Spinal cord injury disrupts hematopoiesis
Kyleigh Rodgers is a Graduate Fellow in the Department of Neuroscience at The Ohio State University, where she has led innovative research uncovering how spinal cord injury (SCI) disrupts systemic immune regulation through effects on bone marrow hematopoiesis. Her work integrates bone marrow transplantations, single-cell RNA sequencing, chromatin accessibility profiling, and functional assays to reveal that SCI induces transcriptional suppression, DNA damage, and impaired reactive oxygen species handling in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. These findings demonstrate persistent defects in hematopoiesis, even when SCI-derived bone marrow is transplanted into mice with intact nervous systems. Her research further identifies maladaptive immune activation and myeloid lineage bias driven by glucocorticoid signaling and emergency myelopoiesis, offering new insight into neuroimmune crosstalk and systemic consequences of CNS trauma.
Kyleigh is a recipient of the OSU Presidential Fellowship and the NIH NINDS Neuroimmunology Training Fellowship and has earned multiple research awards for oral presentations and poster sessions at local, national, and international conferences. She is expected to have two first-author publications, including a recent preprint on transcriptional and epigenetic repression of hematopoietic stem cells following SCI. Her leadership roles include serving as social chair for the Medical Scientist Training Program, and as an executive board member for student interest groups in oncology and neurology. Kyleigh also has held a two-year national student leadership appointment with the American Society of Hematology. Following the completion of her PhD, Kyleigh will return to clinical work at Wexner Medical Center to complete the last two years of her MD training. Her long-term goal is to hold a Principal Investigator position at a R1 institution pursuing research that investigates neuroendocrine control of hematopoiesis. She is passionate about translating her research into clinical contexts. She plans to pursue a career in hematology or hematological oncology.