GCR: Reprogramming Biological Neural Networks with Field-Based Engineered Systems

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Despite enormous advances in recent years to develop neuroprosthetics to bypass damaged areas of the Central Nervous System (CNS), these devices fail to halt the progression of the underlying degenerative diseases for which they were designed. Moreover, there are no effective therapies for many of the neurodegenerative conditions that affect, for example, the eye or the brain, and the humanitarian and economic impact of blinding diseases and dementia are enormous, with underrepresented groups particularly impacted by these conditions. The goal of this project is to enable restoration of function to the CNS by therapies that promote the repair and regeneration of damaged neurons and neural networks instead of bypassing damaged areas. To achieve this goal of delaying vision loss and neural degeneration in dementia through devices this team brings together engineers, surgeons, neuroscientists and big data/imaging scientists. This research team will devise and optimize, experimentally and computationally, the electrical stimulation waveform characteristics needed to reprogram damaged neural network morphologies; create, “first of its kind” complete mesoscale connectivity atlases of the global neural networks exposed to electric fields and field gradients; develop predictive multiscale computational models of neural activity in healthy, degenerated and electrically stimulated neural networks; and design and engineer programmable implantable electronic systems for the acute neurostimulation of the neural tissue. The utility of the tools developed in the proposed effort will be enhanced by end-users providing design input, thus facilitating fully integrated, mutually beneficial, sustained convergent collaborations that are needed to develop the therapeutic opportunities of the next generation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.