West Virginia University
will serve as the core clinical testing site within a consortium of top
universities and industries to develop technologies designed to improve the
care and rehabilitation of people with neurological disorders.
As part of the project, funded by the National Science
Foundation, the University plans to offer a novel physician-engineer program
that will include training in clinical and technical leadership in preparation
for the emerging field of neural engineering.
“This initiative is exactly what a land-grant university is
about — promoting better technology and innovation with industry partnerships
that result in better health care for West Virginians and the country at
large,” said Dr. Peter
Konrad, J.W. Ruby Professor and chair of Neurosurgery at the WVU School of Medicine. “It is also an
opportunity to grow new industry jobs and technology-based companies for West
Virginia.”
Known as IUCRC BRAIN — short for the Industry-University
Cooperative Research Center for Building Reliable Advances and Innovation in
Neurotechnology — the project is beginning the multi-site Phase 2 with WVU and
Georgia Institute of Technology as its newest partners this year.
The neural device and rehabilitation focused consortium,
based at the University of Houston, promotes global collaborations to make
medical devices that advance rehabilitation and brain and spinal cord health.
It also offers industries a cost-effective rate to invest in projects with
universities.
The addition of WVU will help the BRAIN Center maintain its
focus on human research and innovation while transforming the lives of people
with neurological disorders, brain injury, mental illness, limb loss or
paralysis. Making a broader impact, it will train new generations of physicians
and engineers in emerging technologies to fill the steadily increasing need.
With nearly $200,000 in NSF funding, the WVU
multidisciplinary team of neurosurgeons, engineers, physiologists and clinical
data managers will partner with six start-up companies, bringing clinical
trials expertise to the study group. Their work will include translating
discoveries in neurotechnology for implanted brain-computer interfaces,
treating human disability and the use of AI-connected virtual reality
applications for improved medical treatments.
“This allows industries to gain access to university experts
to test, for instance, a new product that will get them FDA approval, like the
Precision Neuroscience project that kickstarted our version of this grant,”
Konrad said. “The IUCRC program can also support animal models for a new device
idea or promote data collection related to some fundamental problem an industry
may want the answer to that helps their product or medical technology to
advance.”
Precision Neuroscience is a company testing implants on
human patients, with the ultimate goal of helping people with paralysis operate
digital devices with their brain signals.
The Rockefeller
Neuroscience Institute will serve as the site for clinical trials and
testing of high-impact neurological treatments. The Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering
and Mineral Resources will support the engineering technology and
applications development of new biotechnology applications.
WVU will also provide support to maintain a project
repository, comprised of products and services for 10 years after the
completion of this project, at the University of Houston Center.
All universities participating in the BRAIN IUCRC will
enhance underrepresentation in STEM by initiating programs for students in
grades K-12 that will expose them to innovative technologies and provide
internships that target specific student organizations. The sites will also
collaborate with a focus on neurological problems and disabilities that
disproportionately affect underrepresented groups.
Since Phase 1 was initially funded by the NSF in 2017,
international partners, as well as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, have
joined to accelerate technology translation as the BRAIN Center has emerged as
an international hub for developing neurotechnologies.
-WVU-
ls/10/19/23
MEDIA CONTACT: Leigh Limerick
Manager of Marketing and Communications
WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute
304-293-8976; [email protected]
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