Garrett Stanley, PhD. Director, McCamish Parkinson’s Disease Innovation Program and Co-Director, Georgia Tech & Emory Neural Engineering Center
It is a really exciting time in Neural Engineering across Emory and Georgia Tech. Our vision is to create intelligent, adaptive, and personalized technologies to augment brain and neural function. Since the Neural Engineering Center (NEC) was established 8 years ago at Georgia Tech, the community supporting that vision has grown and flourished beyond our expectations! We’re happy to have played a role in faculty hires across campuses, new training programs and majors, interdisciplinary research collaborations, and the launching of the broader GTNeuro effort that is now taking wing. As the national priority and interest in neurotechnology escalates, we’ve seen increasing interest from students and industry stakeholders, along with new possibilities for commercialization.
With this new landscape, we launch the next phase of the Georgia Tech and Emory Neural Engineering Center. In this newsletter we highlight some of our successes in attracting exciting faculty and outstanding students, and in establishing resources to support the community, notably our NIH T32 training program in Computational Neural Engineering, the McCamish Parkinson’s Disease Innovation Program, and the new Lanier Foundation Neuroengineering Undergraduate Research Program. The spirit of these programs embody the interdisciplinary, collaborative path needed to move the field forward.
Following all of this amazing growth, and after the isolating pandemic period, we seek to connect our community and create a fertile environment for cross-cutting research at the forefront of neural engineering. Our mission is to foster an inclusive, collaborative community to innovate and lead in research, training, & translation. We want the GT/Emory NEC to be a resource to support the free exchange of ideas, data, algorithms, and excitement about creating advances that are truly greater than the sum of the parts.
As an important part of this community, we’d like to personally invite each of you to be active in the Neural Engineering Center as we look to provide points of exchange and connection through online resources, idea exchange forums, collaborative projects, and just having fun together. We are awed by the amazing talent and energy of each and every one of you and hope that you will find–as we have–that any efforts we put toward this community are rewarded in spades intellectually, personally, and professionally.
Lena and Garrett
The McCamish Parkinson’s Disease Innovation Program at Georgia Tech and Emory seeks to understand, treat, and ultimately cure Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders through basic science, engineering and technology, and data and machine learning. The McCamish Blue Sky Research Program provides funding to enable teams of engineers, scientists, and clinicians from both Emory University and Georgia Tech to support new neurotechnology focused research trajectories leading to publication, translation, and subsequent funding applications and/or commercialization. https://parkinsons.gatech.edu/
Yue Chen (GT/Emory BME), Deqiang Qiu (Emory Radiology), John Oshinski (Emory/GT BME), and Nicholas Boulis (Emory Neurosurgery) are designing a robotic hardware and navigation system to accurately and safely perform MR-guided deep brain stimulation procedures for Parkinson’s disease treatment.
Amanda Gillespie (Emory Otolaryngology), David Anderson (GT Electrical and Computer Engineering), and Adam Klein (Emory Otolaryngology) are developing wearable personal technology that provides real-time feedback to address the most salient communication deficit in people with Parkinson’s disease – reduced vocal loudness.
Yue Chen BME, GT/Emory
Amanda Gillespie Otolaryngology, Emory
The "Sky's the Limit" for these -- from Game Therapy to Wearable year’s class of McCamish Parkinson’s Researchers didn’t disappoint.
Charlie Kemp (GT/Emory BME) and Madeleine Hackney (Emory Geriatrics & Gerontology) are developing a novel therapeutic robotic game system for people with Parkinson’s disease to increase patient exercise quality, frequency, and duration, while reducing demands on overburdened therapists.
disappoint.
Michael Borich (Emory Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy), Lena Ting (Emory/GT BME), and Lucas McKay (Emory Biomedical Informatics) are developing personalized, closed-loop, non-invasive brain stimulation techniques for targeting abnormal cognitive-motor interactions in Parkinson’s disease that lead to reduced mobility and falls.
Minoru Shinohara (GT Biological Sciences), Woo-hong Yeo (GT Mechanical Engineering), Brian Magerko (GT School of Literature, Media & Communication), and Milka Trajkova (GT School of Literature, Media & Communication) are developing an on-skin, wireless, and automated transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation system that stimulates the human nerve during rehabilitation and facilitates motor improvement in Parkinson’s disease.
Charlie Kemp BME, GT/Emory
Michael Borich Rehabilitation & Physical Therapy, Emory
Annabelle Singer and her team are on a mission to eradicating Alzheimer's disease. We sat down with the GA Tech & Emory BME Professor/Researcher and here's what she had to say:
GT/Emory NEC: Tell us about your research using light and sound and how it may help people with Alzheimer’s disease. Singer: Inspired by deficits in neural activity I found in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, I and collaborators discovered that driving gamma oscillations (oscillating electrical activity around 40Hz) reduced amyloid beta, a protein whose aggregation is thought to initiate degenerative events in Alzheimer’s disease (Iaccarino and Singer et al. 2016). After initially using invasive optogenetics to drive gamma, we then determined that simple flickering lights and sounds at
gamma frequency (similar to a fast strobe light and beeping) drives gamma oscillations in memory circuits. This gamma sensory stimulation recruits immune cells, improves neural codes for memory, and rescues memory behavior (Singer et al. 2018, Martorell and Paulson et al. 2019, Paulson et al. in prep). We completed a feasibility trial of sensory stimulation for brain activity in patients with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease in collaboration with Emory Brain Health Center (He et al. 2021). We found that this stimulation affects the human neuroimmune system and strengthens brain networks weakened in Alzheimer’s disease. These discoveries reveal new ways to non-invasively manipulate the human neuroimmune system and non-invasively target memory circuits in humans. These findings have paved the way for more clinical trials currently underway. Thus, this novel stimulation approach holds promise as a breakthrough
treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases.
GT/Emory NEC: How did you come up with the idea of using light and sound as a possible therapy?
Singer: We initially used invasive but powerful optogenetic stimulation to drive gamma oscillations. This is not readily translated to humans. Emery Brown, a neuroscientist and neurosurgeon, suggested we try light flicker and look at the effects in visual cortex to test our hypothesis via another stimulation method. That is based on decades of studies showing light flicker drives rhythmic activity in visual areas. However, we did not know how to target non-sensory areas. We tried several things and found combined audio-visual flicker for ~1 week leads to reduction of amyloid beta in memory circuits.
GT/Emory NEC: For this experiment, mice were placed in a cage
in a dark room. While inside the cage, the mice were exposed to LED lights flashing at a frequency of 40 hz (40 beats per second). During the human trials, how did you replicate this light/sound method in Alzheimer’s patients?
Singer: In our published studies, human subjects wore eye glasses that flicker and headphones to play the flickering sound. In some ongoing studies, we’re working with different flickering devices.
GT/Emory NEC: What were the results of the human trials?
Singer: We recently completed a feasibility trial of sensory stimulation for brain activity in patients with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease in collaboration with Emory Brain Health Center. We found that this stimulation affects the human neuroimmune system and strengthens brain networks weakened in Alzheimer’s disease. We
next discovered that sensory flicker reduces pathological epileptiform activity in patients with epilepsy (in a manuscript currently under review). These discoveries reveal new ways to non-invasively manipulate the human neuroimmune system, target memory circuits in humans, and reduce pathological neural activity in humans.
GT/Emory NEC: So what are the next steps?
Singer: Longer, larger clinical trials. We’re also pursuing other indications/diseases.
GT/Emory NEC: Any advice for aspiring Researchers interested in pursuing neural careers?
Singer: Fail fast. That means take big risks but de-risk fast and pivot when things don’t work. Dream big, but also have some “bread and butter” projects to keep you going.
GT/Emory NEC: Tell us something about you that people would be surprised to know.
Singer: I’m the youngest of 7 kids, born on 3 continents.
GT/Emory NEC: What impact or contribution would you like your legacy to be?
Singer: First, to have helped people with neurodegenerative disease. Second, developing a new field that engineers neural activity to program brain immune function and treat multiple neurological and psychiatric diseases.
Watch the PBS special "Your Fantastic Mind" to get a glimpse of Singer's research. Hear from an actual patient from the human trials at 34:00 mins https://www. pbs.org/video/memory-qwrgkm/
We found that this stimulation affects the human neuroimmune system and strengthens brain networks weakened in Alzheimer’s disease. ”
––Annabelle Singer
The Georgia Tech/Emory CNTP is an NIH sponsored research training program, funded specifically through Grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging neering (NIBIB). The program consists of 40+ PhD student Scholars within BME, ECE, BioE, or ML. Our training program trainees with faculty mentorship, professional development, experience throughout the trainees' matriculation in how to get involved at cntp.bme.gatech.edu/
educational and through a T32 Training Imaging and Bioengistudent Fellows and program provides our development, and academic the program. Find out
Sina Dabiri, BME, Emory
Camille Guzman, BME, GA Tech
Anna Pritchard BME, Emory
Jake Stephens, BME, GA Tech
God's Beauty is her name -- yes literally-Nmachi (pronounced mah-chee) in the Igbo Nigerian culture means "God's Beauty". Not only does Nmachi Anumba have the beauty, but she has the brains to go with it. Speaking of brains, it was watching medical TV shows like Grey's Anatomy, that ultimately led her down the neural path.
Anumba is a 4th year Ph.D. student in the BME program at Emory University. Her research focuses on the effects of the Locus Coeruleus (LC) on global signals and quasi periodic patterns (brain waves that move when you're at rest) of the brain. The LC, which is a nucleus in the brainstem, produces a chemical called norepinephrine (NE). This chemical is associated with stress, arousal and mood. By using optogenetics (optogenetics uses light to stimulate the brain) and fMRI (which measures brain activity) to stimulate the LC, Anumba can examine how the release of this chemical affect brain activity in rats with healthy brain cells and those with Alzheimer's disease. This technology enables her to determine which neurons are active and which ones are inactive. In the rats with Alzheimer's, she can see how normal brain function is adversely being altered. The end goal (in the distant future) is to develop therapeutics that can prevent brain deterioration.
In her matriculation as a Ph.D. student, Anumba has also enriched her academic journey as a trainee in GA Tech and Emory University's Computational Engineering Training Program (CNTP). In fact, she was one of 4 trainees (the program has now grown to 43 trainees) inducted into the program when it began in Spring 2019. CNTP allowed her to do rotations (students in the BME program do not rotate labs) and encourages community and provide mentorship opportunities. "Faculty recommend things for you like internship opportunities or they may end up serving on your thesis committee or give feedback on presentations that we're required to give. Having an environment that fosters those relationships with faculty is the most valuable part of the program," says Anumba.
When Anumba wants a respite from academia, she loves to participate in activities with her church community, doing Crossfit, and learning new languages. Fluent in Spanish (she obtained her BA in Spanish during her undergraduate studies) and currently learning Korean (as a child, she watched a lot of
Korean TV shows), Anumba desires to share her passion for languages and science to improve communication with non-English-speaking populations. She believes that "everyone deserves equal accessibility to science, regardless of the language they speak."
Nmachi Anumba plans to graduate with her Ph.D. in Spring 2024 and hopes to pursue a career within Medical Technology or Global Regulatory Affairs so that she can help non-English-speaking communities better understand the medical devices that are produced in the United States. Meanwhile, she's carving her niche and paving a way for future scientists and researchers who aspire to follow in her footsteps.
Global – Passionate – Destined – that's Nmachi. This "God's Beauty" is truly living up to her name.
Having an environment that fosters those relationships with faculty is the most valuable part of the program”
1. J. Lucas McKay, Biomedical Informatics/Neurology (Emory) presenting, "Human activity recognition to track freezing of gait in Parkinson’s disease" at Sept. 27 forum. 2. Svjetlana Miocinovic, Neurology (Emory) presenting "Transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation for freezing of gait" at Sept. 27 forum. 3. Audience member at Sept. 27 forum 4. Omer Inan, Electrical and Computer Engineering (GA Tech) presenting, "Wearable sensing and artificial intelligence to continuously examine acute and long-term measures of cardiovascular autonomic function in Parkinson’s disease and Multiple System Atrophy" at Nov. 29 forum.
5. Amanda Gillespie, Otolaryngology, Director of Speech Pathology (Emory) presenting virtually,"Validation and clinical feasibility of a Speech-Assisting Multi-Microphone System for the treatment of communication deficits in people with Parkinson’s disease" 6. Annabelle Singer, Biomedical Engineering (GA Tech/Emory) sharing how she commercialized her research at the Neurotechnology Commercialization & Translation Jan. 31 forum.
7. Chethan Pandarinath, Biomedical Engineering (GA Tech/Emory) sharing how he commercialized his research at the Commercialization & Translation Jan. 31 forum.
McCamish Blue Sky Forums are designed to provide exciting, interactive discussions within the GT and Emory PD research community.
The Next Generation of Neuroscience For Innovation, Exploration & Cures
Do you want to donate to our efforts? Please contact Luke O'Connell (luke.oconnell@bme.gatech.edu) in the College of Engineering, Ashley Coogan (ashley.coogan@cos.gatech.edu) in the College of Sciences or Brad Hastings (brad.hastings@cc.gatech.edu) in the College of Computing.
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