2009 has been a year full of wonderful achievements and seemingly unlimited opportunities. Led by Dr. Dalton Dietrich, our team of basic and clinical researchers have been recognized for their extraordinary scientific accomplishments with the awarding of a historically unprecedented number of highly competitive NIH grants.

Achieving each of these prestigious awards not only adds to the credibility of our strategic research plan, but also frees up more of the funds we raised from our wonderful donors and special events for use in pursuing new opportunities in the laboratory and clinical arenas.

When The Miami Project was created almost 25 years ago, one of our most important goals was to provide our “All-Star” multidisciplinary team of basic and clinical scientists with the ability to quickly incorporate new biological and technological advances to achieve our short-term goals of improving the quality of life of patients with paralysis, as well as our long term objective of creating effective treatments and ultimately a cure for paralysis.

One might consider the concept of a police force SWAT team or a military Special Forces team that are highly trained, well equipped and funded to achieve goals previously considered impossible. To my knowledge, historically, The Miami Project has created the first such scientific SWAT team that is prepared to take advantage of any new genes or molecules that are identified, any new nano technologies or bioengineering devices, and apply these real-time to the challenges that our physicians and spinal cord injured patients encounter in their daily lives.

What was a dream in 1985 has truly become a reality in 2009 through the extraordinarily successful efforts of The Miami Project’s development and fundraising team. At the same time that our basic and clinical researchers have scored so many home runs in the very competitive areas of federal and foundation funding, this combination has allowed us to put on a “full court press” towards our Schwann cell transplantation human trials, as well as to rapidly advance our use of hypothermia to prevent and minimize paralysis following injury.

Every day thousands of people across the world benefit from the technologies developed by our basic science and clinical researchers. The technologies include the safe monitoring of spinal column and spinal cord surgery patients in the operating room, the use of functional electrical stimulation in rehabilitation centers and clinics, the use of lowering body temperature to not only prevent damage to the spinal cord following injury and during surgery but also the extension of that technology as evidence-based medicine in the treatment of cardiac arrest on the street and in hospitals around the world.

These are but a few of the many contributions The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis has made during our 24 year journey. From birth through adolescence, and now young adulthood, we have grown not only in the number and quality of our team, but also in the breadth of our holistic approach and strategic plan to change the lives of millions of people who have experienced paralysis or are at risk to do so in the coming days, weeks, months and years.

I urge each one of our readers to do whatever they can to continue to provide the financial resources necessary to make a cure for paralysis no longer a goal but a reality.