Gordon Mitchell and collaborator Elisa Gonzalez-Rothi were recently awarded a 4 year, 2.8 million dollar grant from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute to optimize optimize respiratory plasticity elicited by repetitive exposure to low oxygen to restore breathing ability after chronic cervical spinal cord in jury. In this basic science study, the fundamental goal is to develop optimal protocols of intermittent hypoxia as a trigger for respiratory plasticity, and to identify factors that undermine its potential for translation, including systemic inflammation. This grant reflects combined efforts of an international consortium working to connect advances between basic and translational (clinical) research. Basic research in this area has already inspired clinical trials to improve breathing ability at UF, as well as arm and leg function at the the Shirley Ryan Ability Laboratory in Chicago, Harvard University, the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.