ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Spastic Paraplegia Foundation, Inc., has named University of Michigan Health to the Spastic Paraplegia — Centers of Excellence Research Network. 

The health system is one of nine to achieve the designation for newly created network, which aims to “accelerate the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of hereditary spastic paraplegia and primary lateral sclerosis”, which represent the most common cause of inherited spasticity, according to the foundation.

“For more than 30 years, the University of Michigan Health Department of Neurology has been a national and international leader in the evaluation and care of individuals with HSP and PLS and in research into the causes and treatments of these conditions,” said John K. Fink, M.D., professor of neurology at University of Michigan Medical School and medical advisor to the Spastic Paraplegia Foundation since its establishment in 2002.

“We are honored to be selected to participate in this Network and eager to work with our colleagues to advance treatments for HSP and PLS.  Working together, I am confident that we will discover or develop treatments that stop, prevent or reverse these disabling conditions.”

Hereditary spastic paraplegia and primary lateral sclerosis are groups of neurodegenerative disorders that chiefly affect the upper motor neurons and cause progressive spastic weakness. There are no current therapies to halt the progression of these disorders.

It is estimated that more than 25,000 people in the United States have been diagnosed with HSP, although the incidence may be higher as HSP is frequently misdiagnosed. At least 2,000 Americans have been identified with PLS, and that number can also be higher due to delay in correct identification.

Alongside the other centers of excellence, U-M will serve as a research hub for the network and will work to establish a registry, biobank and genome archive for the conditions.

“The Spastic Paraplegia Foundation welcomes the University of Michigan Health and the other eight centers of excellence into the SP-CERN,” said Greg Pruitt, president of the Spastic Paraplegia Foundation

“We are eager to partner and collaborate with institutions and researchers to accelerate treatments, trials and make a cure for every family suffering from hereditary spastic paraplegia or primary lateral sclerosis.”

About Michigan Medicine: At Michigan Medicine, we advance health to serve Michigan and the world. We pursue excellence every day in our top-rated hospitals, clinics and home care operations, as well as educate the next generation of physicians, health professionals and scientists in our U-M Medical School. 

Michigan Medicine includes the top ranked U-M Medical School and the University of Michigan Health, which includes the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital, University Hospital, the Frankel Cardiovascular Center, Rogel Cancer Center, U-M Health West and Sparrow Health System. The U-M Medical School is one of the nation's biomedical research powerhouses, with total research funding of more than $500 million. 

More information is available at www.michiganmedicine.org