NEC Hemispheres Newsletter 2024

Garrett Stanley, PhD. Director, McCamish Parkinson’s Disease Innovation Program and Co-Director, Georgia Tech & Emory Neural Engineering Center

Lena Ting, PhD. Co-Director, Georgia Tech & Emory Neural Engineering Center

from the Directors

We get asked all the time “What is Neural Engineering?” Good question! It’s two things. It is the use of engineering mindsets, approaches, and frameworks applied to problems of the brain and nervous system, and it is also the engineering of tools and technologies to probe and interact with the brain and nervous system.

Only a couple decades ago neural engineering was seen as a separate and isolated field from neuroscience research predominated by biology and psychology approaches. Not today! The cutting edge in the field relies on engineering advances at the molecular and cellular level, hardware for precise measurement and manipulation, and algorithms and data analytics/machine learning, all exemplified by the Neural Engineering community across Georgia Tech and Emory.

Highlighted in this issue of our newsletter are people who capture the spirit of Neural Engineering. Read on to learn about neurotechnology hardware development for precise measurement of neural signals to muscles from Prof. Sam Sober’s group in Emory Biology and about adaptive and dynamic decision making circuits probed by BME PhD student and physicist David Weiss. We also welcome the two newest faculty members of our community, Prof. Audrey Sederberg of the GT Departments of Physics and Psychology and Prof. Zach Danziger of Emory Rehabilitation Medicine and Emory/GT Biomedical Engineering.

Excitingly, our activities have been growing in momentum. We held our first McCamish Innovation Program Conference in December 2023 focused on neurotechnologies to treat, understand, and cure Parkinson’s disease and featured scientists and engineers from the local community and across the globe. The conference highlighted the collaborative work of engineers, clinicians, neuroscientists, and computer scientists in tackling this increasingly prevalent disease of the nervous system.

We are grateful to the Sartain-Lanier Foundation who was inspired by the success of the McCamish Program to gift Georgia Tech with funding to support undergraduate and graduate research in neural engineering. In a partnership with the Petit Scholars Undergraduate Research Program, we present in this issue the undergraduate researchers supported by this program who are working in laboratories across Georgia Tech and Emory.

These are just a few of the exciting things happening across our community, and give a glimpse of what’s to come!

Lena and Garrett

Inaugural Parkinson's Disease Conference Explores

New Therapies For Treatment

The McCamish Parkinson’s Disease Innovation Program at Georgia Tech marked an important milestone, hosting its inaugural McCamish Parkinson’s Disease Innovation Conference on Dec. 5. The event brought together a range of local, national, and international speakers, setting the stage for an exploration of cutting-edge Parkinson’s Disease (PD) research.

Organized by the joint Georgia Tech-Emory neuroscience and neuroengineering committee, the conference invited speakers from University of California, San Francisco, Oxford University, England, EPFL, Switzerland as well as experts from Georgia Tech and Emory University.

The conference elevates the work of the McCamish program, established in 2021 through a generous donation to the Wallace H.

Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering from the McCamish Foundation. The vision behind the program is clear— to be the technology-driven hub of far-reaching innovation for the understanding and treatment of Parkinson’s disease and other complex neurological disorders through the intersection of fundamental neuroscience, engineering, computing, and clinical neuroscience.

In keeping with this vision, the McCamish Parkinson’s Disease Innovation Conference was formed.

“The program has really started to blossom, and we wanted to highlight the local community, and also pick the brains of experts from around the world as to where the gaps in knowledge are and identify opportunities for the growth of our program,” said Garrett Stanley, McCamish Parkinson's Disease Inno-

vation Program director and one of the organizers of the conference. Covering the past, present and future of Parkinson’s Disease, the conference also delved into proteinopathy and opportunities for biomarkers in PD. Acting as moderator for the panel on this critical topic was Dr. Stella Papa, professor at the department of Neurology at Emory University, Georgia.

The conversations underscored the uncertainties surrounding proteinopathy and mechanisms underlying PD. Dr. Papa stressed the importance and research needed in addressing this knowledge gap, stating, “we need to know more about the basic alterations in alpha-synuclein function and processing in the brain that leads to abnormal function, neurodegeneration and cell death.” Despite progress in the last decade, panelists emphasized that further research on biomarkers is essential, especially in determining treatment success in clinical trials — a critical component needed to understand the factors driving PD and to halt disease progression.

Among the distinguished speakers was Dr. Raquel Liberman, a professor of Chemistry and Biochemmistry at Georgia Tech. Dr. Liberman shared insights into her project focusing on the increased risk for Parkinson’s disease due to gene mutations in glucocerebrosidase. Her motivation lies in understanding the molecular underpinnings of PD to better tackle the problem.

Throughout the event, sever-

(Pictured l. to r.) Alex Moore (individual with Parkinson's), Svjetlana Miocinovic (Emory Univ.), Stewart Factor (Emory Univ.), Philip Starr (Univ. of CA, San Francisco) and Tim Denison (Oxford Univ., England)

al more speakers shared their research findings and insights. Discussions ranged from different therapeutic approaches to the integration of technology for improved diagnosis and management of PD.

“I really enjoyed the panel that mixed neurosurgeons, neurologists, engineers and people with the disease living the experience, and hearing all the different perspectives from the practical challenges of living with the device to managing medications to thinking about how neurosurgeons are considering the future of the therapy,” said Dr. Tim Denison, professor in engineering science at Oxford University, England.

Denison presented research highlighting the importance of factoring in daytime activity and wakefulness in PD patient care, emphasizing the potential to improve therapy by adapting device operation during different times of the day.

“A lot of the times with follow ups, people see patients during daytime

and during normal office hours and so we might be missing some of the impacts of their sleep,” said Denison. “We need to be thinking carefully about what’s going on with sleep, transitions between wakefulness and sleep and how we might want to have the devices operate in a somewhat different manner during the day versus what’s going on at night. That’s a real opportunity to improve the therapy in the short term.”

Brian Lau, a scientific advisor for the McCamish program, at the Paris Brain Institute, found Denison's research to be very insightful.

"Really inspirational talk about the application of stimulation for sleep, which is something I hadn't thought about seriously before,” Lau said. “At least in movement disorders, we think a lot about deep brain stimulation (DBS) for treating movement, and sleep isn’t particularly part of that movement."

The conference also featured a compelling presentation by Alex Moore, a Parkinson’s disease pa-

tient who shared his firsthand experience. Moore, equipped with a deep brain stimulator implant, was accompanied by Dr. Stewart Factor, a neurologist at Emory University in the movement disorders program, who also runs a Parkinson’s clinic.

Dr. Factor explained the significance of having a patient like Moore in these programs.

“It lets people actually see how the treatments we give to Parkinson’s patients impacts their life, how the disease impacts their life, how the treatment impacts their life and how we can benefit them in the long term with what we do,” said Factor.

Moore was initially hesitant about undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS). He vividly described his daily routine of managing Parkinson’s with a handful of pills and the difficult choice he faced between medication and DBS. “You’re taking a wad of pills, but you’re pretty much in control versus a brain operation and it might be able to control your tremor,” explained Moore.

Post DBS-surgery and after having the neurostimulator activated, Moore recalls not only did DBS result in a significant improvement in the tremors on his right side, but he was also able to be medication-free. “It’s allowed me to live a reasonably normal life. It’s enabled me to control my tremor and function,” said Moore.

One of the conference’s most impactful moments was the demonstration involving Moore, where his DBS implant was temporarily turned off, revealing the immedi-

ate return of tremors. Conference participants were given a direct insight into the profound challenges posed by Parkinson’s disease as they observed the immediate effects on Moore’s movement without the DBS implant.

“You can immediately see the tremors start and how debilitating that was. You’re able to connect all of the far-removed academic research to the actual application and clinical translation to see that this is actually making an impact on people’s lives. It was just very impactful to remind ourselves that maybe we’re making a positive impact in some way,” said Cara Motz, a fifth year Ph.D. student at Georgia Tech.

While DBS helps with tremors associated with Parkinson’s, there are other unaddressed challenges that come with it. Beyond the noticeable impact on motor functions, Parkinson’s introduces hidden struggles such as sleep disturbances, as well as issues with bowel movements and poor bladder control. Recognizing the broader spectrum of difficulties, it becomes crucial to develop technology that comprehensively improves the quality of life of all Parkinson’s patients.

This is relevant especially with post-surgery visual differences that Parkinson’s brings to patients’ appearances. During the surgery, electrode leads are intricately routed across the skull's surface, taking a distinctive 90-degree bend before descending into the brain. At this bend, a small cap is placed atop the lead. However, a prevailing challenge with current ap-

proaches is that this cap protrudes prominently above the skull.

This is particularly problematic for patients with sparse hair as the lead caps placed near the forehead can result in visible bumps that some humorously describe as ‘horns on the head’. Addressing this concern goes to the heart of maintaining patients’ dignity.

“The technology of doing DBS to improve symptoms is just one part of it and that other aspects of it which may impact patient dignity like having lumps on your forehead from the surgery is something that should have equal consideration,” said Factor. Delivering patients to a state where they can focus on therapy without constant visual reminders of their medical condition is a crucial consideration for making the entire process and surgery less invasive.

The conference also featured the work of four Georgia Tech and Emory Blue Sky Grant awardees, each focusing on an aspect of the disease. Among them, Asst. prof. Cassie Mitchell presented on Literature-based Discovery (LBD), revealing the applications of the SemNet 2.0 algorithm. By analyzing over 33 million PubMed articles, Mitchell’s team identified repurposed drugs, like antihistamines, with promising effects on Parkinson's symptoms when combined with standard therapies.

Prof. Lena Ting, another grant recipient, explored brain activity during movement in Parkinson's. She emphasized the conference's role in connecting with experts and generating insights into poorly

understood motor and non-mo tor impairments. The event also facilitated collaborations, inspiring Ting's team to incorporate DBS insights into their electroenceph alography (EEG) data and explore new study ideas.

“The conference was great for my research team, many of whom are new to PD. We met all kinds of people who have already influ enced our research ideas, from a patient with DBS (Patrick Exley) to a leading expert in its application (Tim Denison),” Ting said. “We’ve invited someone to present in our lab and are reaching out to collab orate with others.”

Much as this conference served as a platform for sharing knowl edge and exchanging insights with other researchers, it also provid ed ground to consider how past concepts can be bridged with new technology. Echoing the confer ence theme of past, present and future, the conference emphasized the reliance on the wisdom of those who came before in under standing and treating Parkinson’s Disease.

“We pick up where a prior gen eration had left off and we forgot about it,” said Denison. “But now with new technologies we can start to implement some of the ideas that were just ideas at that stage, but now we have the technology to support it.”

This article was reprinted from the GT/Emory BME CONNECTIONS newsletter. Written by Yanet Chernet. Photos by Jerry Grillo and Yanet Chernet.

Petit Lanier Scholars

A New Generation of

Neuroscientists & Neuroengineers!

With the generous support of the Sartain Lanier Foundation and partnering with the GT Petit Scholars program, these 5 undergraduate students will work within faculty labs across GT and Emory participating in Parkinson’s and other neurotechnology-related research during the 2023-2024 academic year.

Jifei Xiao BME

Benjamin Fargnoli BME

Joon Han Kim Neuroscience

Ruorong Qi Neuroscience

Megha Seri Chemistry

Sam Sober is soaring high in his research investigating neural and muscular systems controlling movement in various species. We sat down with the Emory Biology Associate Professor/Researcher and here's what he had to say:

GT/Emory NEC: Please elaborate on your research involving the development and application of multielectrode arrays, particularly in understanding neural behavior control.

Sober: Along with our collaborators, my group has developed a novel electrode technology (“Myomatrix arrays”) that allows researchers to monitor the nervous system’s output at high resolution. These devices measure the tiny electrical signals that the nervous system sends to activate individual muscle fibers, providing a high-resolution readout of how circuits in the spinal cord and elsewhere are working together to control body movements.

GT/Emory NEC: How do you envision this technology influencing the landscape of science?

Sober: In two ways. First, because Myomatrix devices are the first technology to provide these high-resolution measurements during active behaviors (as opposed to much more restricted settings), we hope to change the way people study how the brain controls the body. Neuroscience is currently in a sort of “golden age” of new methods for measuring the activity of brain cells at high resolution and at scale. In contrast, the existing technology for measuring the activity that drives the muscle was far less accurate, preventing the field from connecting computational theories of brain activity to the brain’s muscular output. Our technology bridges this gap by allowing researchers to measure brain and muscle activity with similarly high resolution. Second, we are using Myomatrix to change how new neuroscience technologies are disseminated to the community. Traditionally, new technologies

Sam I am

--

minus the "Green Eggs and Ham" of course

are held closely by the lab that invented them until the first round of papers is published. We have taken a very different approach and disseminated our electrodes as widely as possible. Thanks to funding from both federal agencies and private philanthropic groups we have distributed Myomatrix devices to over 200 labs worldwide, and at no cost to the users. This open science approach has been fundamental to the project and also enabled us to rapidly improve the device’s designs by integrating feedback and suggestions from hundreds of users.

GT/Emory NEC: What prompted your transition into tech development from a scientific background?

Sober: When I started my lab at Emory I certainly didn’t plan to have a focus on tech development! The emphasis on tools arose naturally from my lab’s ongoing scientific mission. We originally developed these devices to answer a particular set of scientific questions about how songbird brains control vocal muscles during song learning and performance. Then, as our work in songbirds led to questions in other species, we expanded the number of applications of the devices to match the lab’s expanding research interests. So I don’t really see the tech development as being different from the lab’s scientific mission.

GT/Emory NEC: How do you perceive the connection between your scientific work and outreach efforts?

Sober: Both the tech development and basic science my lab does are aimed at changing how neuroscientists study motor control. Again, these are really intertwined efforts: ideally, I’d love it if people would read our lab's basic science papers, be convinced by the power of integrating high-resolution muscle physiology into studies of neuromotor function, and

then see that our technology is immediately available to them so that they can do similar kinds of studies in their own labs.

GT/Emory NEC: In what ways do you aim to influence the scientific and broader community through both avenues?

Sober: Yes – along with collaborators I’ve launched and led several large-scale collaborations (including COMPERE and the Simons-Emory International Consortium on Motor Control) aimed doing this.

GT/Emory NEC: What guidance would you offer to aspiring researchers keen on pursuing careers in neural engineering or neuroscience?

Sober: Ha I think I’ll pass on answering this one – I think my path to get here has been so strange that I don’t want to give any general advice.

GT/Emory NEC: Please share something about you that people would be surprised to know.

Sober: Prior to developing our EMG electrodes, my biggest technology-development project was creating miniaturized headphones for songbirds.

Inverview conducted by Sherry Sam, Neural Engineering Center, Georgia Tech and Emory University

A W e i s s M o v

At age 7, David Weiss almost severed his thumb when playing around with his father’s sharp knives. As a result of his injury, he had no feeling in that region of his hand for about 10 years. Eventually the nerves in his hand regenerated and sensation was restored. By the time he entered the Master’s program and had to decide on his thesis, it was this childhood experience that sparked Weiss’ interest in the nervous system and led him down the path of Biological Engineering with a focus on Neuroscience.

Now in his 3rd year as a Ph.D. student in the Bioengineering program at Georgia Tech, Weiss continues his fascination with the brain and wants to explore more about how to harness its power. His research focuses on neural dynamic adaptive control. This process involves establishing a way to read brain activity while stimulating a population of neurons to get a certain output. Weiss trains mice to perform a decision-making task, while measuring the underlying neural activity. He hopes to understand the basic language of the brain and translate it to study more complicated sensory-system controls that could ultimately benefit amputees, patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and even people with sight and/or hearing deficits.

“ The thing that I’m most proud of since joining CNTP is that now I actually feel like I’m a burgeoning neuroscientist”

gifted him with a beer-brewing kit for his 21st birthday and he was addicted (no pun intended) ever since. He even built special equipment to help create more flavorful concoctions, resulting in a better brewing experience.

In 2019, Weiss learned that he had been accepted as a Fellow in Georgia Tech and Emory University’s Computational Neuralengineering Training Program (CNTP) and he was ecstatic! Being in CNTP has given him more opportunities to present his work, acquire more technical skills, and improve his communication and writing skills. Weiss says the best part of membership is the cohort itself, because it allows him to interact with like-minded people and gives him a sense of belonging. He states “the thing that I’m most proud of since joining CNTP is that now I actually feel like I’m a burgeoning neuroscientist”.

When Weiss is not working in the lab, he spends time relaxing by going rock climbing and brewing his own beer! His father

David Weiss plans to graduate with his Ph.D. in May 2027. He wants to pursue an academic career doing research, writing the neural code in neural systems and applying closed loop control for sensory prostheses. Who would have imagined that lacerating his thumb and damaging a nerve as a child, would be the impetus that fueled Weiss’ passion to one day improve sensory prostheses. I think one would agree that it’s not a good idea for a child to play with knives, but for David Weiss, lacerating his thumb and damaging a nerve turned out to be the best thing that could have ever happened to him.

Article written by Fadrika Prather, Neural Engineering Center, Georgia Tech and Emory University

Welcome to NEC

Audrey Sederberg joined Georgia Tech as an Assistant Professor in Physics and Psychology in the Fall of 2023. Dr. Sederberg uses theoretical and analytic approaches to uncover the principles of neuronal network dynamics and function. She earned her doctorate in theoretical physics at Princeton University, working with Dr. William Bialek. She then conducted postdoctoral research in experimental neurobiology (University of Chicago) and neural data science (Georgia Tech), and then as a Theory and Modeling of Living Systems fellow at Emory University. In 2021, she established her research group at the University of Minnesota as a member of the Medical Discovery Team for Optical Imaging and Brain Science. Grounded by close collaboration with experimental labs, her group works at the intersection of experimental and theoretical neuroscience, spanning multiple scales, recording techniques, and species. Her research is supported by a BRAIN Initiative grant from the NIMH and a Young Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. In 2023, Dr. Sederberg was honored with the John Ohlfest Memorial Faculty Mentorship Award for her exceptional teaching and mentoring within Minnesota's Graduate Program in Neuroscience. In August 2023, she returned to Atlanta to join the Schools of Psychology and Physics at Georgia Tech. For more visit https://sites.gatech.edu/sederberg/

Zach Danziger is an Associate Professor at Emory University in the Departments of Rehabilitation Medicine and Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Danziger’s research focuses on understanding how the nervous system controls the body at the level of systems physiology. Following his bachelors in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan, he earned his doctorate in biomedical engineering at Northwestern University. He then conducted postdoctoral research at Duke University, before joining the faculty at Florida International University in Miami in 2016. In 2023, Dr. Danziger moved his laboratory from FIU to Emory University. Dr. Danziger’s current research includes mapping the complex web of reflexes that regulate the lower urinary tract and its dysfunction in aging and disease, and how primary motor cortex organizes high-dimensional operation of complex systems like brain-computer interfaces. Danziger’s approach is to use model systems (human, animal, and computational) to deepen our mechanistic understanding of how neural control is achieved, and how to reverse its disruption caused by disease. For more visit scholarblogs.emory.edu/danziger/

Neuro

AI

Georgia Tech and Emory are rapidly becoming a hub for research and innovation in the areas of neuroscience and artificial intelligence. To foster training and professional development in this interdisciplinary field, the first NeuroAI summer school for Georgia Tech and Emory students was held in August. The event, co-organized by Professors Eva Dyer, Chethan Pandarinath, and Anqi Wu, was sponsored by the Georgia Tech/Emory Neural Engineering Center and Computational Neural-Engineering Training Program. The workshop aimed to equip trainees with knowledge and skills at the intersection of neuroscience and machine learning/artificial intelligence.

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.

Georgia Institute of Technology U.A. Whitaker Building 313 Ferst Drive Atlanta, GA 30332 nec.gatech.edu

Emory University Health Sciences Research Building 1760 Haygood Drive Atlanta, GA 30322 emory.edu

Stay Connected

This newsletter was produced by the staff of the Neural Engineering Center at GA Tech and Emory University.