Scientists Develop Bionic Spine To Help Paralyzed Patients

Australian scientists have developed a revolutionary “bionic spine” which they hope will enable paralyzed patients to walk again.

The new device, developed by scientists in Melbourne, is the size of a paperclip and works by allowing patients with spinal injuries to control a robotic limb, an exoskeleton of sorts, just by thinking.

“What cochlear implants have done for hearing we’re trying to do for mobility,” Dr. Nicholas Opie, co-principal investigator of the project, said at a media conference on Tuesday.

Human trials of the device will begin next year at the Royal Melbourne Hospital with three participants who will be selected from the Austin Health spinal unit.

The device will be placed at the top of the motor cortex, the part of the brain which controls voluntary muscle movement, via a catheter inserted in the jugular vein in the neck.

The electrodes on the outside of the bionic spine will detect signals from the motor cortex and send them to a device implanted in the patient’s shoulder which will translate signals into commands telling the bionic limbs to move.

Inserting the device through a vein means patients will avoid brain surgery, reducing any risks involved in the procedure as well as cutting the time required in hospital with the technique requiring only a day procedure.

Prof. Terrence O’Brien, of the Royal Melbourne Hospital, is overseeing the project made up of 39 neurologists and biomedical engineers from the hospital, Melbourne University and the Howard Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health.

“It’s the holy grail for research in bionics,” O’Brien said in a research article published in nature biotechnology.

O’Brien said while patients would initially have to be taught to think about moving their bionic limbs, over time the thoughts should become subconscious.

“For example if I want to pick up a phone but my hand is paralyzed I can use my other hand instead,” he said.

“You have a normal way to use the brain to pick up the phone, but if that doesn’t work you find another way. Your brain learns another function which can be harnessed to do what you’ve lost.

“What the stent is doing is putting a recorder over the signals in the brain and providing them with a conduit to move a limb via those signals bypassing the damaged area.”

The first human trials of the device will take place in patients with lower-limb paralysis first as they have the most to gain from the device. (PNA/Xinhua) JBP/EBP