Technology Review's Young Innovators under 35
From: Technology Review - September/October, 2006


Liam Paninski - Columbia University
Decoding brain signals 

Today, researchers can record and interpret brain signals with such
sophistication that "mind reading" is close to becoming a reality. One of the
young leaders in the field is computational neuroscientist Liam Paninski, who
uses statistics to decipher electrical signals from the brain.  

Because neurons fire in complex patterns, it's tricky to identify which
neurons encode which actions and how stimuli provoke them. Paninski creates
mathematical models to make sense of those patterns. As an undergraduate at
Brown University, he developed an algorithm that decodes arm-movement
commands from the brain. Equipped with this neural code, Brown neuroscientist
John Donoghue developed an implant that lets paralyzed people use their minds
to control a robotic arm, manipulate a cursor, or play video games.  

Now a professor at Columbia, Paninski is using his statistical methods to
decode vision. In the future, he hopes, implanted "video cards" may restore
sight to the blind by translating digital images into neural patterns. He's
also exploring ways to treat epilepsy; as researchers decode neural signals
more precisely, Paninski hopes to one day create a complete map of normal
brain activity. Using the map, researchers could detect deviations such as
epileptic events. Paninski envisions a warning device that will recognize
abnormal events early, so that patients can take drugs to stave off a seizure
- or at least get to a safe place before it begins.  

From: http://www.technologyreview.com/tr35/Profile.aspx?Cand=T&TRID=429

Links:
Liam Paninski
http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~liam/

Implanting Hope
For the first time, a paralyzed patient has operated a prosthetic arm using
just his mind 
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=14220&ch=biotech

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Stephanie Lacour - University of Cambridge
Stretchable electronic skin

Bioengineers who hope to help paralyzed patients by melding electronics with
nerve or brain tissue face a materials challenge: living tissue and
microelectronics could hardly be more different. Most tissues are supple,
while the semiconductors and metals used in electronics are brittle and
stiff. As a result, the implanted electronics can irritate and damage
surrounding tissue. It is precisely this material difference that Stphanie
Lacour is trying to bridge.  

As a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University, Lacour fabricated thin
gold strips on elastic rubber substrates that could be stretched like a
rubber band without losing electrical conductivity. The Princeton group, led
by electrical-engineering professor Sigurd Wagner, then used these strips as
the foundation of the first stretchable integrated circuit. Connecting small,
rigid islands of conventional semiconductors with the gold strips, the
researchers built simple electronic devices that still worked after repeated
stretchings. While these circuits consisted of just a few transistors, they
demonstrated a way in which engineers might make everything from electronic
"skin" for robots to extremely flexible displays.  

But it's the potential applications in biology and medicine that are, Lacour
says, "really thrilling." Now a research project manager at the University of
Cambridge in England, she is heading an effort to create implants that
surgeons could use to repair nerves severed in an injury.  

At the back of her mind, says Lacour, is the goal of creating electronic skin
that could cover prosthetic limbs. Eventually, the electronics could be
directly connected to a persons nerves, providing mental control over the
prosthetic and, through a network of sensors, "feelings" in the limb. Any
application that requires an electronic interface with the nervous system
could use stretchable electrodes, says Barclay Morrison, a professor of
biomedical engineering at Columbia University. For example, neuroengineers
are developing micro-electrode arrays that neurosurgeons have begun
implanting in quadriplegic patients to allow them to control computer cursors
or robotic arms with their minds. But conventional metal electrodes are 100
million times stiffer than the brain tissue. "You're implanting really rigid
needles into the brain," Morrison says. Lacour's electrodes much more closely
match the elasticity of brain tissue, potentially reducing the chance of
damage.  

Morrison has begun using Lacour's stretchable metal electrodes in experiments
to study brain injuries. The stretching of brain tissue during an accident
can set off a chain of cellular events leading to the death of neurons days
after the accident.  

Morrison is re-creating the injuries by violently stretching thin slices of
brain tissue. Lacour's elastic electrodes can stretch with the tissue,
recording in real time the changes in the electrical activity of the neurons.  

Still, says Princeton's Wagner, the field of stretchable microelectronics is
very much in its infancy. It will be at least a decade, he predicts, before
the technology is ready for use in consumer products like flexible displays.  

But for now, bioengineers are just happy to have a way to bridge the material
gap between tissue and electronics. A material that can stretch to twice its
size and still be conductive is "unheard of," Morrison says. "It's
incredible." 

From: http://www.technologyreview.com/tr35/Profile.aspx?Cand=T&TRID=471

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Nikos Paragios - Ecole Centrale Paris
Clearer computer vision

Vision is one of biology's most complex processes. But that doesn't stop
Nikos Paragios from trying to bring this marvel of flesh and blood to the
world of bits and bytes. He develops software that allows computers to
interpret images more accurately, which could improve everything from medical
diagnosis to driving.  

As a professor at the Ecole Centrale Paris, Paragios is a long way from the
world of his childhood on the tiny Aegean island of Karpathos, where he
worked summers in a family-owned coffee shop, and there wasn't a computer in
sight. "But everyone said computer science is the future," he recalls, so he
headed to the University of Crete to study it.  

Today Paragios is a leader in computer vision. Among his many projects is the
mathematical modeling of hand gestures. The idea is to develop software to
translate sign language into text, easing communication between the hearing
and the deaf. The models could also allow drivers to simply point at icons
printed on a dashboard - gestures that would be interpreted by onboard
cameras and computers - rather than twisting knobs or pressing buttons.  

But no matter its application, Paragios's research is driven by his desire to
"do something that brings great innovation and serves society." 

From: http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=16473&ch=biotech

Link:
Nikos Paragios
http://www.mas.ecp.fr/Personnel/nikos/

