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 --- 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 Stéphanie 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 person’s 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 --- 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/