ABOUT THE BUONICONTI FUND

In 1985, Barth A. Green, MD and NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Nick Buoniconti helped found The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis after Nick’s son, Marc, sustained a spinal cord injury during a college football game. Today, the Miami Project is the world’s most comprehensive spinal cord injury research center, housed in the Lois Pope LIFE Center, a Center of Excellence at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The Miami Project’s international team of more than 200 scientists and clinicians take innovative approaches to the challenge of spinal cord injury. Committed to finding a cure for paralysis resulting from spinal cord injury and to seeing millions worldwide walk again, the Buoniconti family established The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis in 1992, a non-profit organization devoted to assisting The Miami Project achieve its national and international goals.

The Miami Project’s Human Clinical Trials Initiative will take discoveries found to be successful in laboratory studies and fast track them to human studies with the approval of the FDA. The Miami Project is well positioned and confident that we have the expertise, knowledge and drive to navigate through the FDA process and initiate new human clinical trials involving Schwann Cell Transplantation. This study will be based in part on published work in which Miami Project scientists showed up to 70% return of normal walking function in experimental models. For more than 23 years, The Miami Project has worked carefully and diligently towards this goal and the results show that the time is right to make this important step into humans.

With Chapters in cities throughout the country, The Buoniconti Fund serves as the fundraising arm of The Miami Project. It is designed to complement the scientific accomplishments of The Miami Project by generating high levels of awareness and funds.

EXECUTIVES

Marc A. Buoniconti

President

Nicholas A. Buoniconti

Co-Founder

Suzanne M. Sayfie

Executive Director

Stephanie Sayfie Aagaard

Director, Major Gifts, Corporate Relations
and Marketing/Events