Last year we announced the start of Emory’s ENTICe (Emory Neuromodulation and Technology Innovation Center) program in a blog with the goal to advance the understanding and effectiveness of neuromodulation therapies in order improve treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Over the past few months, ENTICe has been moving forward with their program at a rapid clip and laying a solid foundation for innovation in the area of Parkinson’s disease treatments.
In December of last year, ENTICe held their first Innovation Forum with both scientists and engineers from Emory and Georgia Tech in attendance. During the first forum, Drs. Mahlon Delong, Robert Gross, and Thomas Wichmann provided a general overview of Parkinson’s Disease pathology, symptoms, and current treatment options, including L-DOPA, anticholinergics, thalamotomy, and palidotomy. Two months later, in February of this year, ENTICe held its next Innovation Forum in conjunction with Georgia Tech’s sister program. At this forum, Dr. Robert Gross spoke more about strength and weakness in current therapeutic approaches as well as how deep brain stimulation (DBS) is currently used to treat Parkinson’s, neurostimulatory devices are implanted, and stimulation for those devices is programmed.
The session was followed by an open discussion full of thought-provoking questions raised by the engineers and neuroscientists in attendance. Bringing together basic scientists and engineers provided an opportunity to see how different disciplines think about and approach the problems put forth. It is this type of collaboration and mixing of approaches that ENTICe aims to leverage in moving neuromodulation technologies forward.
The next step of the ENTICe program involves participating engineers submitting proposals for projects around neurostimulation treatments for Parkinson’s, be it in the area of software or devices. These proposals will be evaluated by the board of ENTICe and those selected will be provided with resources and support. We look forward to seeing some new and innovative ideas come from these great meetings!