Wise Young, M.D., Ph.D.

Wise Young, M.D., Ph.D. came to Rutgers University in 1997 and is founding director of the W. M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience, the Richard H. Shindell Chair in Neuroscience, and a Distinguished Professor. In 2006, he organized a 24-center clinical trial network in China and ran trials to assess promising therapies for chronic complete spinal cord injuries. Phase II trials using umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells injected into the spinal cord, lithium, and intense locomotor therapy show promising results. He plans Phase III trials in China, India, Norway, and the U. S. Young established methylprednisolone as the first treatment for spinal cord injury, developed the first standardized rat spinal cord injury model, and founded the Journal of Neurotrauma and the National and International Neurotrauma Societies. Young received his BA from Reed College, his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, and his M.D. from Stanford University. After a surgery internship at New York University and Bellevue Medical Center, he joined the neurosurgery department at NYU, where he became director of neurosurgery research in 1984.