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Turgeon receives grant to study spinal cord injury


Last updated January 12, 2016

By Tina Underwood

Furman University biology professor Dr. Victoria Turgeon has been awarded a grant from the South Carolina Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund.

With the two-year, nearly $80,000 grant, Turgeon will study factors which impede neuronal cell growth following spinal cord injury.

Turgeon posits that physical damage to neuronal cells following injury is only one cause of neuronal cell death. She says the chemical changes which ensue after spinal cord injury create a “hostile” environment for cells to regenerate. Her study of these chemical changes could lead to the development of therapies to limit cell damage pursuant to spinal cord trauma.

Turgeon joined the Furman faculty in 1998 after earning her Ph.D. in neurobiology and anatomy at Wake Forest University where she also was awarded the Norman Sulkin Award for Excellence in Neuroscience.

During her tenure at Furman, Turgeon has been awarded the Henry and Ellen Townes Associate Professorship of Biology, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Distinguished Mentor Award, the Alester G. Furman Jr. and Janie Earle Furman Meritorious Teaching Award, and the SCICU Excellence in Teaching Award. Her lab has been supported by grants received from the National Institutes of Health in addition to the SC Spinal Cord Research Fund.

Turgeon and her students have published articles in Thrombosis Research, IMPULSE, Psychopharmacology, and Journal for the South Carolina Academy of Science, and Journal of Freshwater Ecology. Turgeon has peer-reviewed articles for Journal of Neurobiology, Journal of Neurochemistry, and Journal of Neuroscience.

For more information, contact the Furman News and Media Relations office at (864) 294-3107.

 

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