Alberta physiologist earns top national honor for spinal cor...( Edmonton (April 2 2008) Dr. Richard...),Health

Edmonton (April 2, 2008) Dr. Richard Stein, a professor emeritus in the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, has been named the 2007 recipient of the Barbara Turnbull Award for Spinal Cord Research. The $50,000 prize is presented annually to the top ranked spinal cord researcher identified through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research's (CIHR) investigator-initiated grants competition.

Stein receives the award after more than 40 years working as a neuroscientist in the field of physiology and studying ways to help people with spinal cord injuries improve their ability to move. In the early 1990s, Stein began work that led to the creation of the WalkAide System, an electrical stimulation device that today helps thousands of people who have difficulty walking due to any number of central nervous system disorders.

Stein's latest CIHR-funded research is even more ambitious than the WalkAide project. In collaboration with colleagues in the University of Alberta, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, Stein is working to develop an Intra Spinal Micro Stimulation (ISMS) device that may be placed on the spinal cord of a paralyzed person to help them walk. But unlike the few ISMS devices that already exist, the tool Stein is working to create will also record sensory feedback coming from the muscles and nerves in the legs and hips.

"I think what we are doingtrying to produce a closed loop control system using neural stimulation and recording itis unique in the world," Stein said. "And we're extremely grateful to the sponsors of this award in helping us create a tool that we hope will one day make a positive difference in the lives of many paralyzed people."

"For the past four decades Dr. Stein has grown to become a world leader in the field of spinal cord research, and we applaud his work and look forward to the results of his current research," said Barbara Turnbull.

"Through his excellent and innovat
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