According to Business First of Louisville, researchers at the University of Louisville have received a total of $4.7 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health to study cell-based and drug-based therapies for spinal cord damage.

Two of the researchers -- Scott Whittemore and Theodore Hagg -- are "Bucks for Brains" hires.

"Bucks for Brains," formally known as the Research Challenge Trust Fund, is a program that matches state funds with private donations to pay for endowed professorships and to support research efforts at state universities. Its goal is to recruit world-class researchers to Kentucky in the hope that they will attract federal grant dollars and form companies.

Scott Whittemore is scientific director of U of L's Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center and is the university's Dr. Henry D. Garrettson chair in spinal cord and head injury research. He has received a $1.6 million NIH grant to continue research on genetically engineered mouse cells. The research is aimed at re-growing myelin, the insulation around nerve fibers that allows them to conduct signals between the brain and the spinal cord and limbs.

Hagg, the endowed chair in neurological surgery, was awarded $1.5 million to investigate how certain drugs can be used to boost neuron regeneration in the brain.

Qilin Cao, an assistant professor at U of L and one of Whittemore's collaborators, received $1.6 million for research on myelin regeneration and preventing the formation of scar tissue after spinal cord injury.

Whittemore and another Bucks for Brains researcher, Michael Hetman, U of L's endowed professor of molecular signaling, also have received a $300,000 grant from the Kentucky Spinal Cord and Head Injury Research Trust.