Post by Admin on Nov 28, 2020 10:41:10 GMT
U of M research team hopes to develop an implantable device to treat mental illness — thanks to a $6.6 million grant
The device, to be designed and developed by scientists at the U of M Medical School, may be able to help treat mental illnesses like depression and PTSD.
By Andy Steiner | MinnPost contributing writer
www.minnpost.com/mental-health-addiction/2020/09/u-of-m-research-team-hopes-to-develop-an-implantable-device-to-treat-mental-illness-thanks-to-a-6-6-million-grant/
Implanted medical devices can be used to treat a number of medical conditions, including regulating heart function or delivering electrical stimulation to targeted areas of the brain to treat essential tremors caused by Parkinson’s disease. A new implantable device, to be designed and developed by scientists at the University of Minnesota Medical School, may be able to help treat common but serious mental illnesses like depression and PTSD.
A team of researchers, led by Alik Widge, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the University’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, has been awarded a $6.6 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to develop the device, which would use electrical impulses to help misfiring brain rhythms fall into synchrony.
In a departure from the pace of typical academic research, this team — which includes Widge; Greg Molnar, Ph.D., a medical device expert and associate professor in the University’s Department of Neurosurgery; and Mahsa Shoaran, Ph.D., of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland — has put the implant project on the fast track. They hope to have a device that is ready for first in-human use in as little as six years.
The size of the grant points to the project’s promise, Widge said: “The National Institute of Mental Health doesn’t normally give out this kind of money. $6.6 million is a large grant for still a relatively junior professor.”
The grant, Widge said, is a vote of confidence for his team, which includes “clinicians who understand the problem and an expert with deep background making and bringing to market next-gen medical devices.” And, he added, the fact that the medical school is located in the Twin Cities gives his project an edge: “We are the Silicon Valley of implantable medical devices.”
Molnar has a deep background working in the implantable device industry. He was employed for more than a decade at the medical technology giant Medtronic, helping to refine and develop the multinational’s implantable-device line.
When Widge approached him with his idea, Molnar was immediately enthusiastic about its prospects.
“It’s a big deal,” he said. “It is the first grant I’ve seen at the University that is truly focused on translation.” This is not pie-in-the-sky long-horizon academic research, Molnar added. The end result of this project will be a device that has the potential to change the way mental illness is treated. “The deliverable is going to be a working first-in-human-ready closed-loop deep-brain stimulation system. That’s impressive.”
‘A new mechanism’
The technology for treating brain disease with implantable devices already exists: For many years, for instance, people with Parkinson’s disease have been treating the debilitating tremors and other symptoms associated with the disease with a device called a neurostimulator that delivers electrical stimulation to areas of the nervous system that control movement, blocking abnormal electrical signals.
A Parkinson’s neurostimulator works much like a heart pacemaker. Widge explained that his device, while it will be able to use much of the hardware designed for other implantable devices, will require specific custom electronics to work on a different, more targeted level.
“This is a new mechanism of action different from anything on the market,” he said. “This is something that is designed to get at the biology of mental illness in a way that wasn’t possible before.”
Widge and his colleagues see mental illness largely as a physical disease of the brain that can be treated by altering the way different parts of the brain communicate with each other.
“Most mental illness — addiction, PTSD, depression, anxiety, OCD — all of these conditions in different ways are caused by breakdowns — or in some cases too much communication — between certain parts of the brain in certain sub-networks,” he said. His team’s device will use targeted electrical stimulation to help build healthy connections between different areas of the brain.
Widge likes to use computer metaphors to explain his device. “If you have a program on your computer or phone that goes a little bit rogue, it can’t let go of whatever resource it is using,” he said. “You get that spinning beach ball and the whole system blocks up. If you can just fix that one thing that’s causing the problem, if we can close that one small program and make a little tweak, the whole system can get back into alignment and function better.”
By taking this direct, physical approach, Widge’s device has the potential to upend the way mental illness is treated.
“When we think about what we use right now to treat mental illness — primarily medication and talk therapy — they don’t do what we’re talking about,” he said. “They don’t physically intervene. But this device will. Most experts agree that we need circuit-directed therapies if we want to get a handle on this illness and achieve the gains that have yet to be achieved.”
The U of M’s proposed device will use existing implantable device technology, but will require unique custom electronics to deliver targeted electrical impulses to the brain, Widge said.
“Deep-brain stimulation hardware that was developed to treat Parkinson’s disease can’t do what we need it to do. It wasn’t designed for that. It was built off a rewired cardiac pacemaker. We have the stimulation hardware, but we don’t have the right signal processing yet.”
His team will be involved in developing custom circuitry to precisely time stimulation relative to ongoing brain activity.
“If the brain rhythms are in synch, one area is getting ready to fire as the volume of information comes in from the first,” Widge explained, switching mid-stream to a sports metaphor. “Think about the receiver or outfielder who knows when the ball is going to be coming to him and is standing there ready to catch it. The catch is effortless and they are right there where they need to be. That’s what brain synchrony does.”
(rest in Link)
The device, to be designed and developed by scientists at the U of M Medical School, may be able to help treat mental illnesses like depression and PTSD.
By Andy Steiner | MinnPost contributing writer
www.minnpost.com/mental-health-addiction/2020/09/u-of-m-research-team-hopes-to-develop-an-implantable-device-to-treat-mental-illness-thanks-to-a-6-6-million-grant/
Implanted medical devices can be used to treat a number of medical conditions, including regulating heart function or delivering electrical stimulation to targeted areas of the brain to treat essential tremors caused by Parkinson’s disease. A new implantable device, to be designed and developed by scientists at the University of Minnesota Medical School, may be able to help treat common but serious mental illnesses like depression and PTSD.
A team of researchers, led by Alik Widge, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the University’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, has been awarded a $6.6 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to develop the device, which would use electrical impulses to help misfiring brain rhythms fall into synchrony.
In a departure from the pace of typical academic research, this team — which includes Widge; Greg Molnar, Ph.D., a medical device expert and associate professor in the University’s Department of Neurosurgery; and Mahsa Shoaran, Ph.D., of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland — has put the implant project on the fast track. They hope to have a device that is ready for first in-human use in as little as six years.
The size of the grant points to the project’s promise, Widge said: “The National Institute of Mental Health doesn’t normally give out this kind of money. $6.6 million is a large grant for still a relatively junior professor.”
The grant, Widge said, is a vote of confidence for his team, which includes “clinicians who understand the problem and an expert with deep background making and bringing to market next-gen medical devices.” And, he added, the fact that the medical school is located in the Twin Cities gives his project an edge: “We are the Silicon Valley of implantable medical devices.”
Molnar has a deep background working in the implantable device industry. He was employed for more than a decade at the medical technology giant Medtronic, helping to refine and develop the multinational’s implantable-device line.
When Widge approached him with his idea, Molnar was immediately enthusiastic about its prospects.
“It’s a big deal,” he said. “It is the first grant I’ve seen at the University that is truly focused on translation.” This is not pie-in-the-sky long-horizon academic research, Molnar added. The end result of this project will be a device that has the potential to change the way mental illness is treated. “The deliverable is going to be a working first-in-human-ready closed-loop deep-brain stimulation system. That’s impressive.”
‘A new mechanism’
The technology for treating brain disease with implantable devices already exists: For many years, for instance, people with Parkinson’s disease have been treating the debilitating tremors and other symptoms associated with the disease with a device called a neurostimulator that delivers electrical stimulation to areas of the nervous system that control movement, blocking abnormal electrical signals.
A Parkinson’s neurostimulator works much like a heart pacemaker. Widge explained that his device, while it will be able to use much of the hardware designed for other implantable devices, will require specific custom electronics to work on a different, more targeted level.
“This is a new mechanism of action different from anything on the market,” he said. “This is something that is designed to get at the biology of mental illness in a way that wasn’t possible before.”
Widge and his colleagues see mental illness largely as a physical disease of the brain that can be treated by altering the way different parts of the brain communicate with each other.
“Most mental illness — addiction, PTSD, depression, anxiety, OCD — all of these conditions in different ways are caused by breakdowns — or in some cases too much communication — between certain parts of the brain in certain sub-networks,” he said. His team’s device will use targeted electrical stimulation to help build healthy connections between different areas of the brain.
Widge likes to use computer metaphors to explain his device. “If you have a program on your computer or phone that goes a little bit rogue, it can’t let go of whatever resource it is using,” he said. “You get that spinning beach ball and the whole system blocks up. If you can just fix that one thing that’s causing the problem, if we can close that one small program and make a little tweak, the whole system can get back into alignment and function better.”
By taking this direct, physical approach, Widge’s device has the potential to upend the way mental illness is treated.
“When we think about what we use right now to treat mental illness — primarily medication and talk therapy — they don’t do what we’re talking about,” he said. “They don’t physically intervene. But this device will. Most experts agree that we need circuit-directed therapies if we want to get a handle on this illness and achieve the gains that have yet to be achieved.”
The U of M’s proposed device will use existing implantable device technology, but will require unique custom electronics to deliver targeted electrical impulses to the brain, Widge said.
“Deep-brain stimulation hardware that was developed to treat Parkinson’s disease can’t do what we need it to do. It wasn’t designed for that. It was built off a rewired cardiac pacemaker. We have the stimulation hardware, but we don’t have the right signal processing yet.”
His team will be involved in developing custom circuitry to precisely time stimulation relative to ongoing brain activity.
“If the brain rhythms are in synch, one area is getting ready to fire as the volume of information comes in from the first,” Widge explained, switching mid-stream to a sports metaphor. “Think about the receiver or outfielder who knows when the ball is going to be coming to him and is standing there ready to catch it. The catch is effortless and they are right there where they need to be. That’s what brain synchrony does.”
(rest in Link)