Implantable and wearable modular neuroprostheses

Silvestro Micera, Ph.D.

Bertarelli Foundation Chair in Translational Neuroengineering, Engineering Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Abstract: Neuroengineering is a novel discipline combining engineering including micro and nanotechnology, electrical and mechanical, and computer science with cellular, molecular, cognitive neuroscience with two main goals: (i) increase our basic knowledge of how the nervous system works; (ii) develop systems able to restore functions in people affected by different types of neural disability. In the past years, several breakthroughs have been reached by neuroengineers in particular on the development of neurotechnologies able to restore sensorimotor functions in disabled people. 

In this presentation, I will provide several examples on how implantable interfaces can be used to restore sensory (tactile, position, and thermal feedback for hand prostheses, vision), motor (grasping, locomotion), and autonomic functions (for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular problems) and how they can be used also to understand cognitive functions such as language and decision making.

Bio: Silvestro Micera is currently Professor of Bioelectronics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA, Pisa, Italy) and at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Lausanne, Switzerland) where he is holding the Bertarelli Foundation Chair in Translational NeuroEngineering. He received the University degree (Laurea) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pisa, in 1996, and the Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, in 2000. From 2000 to 2009, he was an Assistant Professor of BioRobotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. In 2007, he was a Visiting Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA with a Fulbright Scholarship. From 2008 to 2011 he was the Head of the Neuroprosthesis Control group and Group Leader at the Institute for Automation, ETH Zurich, CH. He was the recipient of the “Early Career Achievement Award” and of the “Technical Achievement Award” of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society in 2009 and 2021, respectively.

Dr. Micera’s research interests include the development of neuroprostheses based on the use of implantable neural interfaces with the central and peripheral nervous systems to restore sensory and motor function in disabled persons.

He is author of more than 400 WoS peer-reviewed papers and several international patents. He is also a member of several editorial boards of peer-reviewed journals in the fields of biomedical and neural engineering. He is the co-founder of several start-ups working on neurotechnologies and wearable systems.