SUNY Downstate Receives $12.8 Million DARPA Contract
May 14, 2010
SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University has been awarded $12.8 million for research on studying the brain’s “plasticity,” or ability to recover from injury.
The newly funded research will create a realistic computational model of the sensorimotor system and deliver a hybrid in silico/biological co-adaptive symbiotic system for rehabilitation.
The contract comes from the federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) through its Reorganization and Plasticity to Accelerate Injury Recovery (REPAIR) program. DARPA’s REPAIR program seeks new methods for analysis and decoding of neural signals in order to understand how neural-based sensory stimulation could be applied to accelerate recovery from brain injury. Joseph Francis, PhD, assistant professor of physiology and pharmacology, is the principal investigator.
The project draws on complex research at SUNY Downstate and at the University of Florida, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of California at Berkley, and from an industry partner, NIRx Medical Technologies. The team includes neuroscientists, biomedical engineers, roboticists, physicians, and clinical scientists.
Downstate scientists working on this project include John Chapin, PhD, professor of physiology and pharmacology, a pioneer with 30 years experience in sensorimotor research; William Lytton, MD, professor of neurology, physiology and pharmacology, and biomedical engineering, a computational neuroscientist who works on large scale simulations and has expertise in supercomputers; and Randall Barbour, PhD, professor of pathology and biophysics, an expert in physical optics, bio-and electrical engineering, and software design.
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About SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University
Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn is one of four academic health centers (AMCs) in The State University of New York (SUNY) 64-campus system and the only SUNY AMC in New York City dedicated to health education, research, and patient care for the borough’s 2.7 million residents. Its flagship hospital, University Hospital at Downstate (UHD), is a teaching hospital and benefits from the expertise of Downstate’s exceptional medical school and world-class academic center research facilities. With a staff of over 800 physicians representing 53 specialties and subspecialties, Downstate offers comprehensive healthcare services to the community.
UHD provides high-risk neonatal and infant services, pediatric nephrology, and dialysis for kidney diseases and is the only kidney transplantation program in Brooklyn. Beyond its clinical expertise, Downstate houses a range of esteemed educational institutions, including its College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, School of Graduate Studies, and School of Public Health. Downstate fosters innovation through its multifaceted biotechnology initiative, the Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT, which support early-stage and more mature biotech companies.