Praise Ajobo, an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Jen Dulin’s lab, is investigating one of the lesser-known but life-altering effects of spinal cord injury (SCI): male infertility.
While SCI is often associated with mobility loss, it also disrupts essential neural and immune pathways that regulate reproductive function. More than 90% of men living with SCI experience reproductive dysfunction. Praise’s project seeks to understand how injury to the central nervous system leads to these types of outcomes, with the long-term goal of uncovering new strategies to improve quality of life after SCI.
For Praise, research has been a life-changing experience.
“Through research, I’ve started to ask why certain random events occur—and I’ve learned that these events are driven by underlying processes. That curiosity has pushed me to explore the connections between systems, and to appreciate both the similarities and differences between human biology and that of other mammals.”
By bridging neuroscience, immunology, and reproductive biology, Praise is not only building critical scientific skills but also contributing to work with the potential to make a real difference for people living with SCI.