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DUI fund supports spinal cord injury research After a little more than two years of collecting a $100 surcharge on each DUI conviction in South Carolina, the S.C. Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund has accrued more than $1.4 million and dispensed $720,511 in a first round of research projects. The fund, which was enacted by the S.C. Legislature under the leadership of representatives Ron Fleming and Chip Limehouse and state Senator Arthur Ravenel in July 2000, aims to develop a better understanding of causes and effective treatment strategies for paralysis, sensory loss, and other consequences of spinal cord injury and disease.  The legislation was enacted in response to South Carolina’s annual rate of spinal cord injury being 22 percent higher than the national average. Motor vehicle injuries including those involving alcohol account for 58 percent of the spinal cord injuries. “That’s a substantial amount of money,” said Sen. Arthur Ravenel, R-Mount Pleasant, of the surcharges collected. “The bad news is, there are still that many DUI convictions.” The fund’s full scientific staff has been recruited and includes as scientific director James Krause, MUSC’s new  chair of  the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences in the College of Health Professions,  himself a spinal cord injury survivor. New scientific associate director, Mark Kindy, Ph.D., has released guidelines for a second round of research projects and invites qualified individuals to apply. The staff serves a seven member state board appointed by the governor at the recommendation of MUSC President Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D. MUSC also provides administrative support services. Projects in the first round of awards on July 1, 2002, included a badly needed statewide educational conference targeting people with spinal cord injury and their families, with a strong associated educational component for care providers. This is conducted by the recently formed South Carolina Spinal Cord Injury Association which combined several state groups. Initial participants in fund research also included Clemson University, MUSC, and the University of South Carolina, the state’s major research universities. In addition, one-time fund expenditures provided for the purchase of equipment for general use by researchers to evaluate the neurobiology of spinal cord injury and an applied research infrastructure which included the development of a Web page, the establishment of an epidemiological database for spinal cord injury and the establishment of a review process for future grants. These functions became part of a recruitment package that helped attract spinal cord injury expertise to South Carolina. Brian Cuddy, M.D., a Charleston neurosurgeon and chair of the fund’s board, characterized the DUI-funded program as “taking a negative situation and turning it into a positive one.”   Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.