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Brain diseases cost European healthcare agencies approximately €800 billion each year, but are very poorly understood. Neuroscientists and cyberneticists at the University of Reading study how individual brain cells subserve higher cognitive functions, using brain-computer interfaces to understand how individual cells form neuronal networks. This work has engaged the public imagination through mainstream media, attracted investment from pharmaceutical companies whose drug development programmes demand an understanding of how cellular networks function in the brain and enhanced the use of stem cell derived human neural tissue, thereby enabling a reduction in the use of animals in such research.
Researchers at the Biomedical Research Network (BRN) at The Open University (OU) have developed two novel technologies:
These patented technologies have been adopted by industrial partners, who have either invested in their further development and the automation of the production process to generate neural tissue model kits or have adopted the technology for their own use following licence transfer and/or temporary industrial contracts.
Professor Malcolm Young and colleagues at Newcastle University developed new mathematical and computational tools with which they could analyse large amounts of data on connections in the brain and produce models of how the brain is organised. Young realised that those research tools could also be used to analyse networks of proteins involved in disease processes and predict their susceptibility to drugs and in 2003 he set up the medicines discovery company e-Therapeutics to exploit the technology. The company listed on the AIM of the London Stock Exchange in November 2007 and in May 2013 became the eighth largest company in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical sector listed on the index, with a market capitalisation of over £90 million.
The Centre for Robotics and Neural Systems (CRNS) uses its research to address societal challenges, both nationally and internationally. It notably responds to practical problems and evaluates its robotics research in the real world, exposing it to use and users beyond the lab. This has generated both economic and social impact in clinical practice, education, entertainment and outreach: the use of robot companions for patients and disabled users; inspiration of school-children; engagement of thousands with the possibilities of robotics through high-profile robot competitions. Economic impact is reflected by commercial investment, and world-wide sales of robotics technologies by spin-off companies.
ARTICULATED HEAD (2010-) and EAR ON ARM (2006-) reflect interconnected but different projects within Stelarc's research into alternate anatomical architectures. The ARTICULATED HEAD is the robotic embodiment of Stelarc's Prosthetic Head, a conversational agent that speaks to the person who interrogates it. It was a finalist for the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards 2010 and was exhibited at Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, for two years from January 2011, attracting an estimated 1.8 million visitors.
EAR ON ARM is the first instance of an artist having an ear surgically constructed and cell-grown on his arm and has been disseminated globally through museum, festival, and media representations. In 2010 EAR ON ARM was awarded the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica.
Within the art and medical communities, both projects have been acknowledged as pioneering innovations in the conceptualisation and realisation of biotechnological and engineering-based art and media attention for the projects has brought the research to a worldwide public.
This research developed brain-computer interfacing technology, which has enabled people with severe physical disability to interact with and create music. Professor Eduardo Miranda and his team built and trialled a proof-of-concept device for patients suffering from almost total paralysis of the body. Locally, this has significantly improved the quality of life for one individual and changed the attitudes of hospital staff. More widely, it is informing the further development of assistive BCMI technology and contributing to on-going and emergent impact in musical creativity that engenders new ways of thinking about the potential relationships between science, technology and music.
Pioneering research in miniature in-vitro microfluidic diagnostic systems at the University of Southampton has produced major economic impacts by driving new business activities in major multinational corporations. Philips Research Cambridge are investing £5 million p.a. and employing 12 FTEs to develop new Point of Care systems for rapid diagnosis and management of disease based on the research. Patented advances in electronic fluid-handling technologies is driving £3 million R&D investment in Sharp Labs Europe in partnership with Southampton to develop a rapid assay platform for prompt detection of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. Health impacts from the research are the provision of new home based diagnostics that provide targeted and early risk identification resulting in improved patient healthcare and reduced costs.
The clinical research of the UCL Unit of Functional Neurosurgery has led to improvements in the operative technique of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) with clear and demonstrable impact on patient outcomes with respect to efficacy, safety, and adverse event profiles. Our published data have been described by an independent editorial as a new "Benchmark for Functional Neurosurgery". Our Unit's excellent safety record has led to an ever-growing number of referrals, has allowed us to trial DBS for new indications, and has prompted visits from a succession of international specialists who seek to learn and disseminate our practice in their centres.
For stroke patients and any patient undergoing surgery the time period from diagnosis to treatment is a major factor in clinical outcomes. Research carried out at the University of Warwick has led to the development of sensors that can be used to measure, in whole unprocessed blood, diagnostically useful analytes that can be used to select the best therapeutic treatments. Point-of- care diagnosis and prompt referral to an appropriate care pathway, facilitated by the use of biosensors, will result in efficiency savings for healthcare professionals and the NHS in the long- term, and will also improve patient outcomes. To commercialize these biosensors, Sarissa Biomedical Ltd was founded in 2002, as a UK-based spinout from the University of Warwick. Sarissa sells, around the world, microelectrode biosensors fabricated by a unique enzyme deposition technology protected by patents filed in 2004 and 2008 by the University of Warwick. The diagnostic sensors are based on technology that incorporates Ruthenium Purple and use a sol-gel coating to entrap enzymes on a microelectrode. Sarissa is pursuing human trials of its biosensors as diagnostic tools in two main areas: stroke, and trauma with associated sepsis.
Collaboration between Imperial College Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Surgery led to the development of active constraint robot solutions which augment surgeon skills so that joint replacement components are implanted accurately and successfully. This led to the founding of Acrobot to develop innovative surgical technologies. Acrobot was acquired by Stanmore Implants Worldwide in 2010. An orthopaedic stereotaxic instrument, based on Imperial research, obtained US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance in 2013. This has led to Mako-Surgical purchasing Stanmore Implants Acrobot technology in April 2013.