I-Corps: minimally invasive deep brain stimulation using temporally interfering electromagnetic waves

I-Corps：使用时间干扰电磁波进行微创深部脑刺激

• 批准号: 2328599
• 负责人: Behnaam Aazhang
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: William Marsh Rice University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-06-01 至 2024-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2328599&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; minimally; invasive; deep; brain

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is that it aims to restore the autonomy of patients with Parkinson's disease by improving their physical well-being, easing the costs associated with caregiving, and preventing the loss of employment. The current approach to treating medication-resistant Parkinson's disease, called Deep Brain Stimulation, requires electrode implantation inside the brain tissue that creates potential for surgical complications like intracranial hemorrhage or stroke. The proposed project provides a minimally-invasive way to stimulate the brain continuously. The stimulation device is best suited for treating patients with Parkinson's disease due to its continuously operable and portable nature. The technology may also effectively treat disorders like essential tremor, epilepsy, and depression, which are traditional candidates for deep brain stimulation surgery. This methodology can open a new chapter in neuromodulation technologies by offering benefits not shared by prior methodologies of electrical stimulation. This could have a huge social impact as, according to the Parkinson’s Foundation, there are 10 million Parkinson's disease patients globally. Specifically, one million patients in the US live with Parkinson's disease, and nearly 90,000 patients are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease yearly. In the US, the healthcare costs associated with Parkinson's disease are estimated to be $52 billion a year.This I-Corps project is based on the development of brain stimulation implants that use the superposition of two similar giga-hertz electromagnetic waves, transmitted by endocranially implanted antenna arrays, for creating a low-frequency envelop signal to stimulate deep brain targets in a highly focused, and yet minimally invasive fashion. The stimulation is based on the following key factors: i) GHz EM waves can be radiated very effectively using antennas, a mature and cost-effective technology. Since the size of an antenna is inversely proportional to the operating frequency, one can use very small antennas at GHz frequencies. (ii) Multiple single antennas can be grouped together to create an antenna array. The higher the number of antennas in an array, the narrower the stimulating beams becomes, penetrating deeper into the brain tissue. (iii) Due to the small wavelength of GHz EM waves, the stimulation offers twice the degrees-of-freedom as prior brain stimulation technologies to achieve focal brain stimulation. (iv) Additionally, one can stimulate multiple targets inside the brain tissue without changing the location of the antenna arrays. This is significantly more flexible than state-of-the-art invasive electrodes for brain stimulation.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.

该 I-Corps 项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力在于，它旨在通过改善帕金森病患者的身体健康、减轻与护理相关的成本以及防止失业来恢复他们的自主权。治疗耐药性帕金森病的方法称为深部脑刺激，需要将电极植入脑组织内，这可能会导致颅内出血或中风等手术并发症。该项目提供了一种持续刺激大脑的微创方法。由于其连续操作和便携式特性，刺激装置最适合治疗帕金森病患者，该技术还可以有效治疗特发性震颤、癫痫和抑郁症等疾病，这些疾病是深部脑刺激手术的传统候选者。神经调节技术的新篇章提供了以前电刺激方法所没有的好处，这可能会产生巨大的社会影响，因为根据帕金森病基金会的数据，全球有 1000 万帕金森病患者，具体来说，在美国有 100 万患者。居住帕金森病，每年有近 90,000 名患者被诊断患有帕金森病。在美国，与帕金森病相关的医疗费用估计每年达 520 亿美元。I-Corps 项目基于脑刺激植入物的开发。使用两个相似的千兆赫兹电磁波的叠加，通过颅内植入的天线阵列发射，产生低频包络信号，以高度集中的方式刺激深部大脑目标，以及这种刺激基于以下关键因素： i) 使用天线可以非常有效地辐射 GHz 电磁波，这是一种成熟且经济高效的技术，因为天线的尺寸与工作频率成反比。可以使用 GHz 频率的非常小的天线。 (iii) 由于 GHz 电磁波的波长较小，刺激的自由度是现有脑刺激技术的两倍，以实现局灶性脑刺激 (iv) 此外，可以在不改变脑组织内部的多个目标的情况下进行刺激。这比用于脑刺激的最先进的侵入式电极更加灵活。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估，被认为值得支持。标准。