Affiliation: Texas A&M Health Science Center

Dr. Theresa Sutherland completed a Bachelor of Forensic Biology from the University of Technology Sydney, followed by a Bachelor of Science (Honors) studying the acute cellular response to spinal cord injury (SCI). From there, Dr. Sutherland obtained her PhD in Neuroscience in the lab of Dr. Catherine Gorrie, studying the differences in injury progression and neuroinflammation after SCI between adult and pediatric rats. In 2019 she joined the Geoffrey lab at Texas A&M Health Science Center, where she is currently based, for her first postdoctoral research position. Here she continues working on the themes of age and SCI, trying to understand the age-dependent decline in recovery potential in older individuals. Her areas of focus include neuron-intrinsic alterations with age that affect axon growth and regeneration, as well as age-related alterations to the SCI lesion and the environment of the cord that impair functional recovery. The eventual goal of this research is to reduce injury severity in older SCI patients, restore regenerative potential to aged neurons, and find strategies to enhance axon growth and functional recovery after SCI irrespective of age.