News

A year ago, we reported in this space a sense of “guarded optimism” that permeated the 2013 Neurotech Leaders Forum [NBR Oct13 p2]. The mood at this year’s conference was much less guarded and much more optimistic given the wide range of new funding initiatives, partnerships, and IPOs in the neurotechnology industry [see article p7]. Despite all the good news, though, there are still some areas of concern.

One of the greatest challenges confronting the neuroprosthetics field is the integration of meaningful sensory input into prosthetic limbs. Two new research findings—each challenging conventional thinking in somatosensory neuroscience—may assist neural engineers incorporating sensory feedback into prosthetic or paralyzed upper limbs. Traditional understanding in neuroscience is that tactile sensations from the skin are only assembled to form a complete experience in the cerebral cortex.

Executives from several emerging and established neurotechnology firms will be presenting at the 14th annual Neurotech Leaders Forum, which takes place in San Francisco October 20-21. Promising neurotechnology firms presenting at the conference include Spinal Modulation Inc., Cervel Neurotech, Inc., Evoke Neuroscience, Advanced Brain Monitoring, Inc., Brain Resource Ltd., ClickBrain, and several others.

Although the neurotech device industry is currently pursuing a range of clinical application areas, up until now, the major revenue source has been the chronic pain market. Industry heavyweights like Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, and Boston Scientific still get the lion’s share of their neuromodulation revenue from sales of spinal cord stimulation systems. One of the largest impediments to growth of…

While many forms of neuromodulation apply electrical stimulation directly to a target area to achieve a neurological effect, a novel approach uses neurostimulation to produce an indirect effect, specifically, opening the blood-brain barrier in order to augment pharmacological therapies. Recently, two different teams reported research and commercial progress in developing this therapeutic strategy.

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.