Mesut Sahin, PhD, received a $1.4 million grant from the National Institute of Health to develop and test floating light activated micro-electrical stimulators for SCI patients. The technology could enable people with SCI to restore some motor functions they lost as a result of the injury.
Once in place, the microstimulators are energized by an infrared light beam through an optical fiber located outside of the spinal cord, activating the nerves in the spinal cord below the point of injury. Last month, Dr. Sahin published his first animal testing results in The Journal of Neural Engineering, suggesting that FLAMES can be used for intraspinal micro-stimulation.
The FLAMES is a semiconductor device controlled remotely by an optical fiber attached to a low power near-infrared laser. After the device is implanted, the patient can push a button on an external unit to activate the laser wirelessly.
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Early Research on Micro-Electric Stimulators for Spinal Cord Injury Patients Promising
Written by Laura Miller | October 18, 2011
A researcher in the department of engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology recently studied and presented his findings on treating patients with spinal cord injuries with micro-electrical stimulators, according to an NJIT news release.
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