Sensation is the gateway to the human experience.
Mechanosensors are specialized receptors that capture stimuli like stretch and shear, which communicate through afferent neural pathways to shape efferent physiology. For example, in the peripheral neuromusculature, stretch receptors in our muscles tell us about the position and velocity of our muscles and help us balance and move with grace. In the stomach, stretch receptors tell us how much we’ve eaten and trigger hormones to help digest food.
We design neuroprosthetic systems that interface with the body’s nervous system and allow us to restore or augment sensation through artificial stimulation, reconstructive surgical techniques, and intelligent neuromodulation paradigms.
Capitalizing on evolutionarily conserved reflex arcs, we posit that harnessing the body’s own regulatory architecture to coordinate downstream function represents an efficacious strategy to restore or augment neuromuscular function.
Research Areas and Techniques
- Neural Interfaces
- Adaptive Neuromodulation Paradigms
- Quantitative Neurology
- Reconstructive surgical techniques
- Sensory physiology
- Biohybrid Organs
- Enteric neuromodulation
- Ingestible devices
- Minimally invasive neural implants
