|
|
New
Engineering Center Highlights Biomimetic Systems
by James Cavuoto, editor
One of the most significant trends in the neurotechnology field in
recent years has been the development of “biomimetic” electronic
systems that emulate the function of biological neural systems. Such
an approach not only offers the promise of building a new generation
of neural prostheses, neurosensors, and other devices, it also opens
the possibility of creating new types of commercial, industrial, and
computational devices that meld biological processes with electronic
components.
The area of biomimetic engineering took a dramatic step forward recently
with the opening of a National Science Foundation Engineering Research
Center devoted to Biomimetic Microelectronic Systems (BMES). The BMES
center is located at the University of
Southern California in Los Angeles, and is a team effort involving
USC, California Institute of Technology,
University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of North
Carolina, Charlotte. The team received $17 million in funding from
the NSF last year with initial goals to produce devices to treat blindness,
paralysis, and cognitive impairment. The award covers the first five
years of a 10 year program, with the option of another $17 million
award to follow.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this new research center is
its mission to marry academic research with commercial development.
Indeed, in the few months since its inception, the BMES center has
attracted the interest of over 30 commercial firms in fields ranging
from medical devices and biotechnology to information processing and
electronic imaging.
Director of the center is Mark Humayun, a professor of biomedical
engineering and ophthalmology at USC. Humayun is one of the researchers
who implanted a retinal prosthesis developed by Second
Sight llc in several blind individuals in the last year.
Gerald Loeb, also a professor of biomedical engineering at USC, serves
as deputy director of the new center. Loeb heads up the neuromuscular
rehabilitation effort at the center. The third key player at the center
is Theodore Berger, a biomedical engineering professor at USC who
is developing a hippocampus prosthesis that may eventually help restore
the ability to store new memories in individuals with central nervous
system disorders.
Wolfgang Fink, an adjunct professor of physics at Caltech, is leading
the development of MEMS devices for the retinal prosthesis test bed.
Michael Isaacson, a professor of optoelectronics at University of
California, Santa Cruz, is responsible for interface technology between
microelectronic devices and biological tissue. And Howard Phillips,
a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UNCC, directs
the center’s commercialization effort.
One of the strengths of the BMES center is its ability to draw from
other institutions and organizations besides the three universities
at the core of the center. For example, five U.S. Department of Energy
Laboratories, including Oak Ridge, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos,
Sandia, and Argonne National Laboratories, are helping Humayun’s
team at the Doheny Eye Institute in the development of a retinal prosthesis,
each with expertise in key areas like microelectronics, MEMS, imaging,
biosensors and bioactuators, surface modification, drug delivery,
and packaging.
The Alfred Mann Institute at USC
lends expertise and experience in commercialization of medical devices
in general, and neuromuscular stimulation with BION microstimulators
in particular. And the center is counting on its industrial partners
to deliver even more technology resources, as well as funding. Industrial
advisory board members pay a $50,000 annual fee for membership in
the center, which grants them priority in accessing the center’s
researchers and intellectual property. Smaller firms have an option
to participate at a lower level of membership and financial support.
Several commercial microelectrontics firms have already signed on,
or indicated their intention to, including Bausch & Lomb, Texas
Instruments, IBM, and HP. Among the neurotechnology firms who have
expressed interest in the center are Advanced
Bionics, Quallion, Second
Sight, ANS, and Tensor
Biosciences. |
|
 |
|
|
|
