T9-transected and T9-contused male and female rats.

3) Effects of activity dependent plasticity on bowel function after spinal cord injury (Department of Defense): The goal of the current ongoing experiments is to a) collect baseline outcome data on colonic motility and rectal/anal sphincter dynamics at multiple time-points after incomplete SCI and b) examine the impact of activity based training on bowel function with various time manipulations to address a key question regarding the maintenance of benefits from the locomotor training rehabilitation strategy.

4) Spinal Cord Injury Induced Polyuria (Craig H. Neilsen Foundation): The overall objective of the current ongoing pre-clinical study on polyuria, the overproduction of urine (which from a clinical standpoint leads to more frequent bladder catheterizations and disruptions in sleep and daily activities), is to a) assess the development and maintenance of SCI induced polyuria and the mechanisms that underlies it and b) strategies, through activity-based therapy and/or pharmacologic interventions, that may be taken to improve associated deficits. By understanding and treating SCI induced polyuria, the number of daily catheterizations may be decreased as well as the frequency of recurrent urinary tract infections, which would together lower medical costs and improve quality of life in SCI individuals.

Key recent publications

Wilkins NL, Medina-Aguiñaga D, Hoey RF, Fell J, Harkema SJ, Hubscher CH. Impact of Activity-Based Training on Bowel Function in a Rat Model of Spinal Cord Injury. J Neurotrauma. 2024 Sep 26. doi: 10.1089/neu.2024.0209.  PMID: 39264865 

Fell JD, Medina-Aguiñaga D, Burke DA, Hubscher CH. Mid-lumbar (L3) epidural stimulation effects on bladder and external urethral sphincter in non-injured and chronically transected urethane-anesthetized rats.  J Neurotrauma. 2024 May;41(9-10):1181-1195. doi: 10.1089/neu.2023.0486. Epub 2024 Jan 31. PMID: 38117145 

Medina-Aguiñaga D, Hoey RF, Wilkins NL, Ugiliweneza B, Fell J, Harkema SJ, Hubscher CH. Predictive values of spinal cord diffusion magnetic resonance imaging to characterize outcomes after contusion injury.  Sci Rep. 2023 Jul 28;13(1):12258. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-39388-9.PMID: 37507456  

Ahmed RU, Medina-Aguinaga D, Adams S, Knibbe CA, Morgan M, Gibson D, Kim JW, Sharma M, Chopra M, Davison S, Sherwood LC, Negahdar MJ, Bert R, Ugiliweneza B, Hubscher C, Budde MD, Xu J, Boakye M.  Targeted selection of stimulation parameters for restoration of motor and autonomic function in individuals with spinal cord injury.  Ann Clin Transl Neurol. 2023 Sep;10(9):1647-1661. doi: 10.1002/acn3.51855. Epub 2023 Jul 27. PMID: 37501362 

Herrity AN, Aslan SC, Mesbah S, Siu R, Kalvakuri K, Ugiliweneza B, Mohamed A, Hubscher CH, Harkema SJ. Impact of activity-based recovery training and desmopressin on spinal cord injury-induced polyuria in Wistar rats.  Sci Rep. 2022 Jul 1;12(1):11179. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-15315-2.PMID: 35778466  

Hubscher CH, Gumbel JH, Armstrong JE, Montgomery LR. Effect of T3 Spinal Contusion Injury on Upper Urinary Tract Function.  J Spinal Cord Med. 2023 Nov;46(6):910-916. doi: 10.1080/10790268.2022.2069538. Epub 2022 May 23. PMID: 35604340  

Gumbel JH, Hubscher CH. Thoracolumbar epidural stimulation effects on bladder and bowel function in uninjured and chronic transected anesthetized rats.  Neurotrauma Rep. 2022 Apr 26;3(1):190-198. doi: 10.1089/neur.2022.0014. eCollection 2022.PMID: 35558732  

Hoey RF, Medina-Aguiñaga D, Khalifa F, Ugiliweneza B, Wang D, Zdunowski S, Fell J, Naglah A, El-Baz AS, Herrity AN, Harkema SJ, Hubscher CH.Sci Rep. 2022 Feb 8;12(1):2137. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-06011-2.

Hoey RF, Medina-Aguiñaga D, Khalifa F, Ugiliweneza B,Zdunowski S, Fell J, Naglah A, El-Baz AS, Herrity AN, Harkema SJ, Hubscher CH. Bladder and bowel responses to lumbosacral epidural stimulation in uninjured and transected anesthetized rats. Sci Rep 2021, Feb 8;11(1):3268. 

Herrity AN, Aslan S, Ugiliweneza B, Mohamed A, Hubscher CH, Harkema SJ. Improvements in bladder function following activity-based recovery training with epidural stimulation after chronic spinal cord injury. Front. Syst. Neurosci 2021, 14:614691.