Wise Young, M.D., Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience

Rutgers' Wise Young, world-renowned neuroscientist and spinal cord injury researcher, has been selected by Esquire magazine as one of the "Best & Brightest 2005."

"Wise Young is an exceptional individual," says Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick, "a teacher par excellence committed to training the next generation of neuroscientists, and an untiring advocate for biomedical research to ‘cure the incurable.' We are pleased to count him as a member of our faculty."

Esquire traces his history from mid-century Hong Kong and Japan, through Reed College, Woods Hole, and New York University, to his tenure at Rutgers. The article details his accomplishments in medicine and chronicles the evolution of his unflagging dedication to curing the injured and afflicted in a manner marked by exceptional sensitivity and humanity.

Before coming to Rutgers, Young was director of neurosurgery research at New York University and part of the team that discovered and established high-dose methylprednisolone as the first effective therapy for spinal cord injuries. That 1990 work upended conventional wisdom that such injuries led to permanent damage, refocused research, and opened new vistas of hope for the quarter-million Americans paralyzed by an injury to the spinal cord.

Today, the dream of therapies that restore function and feeling is becoming a reality, and Young is leading the search for cures. He sees stem cell research as an extremely important pursuit that holds tremendous promise for treating and curing a host of devastating diseases and disorders, including spinal cord injury and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

Young is taking an active leadership position at home and abroad in gathering support for stem cell research. He has carried his strong advocacy to patients and politicians in his home state and into the halls of Congress.

At the W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Young has assembled a team of researchers who collaborate with more than 100 laboratories worldwide in the search for cures to spinal cord and brain injuries and disorders. He recently embarked on an initiative to set up a clinical network of more than a dozen spinal-trauma centers in China capable of performing state-of-the-art clinical trials.

"Our goal is to move promising therapies, including those based on stem cells, from the laboratory into clinical trial as quickly as possible," Young said. "A cure is possible for spinal cord injuries, and collaboration is the means by which that goal can be reached."

Young's collaborative spirit fits well with Rutgers' institutional strategy. University scientists are engaged in more than 200 scientific collaborations, about 50 of which are international in nature.

Young practices what he calls "compassionate science," focusing on the needs of patients. He personally involves himself with people who have sustained these injuries and their families, holding regular open-house evenings at the Keck Center, where they are updated on the latest research findings and newest therapies.

"Our science benefits people. At the entrance to the center are photographs that many people have sent to us. We have named this the Wall of Hope," Young said. "It is an ever-present reminder that our work is grounded in human lives."