Unite 2 Fight Paralysis
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06/25/2026
U2FP’s Ohio Cure Advocacy Network (CAN) recently met with Megan Moynahan to discuss her KeyGrip research project. This was one of seven SCI research projects funded in our 2023 round of grants, thanks to the $3M biennium appropriation that U2FP advocates secured in 2019. That means $1.5M per year is funding functional recovery research in the state. The money is disbursed from the Ohio Third Frontier under the state’s Department of Higher Education
The KeyGrip system is an implantable neuroprosthetic electrical stimulation device designed to help people with cervical spinal cord injuries open and close their hands. Over the past three years, the KeyGrip system has gone through a few iterations to what it is today. Moynahan has successfully completed the first human implant during a one-day outpatient procedure, and is now in the process of data collection with that patient.
The progress of Moynahan’s project is notable in itself, but if you look a little deeper it exemplifies what Unite 2 Fight Paralysis has been building with the Cure Advocacy Network across numerous states.
The advocates on the below zoom call with Moynahan, Jason, and me, were the actual folks living with SCI in Ohio who advocated for the creation of the funding mechanism that currently funds the KeyGrip system. These and other Ohio CAN advocates are the ones who met with Randy Gardner back in 2019 when he was Majority Leader of the Ohio State Senate. After his very first meeting with the advocates, Sen. Gardner told us he would champion the push to pass this funding in Ohio.
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Zac Wolfe is known for his grit and determination. He is a great example of how you can live a full life with a spinal cord injury and still maintain the fire to push for better outcomes. A few years ago, Zac enrolled in a Department of Defense, SCIRP-funded clinical trial using transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) to improve upper limb function.
In this conversation we bring on Zac and the principal investigator of the study, Dr. Ela Plow of the Cleveland Clinic, to discuss how tDCS works along with the details of the study and what function Zac recovered. We also talk about the role of belief and determination in study participants, the importance of advocacy, why siloed thinking hinders research progress, how small functional gains become cascades for additional recovery and much more. This is an interesting conversation that I know you’ll enjoy, so let’s get to it!
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