Military combat, cancer and accidents – all can cause devastating nerve injuries. Sometimes, the body heals on its own. With support from the National Science Foundation, biomedical engineer Christine Schmidt and her team are working to restore nerve function when injuries are more complicated. Surgeons can sometimes move a nerve from one part of a patient’s body to another. Schmidt has developed a method that grafts cadaver tissue onto the damaged area to act as a scaffold for nerves to re-grow themselves.
