Onward awarded $1.1M grant from the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation to advance BCI research

Onward Medical revealed that it has received a major grant from the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation to continue with BCI research. This $1.1M grant will fund increasing an existing early-phase clinical feasibility study; this study is exploring the potential use of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) to enable the use of hands and arms through thought control from those people with SCI.

A breakthrough of the study that focuses on Onward’s unique ARC-BCI system occurred in August of 2023 when the first subject underwent an implant of the experimental ARC-BCI. This study was a landmark in beginning significant research on how the advanced technology of BCI could improve the deficit of motor function in SCI patients. The new funding will enable the researchers to recruit up to four more patients which are likely to generate more varied and diverse results.
Onward’s ARC-IM is the technology used in this study, and what it does is to apply the stimulation in a deliberate and calculated manner to the spinal cord. In the earlier pilot trials and some feasibility studies of this technology, it was found tha the technology could bring back the mobility of patients with SCI while at the same time regulating blood pressure.
The current study aims to advance the previous ones by combining the newly designed ARC-IM system with the WImagine BCI created by CEA-Clinatec. This integration is designed to record and interpret the intention of those who are paralyzed as they try to move their upper limbs. Thoughts are decoded by the AI-driven BCI and the messages which have been thus derived are fed into the ARC-IM system which in turn triggers the spinal cord for the required motion.

Onward Medical’s CEO Dave Marver thanked the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation for the support and mentioned that this grant will help the company to grow this important research.
According to Marver, he has hope that he will be able to bring BCI-enforced spinal cord stimulation therapy to the market by the end of the decade.

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