The National Institutes of Health has awarded the University of Louisville (Ky.) and Medtronic a $7.8 million grant to study epidural stimulation for the treatment of spinal cord injury.
Medtronic will work with scientists from the university to develop software applications for spinal cord injury that integrate with its Intellis spinal cord stimulator system.
The five-year project will focus on developing technology to improve control of locomotor and bladder function.
Research will be conducted at the university's Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center.
Maxwell Boakye, MD, neurosurgeon and clinical director of the center, will lead the project with Claudia Angeli, PhD, director of the center's epidural stimulation program.
"Integrating multiple systems will allow people with chronic spinal cord injuries to benefit from stimulation on a daily basis by reducing the need to monitor and manually revise stimulation settings," Dr. Angeli said.