News

The city of San Francisco—and indeed the whole nation—was saddened earlier this month to learn of the death of comedian Robin Williams, who had been suffering from depression. We later learned that Williams was also battling the early stages of Parkinson’s disease. The comorbidity between depression and Parkinson’s disease is no surprise to clinicians and researchers involved with psychiatric and movement disorders.

Five years after the failed Northstar Neuroscience clinical trial of epidural stimulation for stroke rehabilitation stunned the neuromodulation industry and stymied research in that area, investigators are now pressing ahead with new approaches exploiting cortical plasticity and brain stimulation. Two independent teams in Ohio and New Jersey are leading the way to refine the targets and the therapy…

It doesn’t seem that long ago that neurotech investigators and entrepreneurs were lamenting the dearth of funding available for developing new therapies and new commercial ventures. Make no mistake, it’s still no walk in the park to get money for startups but the situation has improved dramatically in recent months. As we report on page 1 of this issue, DARPA has kicked in $40 million for research on neurotech approaches to treating memory disorders.

It isn’t often that this publication can report on changes in regulatory policy at the FDA that benefit the neurotechnology industry. But that is indeed what seems to be the case with cranial electrical stimulation. Earlier this month, the federal agency backtracked on its previous decision to classify the surface stimulation systems as class III, rather than class II devices [NBR May13 p2]. The de…

Evoke Neuroscience, the manufacturer of neurosensing and brain analysis systems with offices in New York City and Jacksonville, NC, has set its sights on expanding its presence in the neurotechnology industry. The company’s portable brain analysis system, which incorporates electrophysiological sensors, software, and processing hardware, has to date been targeted at healthcare professionals, including general practitioners, neurologists, and clinical psychologists.

While research teams in the U.S. have made considerable progress recently using spinal cord stimulation for neuroprosthetic and neurorehabilitation applications [NBR Apr14 p2], an independent effort at several European institutions is gaining momentum. Recently, investigators from the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany reported progress in fabricating flexible microelectrodes that will be used to restore function in individuals with spinal cord injury.

Researchers and entrepreneurs in the neurotechnology industry are used to playing backup to pharmaceutical companies when it comes to funding, regulatory approval, and investment decisions. Implanted stimulation devices are often regarded as a last-resort to be tried only after every possible drug, or combination of drugs, has failed. But the advent of “electroceuticals”—a term that points up the g…

The combination of neurostimulation devices with gene therapy offers tremendous potential for expanding the range of neurotechnology products and therapies. The interaction of the two disciplines was first demonstrated at Stanford University in 2005. Researchers there and at other institutions have genetically modified neural cells to make them responsive to optical stimulation. The Stanford team recently demonstrated the ability to turn cells off using optogenetic techniques.

The report that three new paralyzed individuals have had voluntary movement restored as a result of epidural stimulation and a training regimen developed at the University of Louisville, UCLA, and other institutions aroused interest in the media, as well as the spinal cord injury community, earlier this month. The report, published in the journal Brain , was authored University of Louisville, Reggie Edgerton at UCLA, and their colleagues.

The market for auditory brainstem implants has seen a number of positive developments in recent years and the neuroprosthetic technology may prove to be a viable adjunct for vendors of cochlear implants. While the implantation procedure for ABIs is more complicated than for cochlear implants, and functional restoration not as great, the device delivers important benefits to a patient population with unmet needs.