Bionic \VEST


European Development of Bionic Vestibular
Implant for Bilateral Vestibular Dysfunction

About


B\V

At the Bionic\VEST consortium, we foresee bringing a commercially viable, highly technological breakthrough solution for the severe vestibular disorders with the potential to improve the lives of millions by recovering their postural equilibrium. Bionic\VEST aspires to be the third bionic prosthesis in human history after cochlear implant and retinal prosthesis. The cochlear implant is the only bionic prosthesis capable of satisfactorily restoring a sense. The performance of the retinal prosthesis is technologically limited allowing for relatively low resolution and basic daily activities only. A vestibular prosthesis can over-perform the later in becoming a commercial reality.

The vestibular labyrinths, saccule and utricle, provide sensory input to neural circuits that facilitate accurate perception of spatial orientation and heading, support stable posture, and maintain steady vision. This contributes at 60% to the vestibular function and postural balance. Saccule and utricle function is essential for self-reported dizziness and for postural balance in upright position and gait. More than 100 million people
worldwide suffer from severe vestibular disorders, thus being
at high risk of falls and injuries. This seriously handicaps their
lives, disabling them of doing routine daily activities, such as
driving and even walking. Restoring the function of the
vestibular labyrinths was not possible until now, as they ware
surgically inaccessible due to their complex structure. The general objective of the Bionic\VEST is the development
of a device to measure the cephalic movements in
the three spatial planes and code this information to the
vestibular nerve to substitute hair cell sensors in the maculae
of the saccule and utricle, or to stimulate the vestibular nerve with a constant pulse train to mitigate dysbalance due to malfunction of the otolithic organ.

Consortium


News


Info


Project acronym:

BionicVEST

Project title:

European Development of Bionic Vestibular Implant for Bilateral Vestibular Dysfunction

Start date:

01/09/2018

Duration:

48 months

H2020 Project Grant Agreement number:

801127

EC Contribution/Funding:

€ 2,899,690.00

Programme acronym:

H2020-FETOPEN-2016-2017

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Research Area



Fundación Canaria de Investigación Sanitaria


FUNCANIS is a foundation promoted by the Canarian Ministry of Health. Its aim is to promote and encourage research and scientific advances regarding health and patient care quality. Within this large organization, two centres will participate in this study: Hospital Universitario Insular de Gran Canaria (HUIGC) and Hospital Universitario De Gran Canaria Dr Negrín (HUGCDN).

The Complejo Hospitalario Universitario Insular Materno Infantil (CHUIMI) is formed by the Hospital Universitario Insular de Gran Canaria (HUIGC)- Hospital Universitario Materno Infantil de Canarias. Their extense area of influence promotes the development of research activity. In 1992, the Division of Otology and Otoneurology the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck, CHUIMI opened its Hearing Loss Unit (HLU), where the first osseointegrated prosthesis was implanted. The first cochlear implant in an adult happened in 1993 and the first cochlear implant in a child in 1995. In the resolution of the Official Bulletin of Canarias (August 22, 1997), the Technical General Secretariat gives the designation of the HLU as the only regional reference centre for conducting Cochlear implants – and sets the beginning of the Cochlear Implant Program in Canary. To date, a total of more than 1000 patients have been implanted.

The department also has a specific area of Vestibulometry, specially designed and adapted for the diagnosis and treatment of vestibular. It also has a Laboratory of Psychoacoustics and Balance (LPE), which has temporal bone surgery-training, audiology and balance and prototype development areas.

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University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria


The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), created in 1989, has 11 University Institutes covering all fields of knowledge, with 1000 researchers and around 1000 PhD students. It also has a Scientific and Technological Park to help the dynamic transfer of R&D+i results to society in the Canary Islands and among its neighbours, as well as helping to launch technology-based companies.

The Instituto Universitario de Sistemas Inteligentes y Aplicaciones Numéricas en la Ingeniería (SIANI) and the Department of Signals and Communications has research laboratories specialized in robotics, combining mechanical, electronics, computing, artificial intelligence and control engineering, as well as areas for development and teaching of new technologies.

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University of Navarra


The University of Navarra is a private university based at the southeast border of Pamplona, Spain. It confers 56 official degrees and administers more than 90 postgraduate programs (including 22 doctoral programs and 38 master's programs) through 10 schools, 2 superior colleges, the IESES Business School, 2 University Schools, the ISSA, and other centres and institutions.

The Department of Ear-Nose-Throat (ENT) at the University Clinic of Navarra is made up of 10 ENT specialists involved in research, 4 residents, 3 technicians, 5 PhD students, 6 nurses, 5 audiologists, 2 hearing aid specialists and 2 speech therapist. The highly specialised medical staff has established recognised national and international track records. Two of the strongest research lines in collaboration with other University Departments is hearing loss and balance disorders. Its Cochlear Implant Programme has an experience of more than 1000 implanted patients. Clinical research projects range from universal neonatal hearing screening, early paediatric cochlear implantation, auditory plasticity, asymmetric hearing loss, minimal invasive cochlear surgery, Meniere disease, intratympanic treatments and hearing loss in elderly people. As one of its core priorities, the department makes significant efforts to train those professionals who are involved in auditory implants and balance disorders.

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Sint-Augustinus Antwerpen


The ENT Department of the European Institute for ORL-HNS (EIORL-HNS) is a full profile ENT clinic offering state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment options in all ENT subspecialties.

Since many years the ENT Department has been the leading European centre in the field of otology, neuro- otology and auditory implants. In particular the ENT Department together with the Laboratory of Medical Electronics (headed by Prof. Stefaan Peeters) developed the Belgian LAURA cochlear implant that since 1987 has been applied in more than 500 patients worldwide. Our clinic was also the first in Benelux to apply bilateral cochlear implant (1998), adult and pediatric brainstem implant (2001) and the combined cochlear- brainstem implant (2009).

The working of the Vestibular Clinic of the EIORL-HNS is based on 4 pillars:

1-Fully equipped vestibular diagnostics in adults and children, based on experienced team of audiologists led by vestibular ENT clinician, ENT surgeons, PhD biomedical engineer and PhD physicist.

2-Excellent radiological diagnostics of the balance problems comprising the high resolution (100um) Cone- beam CT and 3T MRI with offering the newly developed hydrops sequences (first application in the Benelux) allowing for accurate diagnostics of balance problems such as for example dehiscences of the semicircular canals, Meniere’s disease, etc.

3-Surgical treatments by experienced surgeons performing different types of otoneurologic surgeries including the Endolymphatic Sac Surgery, intratympanic Gentamycine and steroid injections, semicircular canals surgery in patients with dehiscences or uncontrollable positional vertigo, labyrinthectomy, vestibular neurectomy and removal of cerebello-pontine angle tumours, When appropriate extensive intraoperative electrophysiological monitoring is also available.

4-Vestibular revalidation program is available to our patients and performed by our vestibular technicians together with physiotherapists.

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University of Rome


The Otolaryngology Unit at Sant'Andrea University Hospital Sapienza, Rome, is from several years involved in the rehabilitation of the auditory and vestibular impairment.

It has been particularly involved in the surgical application of all bone conductive implants as well as of all middle ear implants available up to now.

One of the most preeminent activities regards diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of subjects affected by equilibrium disorders, who are investigated by all technical instrumentation available, including VEMPs and VOR with HIT.

The clinical activity in otology includes surgery for chronic otitis media, cholesteatoma, facial nerve rehabilitative procedures, neurotomy and vestibular schwannoma surgery.

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Cochlear


Cochlear Ltd is the world leader in hearing implants. More than 250000 people worldwide are helped in their daily lives by using our cochlear implants or acoustic implants (bone conduction devices or middle ear implants). The company headquarters are based in Sydney, Australia. The company is present globally. In Europe the sales organization is headquartered in Weybridge (London), UK, with several country offices. The company is also very active in Europe in research and development. The R&D legal entity Cochlear Research and Development Ltd is also headquartered in Weybridge. Most R&D staff is based in the branch office Cochlear Technology Centre, in Mechelen, Belgium. It is an innovation centre where 70+ engineers are developing new technologies for future product generations of electrical and acoustical implants (mechanical parts, chip sets, software,...).

Cochlear has the biggest market share in most European countries in terms of implant sales, fuelled by the excellent hearing outcomes the users achieve, and by our focus on an outstanding user experience, both for the users as well as the clinicians. The latest generation products, Nucleus 6 for cochlear implants and Baha 5 for bone conduction implants, have lots of advanced sound processing features and integrate more and more connectivity options, e.g. to iPhone, in a small form factor.

Cochlear is participating to other vestibular research projects.

In one project Cochlear is providing stimulators and research support to the group of Prof. Jay T. Rubinstein at the University of Washington. More info can be found at http://depts.washington.edu/coursejo/ESVN/

Another project is with Prof. Blake Papsin of the SickKids hospital in Toronto. This research is giving balance information to a user using a standard cochlear implant. http://www.sickkids.ca/Otolaryngology/Who-we-are/index.html.

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Kick-off Meeting


At Novotel Madrid Center, at 53 O'donell Street, Madrid. At 8:00 hrs of September 22th of 2018, the participants of Bionic\VEST project meet under the supervision of Prof Ángel Ramos, and with all of the named participants present, with the intention of holding a preliminary session at the beginning of the project.

The participants of this meeting are:

 

SERVICIO CANARIO DE LA SALUD/FUNCANIS (SCS – Spain)

-Ángel Ramos Macías

-Isaura Montesdeoca Rodríguez

-Silvia Borkoski Barreiro

-María Gómez Egea

-Almudena Parache Morales

 

UNIVERSIDAD DE LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIA (ULPGC - Spain)

-Jorge Cabrera

-Ángel Ramos de Miguel

 

UNIVERSIDAD DE NAVARRA (UNAV – Spain)

-Manuel Manrique

-Nicolás Pérez

-Itziar Gómez

 

EUROPEAN INSTITUTE FOR ORL (NKO – Belgium)

-Morgana Sluydts

-Robby Vanspauwen

-Andrej Zarowski

 

COCHLEAR TECHNOLOGY CENTRE BELGIUM (COCH – Belgium)

-Erika Van Baelen

-Carl Van Himbeeck

 

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA (UROM – Italy)

-Maurizio Barbara

Social Network Available


The Bionic\VEST project already has social networks, you can find us on Twitter, Linkedin and Youtube, where we will be publishing new features as they are produced, and where you can contact us to see firsthand how the project is developing.

Macaronight Las Palmas


The Foundation of the Technological Science Park of the University of Las Palmas was in charge of organizing the event in Gran Canaria, for this, it had a number of collaborators that made the night a multidisciplinary event and full of activities.

Among these organizers are the Elder Museum of Science and Technology, Arkeos, Snorkeling Experience, Turinka, LPA Fabrika or PLOCAN.

The objective of the European Night of the Researchers is to bring the science and the daily life of researchers to the public and to show that scientists are normal people with exceptional jobs.

In the spirit of Macaronight, activities and experiments were carried out by scientists and researchers from Macaronesia, who interacted and answered questions from the public, perhaps even inspiring the youngest to choose a career in science or technology.

Bionic\VEST wanted to contribute and make known to the public a problem that we are not aware of until we suffer.

To bring the general public closer to this problem, a post with information and a screen where they could visualize the data collected by a series of sensors coupled to a helmet, which recorded the movements of the person who was wearing it and translated it into an image of a moving head.

They also gave basic notions of what the balance and the senses involved in it imply, as well as their importance and what has an impact on our quality of life.

The small experiment was well received by the public, among whom were future university students, who showed interest in the project and in the future of bionics.

Tech Meeting


Last Thursday, May 23th, the event "Encuentros Tecnológicos #MeloApunto" took place, in the Polyvalent Building III of the Technological Science Park in the University Campus of Tafira in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The objective of this meeting is to present companies, start ups and technological projects that are currently developed within the technological framework, favoring communication between members for possible future collaboration. Among the invited entities was the Bionic\VEST project, which offered a global vision of the project's objectives and the current state of its development. The program of the event was:

-Presentations of companies and entities.
-News Alert of Interest.
-Needs - Talent Search.
-Ongoing projects