Research Symposium in Neuroengineering & Medicine

Join us for research talks, posters, and keynote presentation with Leigh R. Hochberg, M.D., Ph.D. Prizes will be awarded to recognize our trainees' work.

The Center for Neuroengineering & Medicine (@ucd_neuroeng) aims to promote neurological health and extend human capacity, through research, stakeholder engagement, and education, into discovery and translation of systems that interface with the brain and the body, to benefit society. In our inaugural research symposium, we’ll bring together neuroengineering scientists, students, and other trainees from engineering, medicine, neuroscience, to share research results and network with like-minded researchers. Presenters include scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Lab, students and other trainees at UC Davis, and keynote speaker Leigh R. Hochberg, M.D., Ph.D. Trainees will compete for awards.

Who should attend: Students, postdocs, faculty, researchers interested in neuroengineering.

Cost: Free

When: Wednesday, June 1st, 2022, 1:30 -7:30 PM

Registration deadline: May 27, 2022 at noon

Where: GBSF Auditorium, Room 1005, 451 Health Sciences Dr., Davis, CA

Note: We will be following all Campus Event Guidelines as applicable at the time of the event.

Agenda

1:30 PM Welcome

1:40 PM Research presentations, LLNL

2:40 PM Trainee talks

3:25 PM Poster session

4:30 PM Trainee talks

5:15 PM Dinner

6:00 PM Awards

6:30 PM Keynote presentation

7:30 PM Closing remarks

Keynote presentation: "Intracortical BCIs: Toward the Restoration of Communication and Mobility" with Leigh R. Hochberg, M.D., Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Brown University, VA RR&D Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology, MGH Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery, BrainGate

Keynote abstract

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) are poised to revolutionize our ability to restore lost neurologic functions. By recording high resolution neural activity from the brain, the “intention” to move one’s hand can be detected and decoded in real-time, potentially providing people with ALS, stroke, or spinal cord injury with restored or maintained ability to control communication devices, assistive technologies, and their own limbs. BCIs also are central to the development of a new generation of neuromodulation systems, with great potential to serve people with neuropsychiatric disorders. A multi-site clinical trial of the investigational BrainGate system is assessing the feasibility of people with tetraplegia controlling a computer cursor and other devices simply by imagining the movement of their own arm or hand. This presentation will review recent progress in BCIs, the information that can be decoded from ensembles of cerebral neurons, the challenges and opportunities for restorative neurotechnologies in research and clinical practice, and the neuroethical questions that accompany the development of these therapies.

Keynote speaker bio

Leigh R. Hochberg, M.D., Ph.D. (Twitter: @neuroleigh) is a Neurointensivist and Vascular Neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Senior Lecturer on Neurology at Harvard Medical School; Professor of Engineering, School of Engineering and Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University; and Director, VA RR&D Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology (CfNN) in Providence Rhode Island. He also directs the MGH Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery (CNTR), and is the IDE Sponsor-Investigator and Principal Investigator of the BrainGate clinical trials, conducted by a close collaboration of scientists and clinicians at Brown, MGH, the Providence VA Medical Center, and Stanford. Dr. Hochberg’s research focuses on the development and testing of novel neurotechnologies to help people with paralysis and other neurologic disorders.

Dr. Hochberg and his research with the collaborative BrainGate team have been honored with the Joseph Martin Prize in Basic Research, the Herbert Pardes Prize for Excellence in Clinical Research, the first Israel Brain Technologies international B.R.A.I.N. Prize, presented by President Shimon Peres, and the Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award. Most recently, he has received the 2022 VA Magnuson Award for his work to improve the lives of Veterans and others who experience stroke, ALS, spinal cord injury, and neurological disease. Dr. Hochberg’s BrainGate research, which has been published in Nature, Lancet, Science Translational Medicine, eLife, the Journal of Neuroscience, the Journal of Neural Engineering, and others, is supported by the Rehabilitation R&D Service of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institutes of Health including the BRAIN Initiative/NINDS and NIDCD, and philanthropies including the ALS Association, the American Heart Association, the Movement Disorder Foundation and the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation.