Research Career Scientist

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The over-arching goal of the Nominee’s, Richard F. ff. Weir, PhD, research is to improve the quality-of-life of veterans and individuals with limb loss. Upper-limb prosthetics research is an area of particular interest and relevance to VA. The Nominee and his team at the laboratory, the VA/CU Biomechatronics Development Laboratory, seek to improve the prosthetic options available to veterans with limb loss through the application of novel approaches and innovative technology to the development of clinically relevant prosthetic systems and solutions. The Nominee has been in the field of Prosthesis design and Rehabilitation Research in one form or another (Student, Post-doc, Scientist, Mentor) for over 25 years and has maintained extramural funding and developed a large network of collaborators in that time. The Nominee holds joint appointments at both VA as a Research Career Scientist and UC Denver|Anschtuz Medical Center in the Bioengineering Department. The Nominee currently mentors 1 CDA2 Candidate, 4 PhD candidates and 4 MS candidates and has mentored another 2 CDA Candidates, 8 PhD candidates and 22 MS candidates. The Nominee has aided and supported trainees in identifying and transitioning into translational careers. While it is a personal goal of the Nominee to be able to develop an artificial hand replacement capable of true dexterous manipulation for use by persons with upper-limb loss the Nominee and his team explore all aspects of the problem ranging from neural control and sensing; mechatronic design and development; novel actuator technologies; novel physical suspension/interface techniques; clinical deployment of these systems; methods to manage phantom limb pain; conducting clinical testing of the systems developed. The Nominee has had numerous contracts and grants to develop advanced limb systems for several different Federal agencies including VA, NIH, and DARPA. Over that time, in addition to being a VA Researcher and academic researcher, the Nominee completed the training required to become a clinical prosthetist, was National Director of Research for Advanced Arm Dynamics (AAD) for 2 years, (AAD is a national provider of upper-limb prosthetics care) and most recently founded Point Designs, LLC, as a conduit for translation of his Laboratory’s developments. It is these clinical experiences that inform the Nominee’s belief he should explore and provide practical solutions for immediately pressing clinical problems while also exploring ideas that push the envelope of current technology. The Nominee’s VA projects aim to address issues of more immediate clinical relevance like our project to develop artificial fingers suitable for women veterans [2I01RX002830(Weir)] while at the same time- exploring via a VA SPiRE [IK21RX003471(Weir)] using blood sugar as a fuel for a novel implanted fuel cell. Much of the Nominee’s non-VA research is centered around using optics to interrogate nerves. True dexterous manipulation needs sensory feedback (touch, pressure, force). Thus, a bidirectional control interface is needed, one for motor commands and one for sensation. The Nominee is exploring the use of optogenetic methods to non-invasively excite action potentials within neurons as a means of creating sensory percepts. Optogenetic neuromodulation of the vagus nerve has the potential for board reaching impact and indeed we have a VA SPiRE to explore optical modulation of the vagus as a potential treatment paradigm for PTSD [I21RX003894- 01(Fontaine)]. Another recent collaboration is one with Dr. Paul Cederna to develop a surface myoelectric sensor for his Regenerative peripheral nerve interface (RPNI) this is exciting because it looks like prophylactic use of RPNI’s with cut nerves might help mitigate phantom limb pain, a primary driver of prosthesis rejection, while at the same time creating/providing additional independent control sites. The barrier to using RPNI for control has been the need for some sort of implanted sensor [CDMRP W81XWH2110771(Kemp)]. All in all, I believe we are doing exciting and relevant research and to have the protected effort this VA RR&D RCS award provides has been truly enabling.