The Rex Marco, M.D., Fund of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Launches with $1.1M Gift

Collaboration with Houston-based Spinal Surgeon Paralyzed in Biking Accident to Fund Research Toward Cures and Quality of Life Improvements for those Impacted by Spinal Cord Injury

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Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation

Nov 13, 2020, 09:00 ET

HOUSTON and SHORT HILLS, N.J., Nov. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation announced today a new collaboration with Houston's Rex A.W. Marco, M.D., a nationally renowned spinal surgeon and musculoskeletal oncologist who was paralyzed in a bicycle accident last year. The Rex Marco, M.D., Fund of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation (the Marco Fund) has been created with a $1.1 million gift from Dr. Marco's Spine and Extremity Tumor Research Endowment and will help accelerate groundbreaking research toward cures for spinal cord injury (SCI) and provide advocacy support and resources to improve quality of life for those impacted by paralysis.

Dr. Marco selected the Reeve Foundation as a collaborator for its global reputation and leadership in advancing scientific discoveries for SCIs. The Marco Fund will focus primarily on the Houston area initially and will expand over time to serve individuals and families across the country and beyond.

"As a physician and as someone who lives with a spinal cord injury, I believe strongly that cures are possible – but only if we work together," says Dr. Marco, formerly of Houston Methodist Hospital. "Through this collaboration and ongoing donor support of the Marco Fund at Reeve, gifts will be maximized and channeled to the scientific endeavors that have the greatest potential for success."

Dr. Marco was riding his bike in Memorial Park in July 2019 when his tire got stuck and he flipped over the handlebars, landing on his head. Acutely aware that he may have sustained a catastrophic injury, he went into "full doctor mode," instructing a friend on how to avoid worsening his injury and coordinating his own emergency surgical care. "I knew I had broken my neck, and I was paralyzed," he says. "It was important to accept that. There was no turning back." Dr. Marco was diagnosed with quadriplegia and underwent emergency surgery.

Despite heartbreak – "I knew I probably would never hold my unborn baby," says the father of four sons, including his now one-year-old – Dr. Marco believes his accident has given him newfound understanding and empathy for his own patients and is part of a larger plan for his life. "I don't know yet what that plan is, but I'm gaining clarity and my partnership with the Reeve Foundation is part of it."

The Marco Fund's $1.1 million gift to the Reeve Foundation will fund research initiatives, including support for GTX Medical, a leading global company committed to developing novel neuromodulation therapies to improve functional recovery of people with SCI¹. GTX, launched in late 2019, recently received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for its Go-2 system, an implantable device that provides targeted epidural spinal stimulation therapy designed to help SCI patients restore leg motor function and neurological control. It is also conducting a pivotal clinical trial for its wearable LIFT device system (which received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation in 2017) for clinical rehabilitation therapy and home-use by patients with upper limb paralysis after SCI. The LIFT system delivers electrical pulses through a patented waveform to restore the communication between the brain and the spared neural networks below the injury.

Among his roles within the Foundation, Dr. Marco will serve as Chief Medical Ambassador for Reeve Research Collaborations and will also join the Reeve Foundation Quality of Life Grant Program Committee, which reviews nonprofit grant proposals for projects and initiatives that impact and empower people living with paralysis, their families and caregivers. The Quality of Life Grants Program is part of the Reeve Foundation's Paralysis Resource Center, pioneered by the late Dana Reeve to foster inclusion, involvement and community engagement, while promoting health and wellness for those impacted by paralysis in all 50 states and U.S. territories.

"The Marco Fund is just the beginning of our collaboration, and we look forward to the role that Dr. Marco will play in helping advance an audacious research and advocacy agenda with the Reeve Foundation and our entire community," says Peter Wilderotter, President and CEO of the Reeve Foundation. "With his unique perspective – that of a physician and someone living with SCI – Dr. Marco will be at the center of an agenda that drives innovation across the care-cure continuum and brings together the scientific arena, industry, and the individuals and families living with paralysis in bold new ways."

The Marco Fund is the newest addition to a cohort of major Reeve Foundation regional and national collaborations, which includes Team LeGrand; the Alan T. Brown Fund of the Reeve Foundation; a multi-year event series with Reeve ambassador Mike Nichols; Access Asbury (N.J.); and the Scott Remington Family & Close Friends Annual Spinal Cord Research Benefit (New York).

About the Reeve Foundation
The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by advancing innovative research and improving quality of life for individuals and families impacted by paralysis. We meet all 20 of the Better Business Bureau's standards for charity accountability and hold the BBB's Charity Seal. For more information, please visit our website at www.ChristopherReeve.org.

¹ The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation is a shareholder of GTX Medical.

SOURCE Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation