Ougazzaden and Collaborators Awarded ANR Grant for Optically Stimulated Cochlear Implants

For men and women struggling from hearing decline, good news might be on the horizon thanks to chopping-edge optical engineering. The French National Study Agency (ANR) has awarded Abdallah Ougazzaden, professor of Electrical and Laptop or computer Engineering at Ga Tech and president of Georgia Tech-Lorraine, a €560,000 ($560,700) grant to develop technology for a new course of cochlear implants that could be equipped to restore hearing for people.

The undertaking aims to build optically stimulated, lessened-dimension, superior-density cochlear implants with removable LEDs (CORTIORGAN). Job collaborators contain Jean-Paul Salvestrini, director of the Georgia Tech-CNRS IRL 2958 lab and adjunct lecturer in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Paul Voss, affiliate professor in ECE and Suresh Sundaram, adjunct lecturer in ECE.

“CORTIORGAN is having the engineering for cochlear implants in a absolutely new path by means of the optical stimulation of the cochlea with compact, dense, and highly versatile LED implants,” Ougazzaden stated. “In unique, we will use a new semiconductor product – a two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride – that provides about a radical rethinking of present techniques for processing inorganic LED devices.”

The vital technological know-how is based mostly on optogenetics, a groundbreaking organic method that stimulates neurons and other cells with light. The technological innovation has a assortment of health care and neuroscience applications, like sight recovery and blocking pain indicators.

The researchers will use optogenetic solutions to accomplish optical stimulation of auditory nerves instead than standard electrical stimulation. For the reason that tissue inside of the cochlea has substantial electrical conductivity, optical stimulation of nerves can result in improved spatial resolution and hence far better implants. 

CORTIORGAN’s objective is to create detachable ultra-skinny LEDs that can be packaged in cochlear implants. The novel course of action enables the scientists to obtain sizing and versatility needs for cochlear implants that will be inserted into mouse cochlea and tested at the conclusion of the project.

“This innovation will have a robust positive effects on the listening to-impaired by giving them an optical implant with better spatial resolution and increased audio copy fidelity in comparison to current electrical stimulation technologies,” Ougazzaden included. “This optical know-how will open up the door for future neuroscience apps with numerous options for commercialization.”

Other associates include Institut Pasteur, a renowned Paris-based heart for biomedical exploration, and the Centre for Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies (C2N), a collaboration in between the College of Paris-Saclay and the French National Center for Scientific Exploration (CNRS).

Writer: Catherine Barzler