Autonomic Research Unit
818 West 10th Avenue V5Z 1M9 Vancouver, BC, Canada

Introducing the inaugural winner of the Mario Cruz Staff Award for best poster by an ICORD staff member, Ms. Andrea Ramirez of Dr. Andrei Krassioukov's lab. Wh...ile he was a student, and later an invaluable lab manager for Dr. Matt Ramer, Mario impacted the lives of innumerable people at ICORD and UBC. Mario died of cancer originating in his spinal cord on July 28, 2016. He was 30 years old. Those of us who had the great fortune to work with him and know his friendship are still sad to know we will never hear him singing, see him smiling, or be infected by his boundless optimism and enthusiasm again. We hope this award in his honour will keep his spirit alive at ICORD. See more

Some people think the best parts of our annual research meeting are the poster sessions. For an hour and a half on each day of the meeting, trainees and staff m...embers put up posters that describe their research, and explain their work to other meeting participants in five minutes or less. At the end of the meeting, prizes are awarded for the best research posters in five categories: the John Steeves award for best poster by an undergraduate (new this year), the W.L. McLeod Award for best poster by a masters student, the Aaron Moser award for the best poster by a PhD student, the Gordon Hiebert award for best poster by a postdoctoral fellow, and the Mario Cruz award for best poster by a staff member (more about this in our next post). See more

We had our 15th annual research meeting on Monday and Tuesday with a great turnout of ICORD and Rick Hansen Institute researchers, trainees, and staff. Drs. Mi...chael Boninger (University of Pittsburgh) and Zhigang He (Harvard Medical School) were guest speakers. 51 trainees and staff presented posters about their research. These are the poster prize winners, along with ICORD Director Dr. Wolfram Tetzlaff and our two visiting speakers. See more

ICORD researcher Dr. Krassioukov was in the news for his recent study on epidural stimulation.

SCI can prevent the bladder and brain from communicating with each other. This can lead to many different types of complications, from embarrassing situations t...o increased risks of infection. Inventors in New Zealand are aiming to improve things with a new externally-worn device that tells you when your bladder is full. See more