Griffith University, Queensland, has secured a $2 million grant from the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC) for “BioSpine: the Personalised Digital Twin for Thought-driven Electromechanical Assistive Neurorehabilitation Devices” program.
The state’s first quadriplegic medical graduate, Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM, now a lecturer at Griffith School of Medicine, a Research Fellow at Menzies Health Institute and a junior doctor at Gold Coast University Hospital, will lead the BioSpine research team along with Dr Claudio Pizzolato.
“We are using thought control, electrical stimulation, and drug therapy in an attempt to restore function in paralysis,” said Dr Dinesh Palipana.
“Imagine using your mind to drive movement in your muscles despite previously insurmountable obstacles like quadriplegia”.
Professor David Lloyd, a biomechanical engineer who co-developed Griffith University’s Advanced Design and Prototype Technologies Institute (ADaPT), says the project has the potential to completely transform the way spinal injury patients are rehabilitated.
The flagship project is one of many being pursued by Professor’s Lloyd’s team within an international group of more than 90 collaborators developing next-generation intelligent approaches to training, treatment, surgery planning and rehabilitation.
Read the full story here: https://news.griffith.edu.au/2019/11/22/innovative-biospine-program-attracts-2m-grant-from-insurance-commission/