UNBF Biomedical Research Team Participates in Revolutionary Prosthetics Program

September 28, 2006

Source: :
http://www.unb.ca/news/view.cgi?id=1108

UNBF Biomedical Research Team Participates in Revolutionary Prosthetics Program

September 28, 2006
UNB Fredericton News Release: D717
Sandra Howland, Public Relations Officer, (506) 458-7968

It’s the stuff that dreams are made of. A research team at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton has the opportunity of a lifetime: to advance the state-of-the-art in prosthetics and to make a real difference in people’s lives.

UNB’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME) has been awarded contracts on two major initiatives sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the United States.

"This is the realization of what we’ve wanted to do at the institute for decades," said Kevin Englehart, leader of the UNB team and associate director of IBME. "To be able to work on projects that realize our research goals — this is as good at as it gets for people who are motivated to transfer research into clinical practice."

Prosthesis 2007, is a two-year project that will dramatically improve the state-of-the-art in upper limb prosthetics. Led by Deka Research in Manchester, N.H., its goal is to produce a limb that will allow a user to simultaneously control a shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand. The UNB team is one of four project partners.

"IBME has a substantial role in Prosthesis 2007," said Dr. Englehart. "We will develop the embedded computer that interprets the muscle activity of the user and relays control information to the prosthesis."

A four-year project entitled Revolutionizing Prosthetics, was awarded to the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The lab team has brought together some of the most respected scientific researchers in their fields — including the UNB team — as well as commercial leaders from the prosthetics industry.

"The goal of this initiative is to develop a prosthetic limb that functions like an intact human limb, in terms of dexterity and sensory perception," explained Dr. Englehart. "It will involve parallel technologies deriving information from the muscles, nerves and brain.

"This is a broader and much more exciting collaboration than we’ve ever been involved in. We’re working with the most talented technical and medical people in North America and together we’ll be aggressively pushing the frontiers of science."

The UNB team was invited to submit proposals for three contracts on each of the two projects, based on its international reputation. Being awarded one contract on each project has opened a world of possibilities.

"We’ve been doing this research for years without the financial means or medical expertise to take it to the next level," said Dr. Englehart. "To redesign the electromechanical systems in the prosthetics and to get the FDA approval to enter into clinical trials would have been impossible without these contracts and partners."

One partner with which the UNB team will be working on both projects is the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the leading rehabilitation hospital in the United States. IBME has been collaborating with the Rehabilitation Institute since 2003 on advanced prosthetic systems.

"They are overwhelmed with the creativity, engineering know-how, and leadership ability of our graduate students and staff who have gone down there," said Dr. Englehart. "Our team is driving the innovation on this collaboration and it is attributable to the undergraduate and graduate education they received at UNB."

Every member of the team has graduated from UNB. They are: biomedical engineers Rosie Buerkle, Dr. Englehart, Erik Scheme, Andrew Sexton and Adam Wilson; and PhD students Levi Hargrove, Ning Jiang and Yves Losier.

"For projects of this magnitude, there is as much work on the administrative side as there is on the research side," said Dr. Englehart. "In addition to our own staff at the institute, the personnel at UNB involved with contract services have been tremendously supportive."

Now that both DARPA projects are well underway, Dr. Englehart is optimistic about the outcomes.

"As an academic and an engineer who’s grounded in practical things, I’m confident that some really good science is going to be done between now and 2009.

"We know we’re going to advance the state-of-the-art — it’s just a matter of by how much. In two years we will make significant advances. In four years, who knows?"

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