Optimisation of signal processing and electrical stimulation algorithms for the abatement of epileptic seizures. Epilepsy is the second-most common neurological disorder behind stroke and ischemic attacks, affecting 1-2 per cent of the nation's population. Pharmaceutical therapies are ineffective in approximately one third of cases, the result being a large unmet need for novel treatments. The devices to be produced through this project will improve the quality of life of many patients in the fu ....Optimisation of signal processing and electrical stimulation algorithms for the abatement of epileptic seizures. Epilepsy is the second-most common neurological disorder behind stroke and ischemic attacks, affecting 1-2 per cent of the nation's population. Pharmaceutical therapies are ineffective in approximately one third of cases, the result being a large unmet need for novel treatments. The devices to be produced through this project will improve the quality of life of many patients in the future and alleviate their dependence on traditional medications. The devices will also reduce the patients' requirements for medical practitioners, hospital and ambulance services, and will therefore also reduce the financial burden that neurological and epilepsy patients place on the community.Read moreRead less
Neural Activity Shaping for Retinal and Cochlear Implants. This project aims to develop methods to control and optimise the spatial patterns of neural activity evoked by neural prostheses in order to improve the resolution of neuroprostheses. A major problem for neural prostheses is that the electrical current used to stimulate neurons causes a diffuse spread of activity in the neural tissue, which limits the resolution of the device. For patients this translates into limitations in sound qualit ....Neural Activity Shaping for Retinal and Cochlear Implants. This project aims to develop methods to control and optimise the spatial patterns of neural activity evoked by neural prostheses in order to improve the resolution of neuroprostheses. A major problem for neural prostheses is that the electrical current used to stimulate neurons causes a diffuse spread of activity in the neural tissue, which limits the resolution of the device. For patients this translates into limitations in sound quality, in the case of cochlea implants, or visual acuity, for retinal implants. The outcome of the project will be algorithms that optimally choose the currents on each electrode so as to shape neural activity at the finer resolution of electrode spacing rather than the coarser resolution of current spread.Read moreRead less
Modelling of neural plasticity for enhanced performance of brain-machine interfaces. Plasticity of the brain is one of the great scientific challenges of neuroscience. The aim of this project is to model the synaptic changes that occur with reward-modulated spike-timing-dependent plasticity and apply the model to developing plasticity targeted brain-machine interfaces. The significance of this approach is that such plasticity targeted techniques provide the prospect of taking advantage of the un ....Modelling of neural plasticity for enhanced performance of brain-machine interfaces. Plasticity of the brain is one of the great scientific challenges of neuroscience. The aim of this project is to model the synaptic changes that occur with reward-modulated spike-timing-dependent plasticity and apply the model to developing plasticity targeted brain-machine interfaces. The significance of this approach is that such plasticity targeted techniques provide the prospect of taking advantage of the underlying neural plasticity to optimise the form of the neural recording and electrical stimulation. The outcomes will be to greatly improve the performance of brain-machine interface in terms of measures such as the number and sensitivity of channels, as well as robustness and reliability.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100117
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Allosteric fingerprinting of G protein-coupled receptor monomers and oligomers. Allosteric modulation describes interactions between distinct, but conformationally linked, binding sites. Research will develop enabling technology using the unique profile, or 'fingerprint', of allosteric modulation at interacting and non-interacting G protein-coupled receptors to probe for receptor complexes within healthy and diseased tissue.
Regulation of neurite outgrowth by an inhibitor of PI3K signalling. PIPP is an enzyme which inhibits important cellular functions such as cell maturation. We have shown the amount of PIPP is increased in Alzheimer's disease brains. This project will characterise the mechanisms by which PIPP regulates brain cell function to identify how PIPP may be acting to exacerbate Alzheimer's disease development/progression.