Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering

Prospective Faculty Seminar

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

9:30-10:20am

MJIS 1001 or Via Zoom:

https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/j/95150439811?pwd=a3hOK0o0bmpkS3poTVBCbVhDNU9FZz09

 Neural Regulation of Abnormal Organ Physiology with Smart Bioelectronics

Matthew P Ward, PhD

Research Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Purdue University 

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine

Gastrointestinal Motility and Neurogastroenterology Unit

Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Indiana University School of Medicine

Abstract: Peripheral nerve stimulation is a last-resort, device-based treatment option for many patients whose symptoms are not well managed with pharmacotherapy or other first-line treatments. Using a pacemaker-like device, electrical impulses are delivered to a nerve in an open-loop manner to help manage treatment-resistant physiological or psychological disorders such as pain, autoimmune diseases, major depression, PTSD, epilepsy and others. The best-performing devices provide >50% symptom reduction, but only after 12-24 months and in <50% of subjects. The major problem: Virtually all neurostimulators treat the electrical stimulus waveform as a universal dosing element, even though the intent of these devices is to regulate function(s) in the organ(s)/tissue(s) supplied by the nerve. Furthermore, existing devices stimulate at fixed frequencies (e.g., 10 or 20 Hz), altogether ignoring the opportunity to stimulate the intended nerve fibers in a pattern that matches their innate “neural code” (i.e., language). We first need to learn how to measure, decode and control the activity of discrete fiber bundles in a nerve before we can control the physiological functions they supply. Optimal control over organ physiology (e.g., stomach, heart, lungs) will require biomimetic, temporally-patterned microstimulation, tuned on-the-fly to recruit only the nerve fibers involved in regulating the functions of interest. In this talk, I will present several innovations that our lab has developed to realize this vision of “smart bioelectronics,” along with pre-clinical and clinical study results.

In the first part of my talk, I will briefly describe 1) patented statistical learning algorithms designed to autonomously provide rapid, fiber diameter-selective control over any nerve fiber subpopulation in a nerve using feedback from the nerve and downstream effectors, 2) widely-distributed, open-source software that automates neuromodulation experiments and simplifies novel biomarker discovery, 3) a hybrid computational model of the compound nerve action potential (CNAP) that allows one to predict nerve responses from fiber morphometry data or vice-versa, and 4) results from recent studies that utilized these technologies. In the second part of my talk, I will describe 1) promising results from a series of noninvasive vagal neuromodulation studies in healthy human subjects, 2) exciting results that define a template for a closed-loop gastric electrical stimulation (GES) device for gastroparesis symptom management, and 3) other applications of these tools and technologies that we will develop over the next 5-10 years. 

Bio: Matthew P. Ward (he/him/his) received his B.Sc. degree in Biomedical Engineering and Ph.D. degree in Neural Engineering from Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN). He is a bilingual, first-generation immigrant from South Africa, the first engineer in his immediate/extended family, and the first to receive his PhD.

Dr. Ward has spent the last decade developing tools and technologies that use real-time physiological feedback and learning algorithms to derive the mechanism(s)-of-action of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) for numerous medical applications, including bioelectronic treatments for epilepsy, depression, autoimmune inflammatory disorders and gastroparesis. In 2014/2017, he was inducted into the Purdue Innovators Hall of Fame for his work in self-optimizing neural interfaces for implantable and wearable bioelectronics. In 2020, Dr. Ward was recognized as a Top Faculty Innovator at Purdue. Since starting in his position as Research Assistant Professor in 2016, Dr. Ward’s lab has received almost $3.5 Million in NIH and other research funding, has received numerous patents in the US and abroad, and has grown a strong, highly-productive translational research program through collaborations with clinician-researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

~BME Host: Vitaliy Rayz~