Knowledge Base

History Of CatWalk

Acknowledgments

Text by Frank Hamers, MD, PhD – October 24, 2005

The CatWalk system would not have been possible without Dr Willem Hendrik Gispen, the leading force behind nerve regeneration research in Utrecht and originally my PhD thesis advisor. During his tenure as scientific director of the Department of Pharmacology & Anatomy and that of the Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience — which was his creation — he inspired clinical and basic scientists to collaborate on the most difficult problems in clinical neurosciences.

After completion of my PhD thesis on cisplatin neuropathy he offered me a position in his staff and as such I eventually started spinal cord research. In 1996 I visited the Beattie/Bresnahan lab at OSU to learn the BBB-score, and I returned with the idea to further objectify assessment of FL-HL coordination in this test. In this I was fully supported by Willem Hendrik Gispen. Jan Brakkee spent a weekend in his workshop at home to build a walkway. All PhD students helped in testing, and it was together with Dr Alex Lankhorst that I published the first validation studies.

Dr Tinna Ängeby-Möller from AstraZeneca Pain Research in Sweden was the first one with the idea to use this device for quantification of pain. Drs Dorien Vrinten and Tineke Vogelaar have been most appreciated collaborators on the pain and peripheral nerve regeneration studies.

On the other side of the ocean, Drs Jacqueline Bresnahan and Michael Beattie have been my strongest supporters ever since they got a demonstration of the walkway's abilities. Implementation of the phase lag parameters was driven by Dr Michelle Basso. Their continuing input in and promotion of the system are very much appreciated.

Dr Joost Verhaagen, like Drs Beattie and Bresnahan in the US, has been one of my staunchest supporters in Europe, and I hope that I can continue the very rewarding collaboration with members of his lab on problems related to nerve regeneration.

My foremost collaborator in the last three years has been Dr Bert Joosten. After his move from Utrecht to Maastricht he needed to start his own behavioural research and he decided to set up a CatWalk system as well. In Maastricht he also entered the pain field, and all his students use CatWalk, either for SCI or for pain, and they generate lots of data, questions and discussion. It was Guido Koopmans (2005), one of Bert's PhD students, who eventually showed that CatWalk can be used to more reliably assess FL-HL coordination than open-field testing, enabling one to observe otherwise missed treatment effects.

But my most important supporter over the years has been my wife, Ingeborg, who did not complain when I worked at the program in the evenings and weekends, and who fully supported my regular lab and conference visits abroad, despite her own demanding job and the doubled household and childcare obligations with me abroad.