PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Shirley Ryan AbilityLab receives department of defense grant for first-of-its-kind study on neurally controlled bionic legs with osseointegration

Study has potential to restore intuitive control and comfort for those with lower-limb amputations

2023-02-28
(Press-News.org) CHICAGO — Feb. 28, 2023 — Today, millions of individuals across the world live with limb loss, including thousands of combat-injured service men and women. Although significant progress has been made in the durability, control and function of prosthetic devices, they lack complete integration into the body.

Now, with the award of a $1.5 million grant from the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP), Shirley Ryan AbilityLab — the top-ranked physical medicine and rehabilitation hospital — and its research partners have an opportunity to significantly advance the field of bionics by applying osseointegration in a novel manner.

Osseointegration is a technique whereby a metal implant is surgically attached to person’s residual bone. The implant then becomes an integrated extension of the body — providing a direct attachment between the bionic and residual limb, without need for a prosthesis socket which can be uncomfortable to wear. The study is the first to combine osseointegration, targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR) and pattern-recognition control to operate a fully powered bionic leg prosthesis.

“It’s this combination of technologies that makes the device ultra-novel, advanced and intuitive,” said Levi Hargrove, the study’s lead researcher and director of the Regenstein Center for Bionic Medicine at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. “We hope that it will enable the bionic limb to feel light, comfortable and to offer unprecedented control for the user. This study builds on decades of our research leadership in bionics and marks a significant step forward in the field of osseointegrated bionic legs.”

Four Years to Unlock the Future of Bionics

As part of the study, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is partnering with Integrum, a Swedish company that invented the osseointegration technique, and Northwestern Medicine, which will implant the device and perform targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR) surgery on eight research subjects. Additionally, the study builds on existing collaborations with researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.

TMR is a revolutionary surgical technique — that was developed by collaborators at Northwestern Medicine and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab — to allow those with amputations control of bionic prostheses. Following the surgeries, the research team will lead clinical trials to evaluate the comfort and function of the osseointegrated bionic legs in comparison to socket-based technologies.

“We are very excited to embark on this opportunity with our partners in Chicago, and hope that this is just the beginning of more extensive collaborations,” said Rickard Branemark, CEO and founder of Integrum AB. 

About Shirley Ryan AbilityLab

Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, formerly the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), is the global leader in physical medicine and rehabilitation for adults and children with the most severe, complex conditions — from traumatic brain and spinal cord injury to stroke, amputation and cancer-related impairment. The organization expands and accelerates leadership in the field that began at RIC in 1953. The quality of its care has led to the designation of “No. 1 Rehabilitation Hospital in America” by U.S. News & World Report every year since 1991. Upon opening in March 2017, the $550 million, 1.2-million-square-foot Shirley Ryan AbilityLab became the first-ever “translational” research hospital in which clinicians, scientists, innovators and technologists work together in the same space, surrounding patients, discovering new approaches and applying (or “translating”) research real time. This unique model enables patients to have 24/7 access to the brightest minds, the latest research and the best opportunity for recovery. Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization. For more information, go to www.sralab.org. 

About Integrum

Integrum AB is a publicly traded company (INTEG B: Nasdaq First North Growth Market) based outside of Gothenburg, Sweden, with a U.S. subsidiary in San Francisco, CA. Since 1990, osseointegration, the science behind the OPRA™ Implant System, has been helping individuals with amputations enjoy a dramatically improved quality of life. Thorough surgical experience gained over more than three decades, from more than 500 surgeries, in 14 countries, has led to the development of Integrum’s system for bone-anchored prostheses — a vastly superior alternative to the traditionally used socket prosthesis. For more information, please visit www.integrum.se.

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

BU researchers receive $1.3m EPA grant to advance climate resilience among Mystic River communities

2023-02-28
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 28, 2023 Contact: Jillian McKoy, jpmckoy@bu.edu Michael Saunders, msaunder@bu.edu ## BU Researchers Receive $1.3M EPA Grant to Advance Climate Resilience among Mystic River Communities The three-year project aims to identify and address the cumulative impacts of chemical hazards and climate change that affect the 21 communities surrounding the Mystic River Watershed. The 21 communities that surround Greater Boston’s Mystic River Watershed are exposed to many of the central threats of climate change, including urban heat islands and coastal and inland flooding, while also confronting multiple chemical exposures. Now, with ...

Artificial intelligence with a human touch

Artificial intelligence with a human touch
2023-02-28
Despite the remarkable progress in artificial intelligence (AI), several studies show that AI systems do not improve radiologists' diagnostic performance. In fact, diagnostic errors contribute to 40,000 - 80,000 deaths annually in U.S. hospitals. This lapse creates a pressing need: Build next-generation computer-aided diagnosis algorithms that are more interactive to fully realize the benefits of AI in improving medical diagnosis.  That’s just what Hien Van Nguyen, University of Houston associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, is doing with a new $933,812 grant from the National Cancer Institute. He will focus on ...

Compression treatment could relieve horses’ painful swollen limbs

Compression treatment could relieve horses’ painful swollen limbs
2023-02-28
Researchers from North Carolina State University have taken technology aimed at helping humans suffering from lymphedema – in which the accumulation of excess lymph fluid causes swollen limbs – and developed a medical device to aid horses suffering from the same condition. In a pilot study the device, called the EQ Press, was successful in moving fluid up the limbs and into the lymph nodes. This could lead to relief for horses with chronic conditions, as well as with temporary swelling due to injury or inactivity. “Across the board, ...

Jurassic shark – Shark from the Jurassic period was already highly evolved

Jurassic shark – Shark from the Jurassic period was already highly evolved
2023-02-28
Cartilaginous fish have changed much more in the course of their evolutionary history than previously believed. Evidence for this thesis has been provided by new fossils of a ray-like shark, Protospinax annectans, which demonstrate that sharks were already highly evolved in the Late Jurassic. This is the result of a recent study by an international research group led by palaeobiologist Patrick L. Jambura from the Department of Palaeontology at the University of Vienna, which was recently published in the journal Diversity. Cartilaginous fishes (sharks, rays, and ratfish) ...

Flower power: Research highlights the role of ants in forest regeneration

Flower power: Research highlights the role of ants in forest regeneration
2023-02-28
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Ants play a key role in forest regeneration, according to a new paper from Binghamton University, State University of New York. Walk through an old growth forest in early spring, and you’ll be dazzled by wildflowers, their jewel-like tones shining from the forest floor. But in newer forests, spring ephemerals such as trillium, wild ginger, violets and bloodroot are in shorter supply. The reason may lie with some less-flashy forest residents: Aphaenogaster sp., or the woodland ant. “Not a lot of people have heard of them, but they are ...

StemJournal welcomes new Co-Editor-in-Chief Giorgia Quadrato, PhD

StemJournal welcomes new Co-Editor-in-Chief Giorgia Quadrato, PhD
2023-02-28
Amsterdam, NL, February 28, 2023 – StemJournal (STJ), published by IOS Press, is pleased to announce the appointment of new co-Editor-in-Chief, Giorgia Quadrato, PhD, effective immediately. Dr. Quadrato joins co-Editor-in-Chief Niels Geijsen, PhD, and an eminent international editorial board, who are dedicated to the success of the world’s international journal in stem cell research and therapy, and part of IOS Press’ StemHub. An outstanding scientist and researcher, Giorgia Quadrato, is an Assistant Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine ...

HIV reservoirs are established earlier than expected

HIV reservoirs are established earlier than expected
2023-02-28
Montreal, February 28, 2023—For the first time in humans, a research team has shown that, as early as the first days of infection, HIV is able to create reservoirs where it will hide and persist during antiretroviral therapy. Until now, the scientific community did not know exactly when or how these viral reservoirs—the existence of which is a major obstacle to curing HIV—are established in human beings. In a study published in the journal Immunity, scientists led by Nicolas Chomont, a researcher at the CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM) and professor at Université de Montréal, found ...

Social media posts around solar geoengineering ‘spill over’ into conspiracy theories

2023-02-28
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have analysed more than 800,000 tweets and found that negative emotions expressed about geoengineering – the idea that the climate can be altered using technology – can easily fall into conspiracy. The researchers analysed tweets 2009 and 2021 tagged with #geoengineering. They used a combination of natural language processing, deep learning and network analysis to explore how public emotions, perceptions and attitudes have changed over a 13-year period. The researchers found that there is a large amount of ‘spillover’ between geoengineering ...

Your gut’s microbiome, on a chip

Your gut’s microbiome, on a chip
2023-02-28
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2023 – The gut is one of the most complex organs in the body. Inside, it teems with a diverse microbial population that interacts and cooperates with intestinal cells to digest food and drugs. Disruptions in this microbiome have strong links to a wide spectrum of diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, asthma, and even psychological and behavioral disorders. Valid models of the gut are therefore immensely useful for understanding its function and associated ailments. In APL Bioengineering, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National ...

Portable breath-based volatile organic compound monitoring for detection of COVID-19

2023-02-28
About The Study: The findings of this diagnostic study with 167 participants suggest that breath analysis has promise for COVID-19 detection. However, similar to rapid antigen testing, the emergence of new variants poses diagnostic challenges. The results of this study warrant additional evaluation on how to overcome these challenges to use breath analysis to improve the diagnosis and care of patients.  Authors: Xudong Fan, Ph.D., and Kevin R. Ward, M.D., of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, are the corresponding authors.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Post-LLM era: New horizons for AI with knowledge, collaboration, and co-evolution

“Sloshing” from celestial collisions solves mystery of how galactic clusters stay hot

Children poisoned by the synthetic opioid, fentanyl, has risen in the U.S. – eight years of national data shows

USC researchers observe mice may have a form of first aid

VUMC to develop AI technology for therapeutic antibody discovery

Unlocking the hidden proteome: The role of coding circular RNA in cancer

Advancing lung cancer treatment: Understanding the differences between LUAD and LUSC

Study reveals widening heart disease disparities in the US

The role of ubiquitination in cancer stem cell regulation

New insights into LSD1: a key regulator in disease pathogenesis

Vanderbilt lung transplant establishes new record

Revolutionizing cancer treatment: targeting EZH2 for a new era of precision medicine

Metasurface technology offers a compact way to generate multiphoton entanglement

Effort seeks to increase cancer-gene testing in primary care

Acoustofluidics-based method facilitates intracellular nanoparticle delivery

Sulfur bacteria team up to break down organic substances in the seabed

Stretching spider silk makes it stronger

Earth's orbital rhythms link timing of giant eruptions and climate change

Ammonia build-up kills liver cells but can be prevented using existing drug

New technical guidelines pave the way for widespread adoption of methane-reducing feed additives in dairy and livestock

Eradivir announces Phase 2 human challenge study of EV25 in healthy adults infected with influenza

New study finds that tooth size in Otaria byronia reflects historical shifts in population abundance

nTIDE March 2025 Jobs Report: Employment rate for people with disabilities holds steady at new plateau, despite February dip

Breakthrough cardiac regeneration research offers hope for the treatment of ischemic heart failure

Fluoride in drinking water is associated with impaired childhood cognition

New composite structure boosts polypropylene’s low-temperature toughness

While most Americans strongly support civics education in schools, partisan divide on DEI policies and free speech on college campuses remains

Revolutionizing surface science: Visualization of local dielectric properties of surfaces

LearningEMS: A new framework for electric vehicle energy management

Nearly half of popular tropical plant group related to birds-of-paradise and bananas are threatened with extinction

[Press-News.org] Shirley Ryan AbilityLab receives department of defense grant for first-of-its-kind study on neurally controlled bionic legs with osseointegration
Study has potential to restore intuitive control and comfort for those with lower-limb amputations