Trials set for chip implants

Computer-chip implants intended to read the minds of the disabled and translate their thoughts into action were developed with the help of a University of Utah professor and are being manufactured at the U.'s Research Park.

"I'm really excited about it. I'm optimistic about what the future might have in store for the technology," U. bioengineering professor Richard Normann said of a just-announced clinical trial of a new product based on his research.

The product, BrainGate, from Massachusetts-based Cyberkinetics Inc., will be tested this year on five paralyzed volunteers at Brown University in Rhode Island. It could be available to the public as soon as 2007, Cyberkinetics President Tim Surgenor said Wednesday.

The implanted device is intended to give the severely disabled the ability to operate a computer through what the New York Times described, in breaking the news of the project earlier this week, as "a kind of neural remote control."

By substituting brainwaves for hands, those fitted with the implant should be able to command the computer to perform tasks such as turning on a light, using, in effect, their memories of how their bodies once moved.

The technology has been tested at Brown University in able-bodied monkeys whose brain activity was monitored as they moved a computer cursor. The animals were able to play video games without using any motion, Surgenor said.

"There are lots of applications. Once this becomes successful, I think it will be very helpful for people. It could be a huge breakthrough at this point," he said. "That's why we're so excited about it."

There is hope that the implants could eventually allow the disabled to regain the use of their limbs. Normann, who said the idea for the implants is about 15 years old, said he hopes the technology someday can be used to allow the blind to see and the deaf to hear.

"It's not going to happen in the next couple of years. Maybe my students may be able to make that happen. Maybe it will be their students," Normann said. He called the BrainGate project "only the tip of the iceberg" for restoring motor functions.

Surgenor said the focus of Cyberkinetics was to develop a marketable product, estimating the company could be worth as much as $100 million if it is successful. The New York Times reported the 3-year-old company has raised $9 million for the project.

Surgenor was in Salt Lake City to visit the Cyberkinetics facility in Research Park, where a staff of 20 people make the four-millimeter-square chips that will be used in the clinical trial expected to start soon.

"This facility is critical," Surgenor said. "It's a great partnership and we worked hard to make it successful. As you can see, there's a lot of technology here, a lot of equipment and a lot of really skilled people."

The Utah plant was started by Normann as Bionic Technologies but merged with Cyberkinetics in 2002. Bionic Technologies had done business with researchers at Brown University, where BrainGate was developed.

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