A Digitally-Enabled Electroconductive Patient-Specific Stimulation Implant for Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injury (SCI) can severely impact patients, impairing neurological function.

The complex pathophysiology of SCI and the poor growth capacity of neurons results in a multi-faceted challenge to repair.

Lifetime treatment costs for SCI patients can be as high as 2 million and approximately 11,000 new spinal cord injuries occur every year in the EU.

Neuromodulation devices that provide controlled electrical stimuli to enable pain management, aid rehabilitation and represent a growing medical device market, predicted to reach an 83 Bn value by 2030.

This project proposes to combine electrical stimulation for the integration of neuromodulatory functionality with a tailored tissue engineered device to enhance regrowth of injured neurons and restore nerve function.

It builds on the cutting-edge 3D-printing technologies developed during my ReCaP Advanced Grant in order to design a ground-breaking patient-specific implant for the targeted delivery of electrical stimulation to promote SCI repair.

High-resolution imaging of individual patient spinal cord injuries will facilitate 3D printing of an electroconductive implant architecture, filled with a biomimetic regenerative and immunomodulatory biomaterial, that matches both the gross lesion geometry as well as mimicking key aspects of the injured spinal axonal tract anatomy.

The 3D-printed conductive architecture will be geometrically optimized to distribute externally delivered electrical stimulation to neurons throughout the injury maximizing the therapeutic benefits of electrical stimulation. To demonstrate proof-of-concept, DEEPSTIM will develop a prototype for preclinical testing in a rat model of SCI.

The DEEPSTIM team will work with institutional commercialisation teams and seek input from clinical experts to increase the technological readiness level of the platform with the ultimate aim of forming a spin-out company to further develop the technology towards clinical translation.