Virtual reality, robotics and neurorehabilitation; brain-computer interface; processing images and signals to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of debilitating brain diseases are some of the topics that will be covered this week at Unicamp, during the 6th BRAINN Congress. Promoted by the Brazilian Institute of Neurosciences and Neurotechnology (BRAINN, in its acronym in English), which is a Research, Innovation and Diffusion Center (CEPID), supported by the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (FAPESP), the event had its official opening this Monday (1) and takes place until Wednesday (3), in the auditorium of the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FCM).
“This event was designed to give researchers the opportunity, especially postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows, to present their work and, at the same time, bring in foreign guests, who come with different perspectives, news and possibilities for collaboration”, said Fernando Cendes, professor at FCM and researcher responsible for BRAINN.
At the opening table, rector Marcelo Knobel highlighted the center's characteristic multidisciplinarity, which brings together research in the areas of genetics, neurobiology, pharmacology, neuroimaging, computer science, robotics, physics and engineering, as a fundamental aspect for the expansion of knowledge and the rapid advances that have been achieved by the group. Also present were the dean of research, Munir Skaf; the director of FCM, Luiz Carlos Zeferino; and the BRAINN education and knowledge dissemination coordinator and FCM professor, Li Li Min.
Fernando Cendes also highlighted the growth of participants outside BRAINN in this edition of the Congress, which will feature the presentation of works by researchers from several Brazilian centers. “This creates a very healthy and interesting atmosphere, in which students can exchange ideas, start new collaborations and, eventually, find new opportunities to continue their work”, he pointed out.
The Institute, which completed five years, is moving into its second phase of existence as Cepid, with its funding approved for the next six years, as highlighted by Gabriela Castellano, professor at the Gleb Wataghin Institute of Physics (IFGW) and organizer of the event.
Precision Medicine
As part of the preliminary program of the Congress, Unicamp hosted, on Saturday (30), the VII Workshop of the IBrazilian Precision Medicine Initiative (BIPMed). According to Iscia Lopes Cendes, director of BIPMed, the initiative, which began in 2015, aims to facilitate the implementation of genomic medicine and precision medicine in Brazil.
According to the director, the main advance announced at the workshop was the publication of the Ministry of Health's ordinance, which incorporates, for the first time, a genomic test as part of the exams covered by the Unified Health System (SUS), the Exome. “This ordinance came about because a cost-effectiveness study was presented showing that it is worth including this test in the investigation of patients with intellectual disabilities. This study was carried out by one of my doctoral students, Joana Prota, who went to Brasília, wrote all the technical recommendations based on the results and finally convinced us that it would be important to incorporate this test”, reported Iscia Cendes.
According to her, intellectual disability is not rare in children and is often associated with epilepsy. Carrying out the exam will provide diagnostic confirmation and clarification for health professionals involved in the care of these children. “It is a demonstration that investment in research can return, sometimes even quickly, to the general public, in terms of defining new public policies”, stated the director of BIPMed.
Collaborative
Using technology to improve people's quality of life is the objective of the Neural and Cognitive Engineering Group, which is part of Spain's Superior Council for Scientific Investigations (CSIC), coordinated by Eduardo Rocon, responsible for the first lecture at the Congress. “In the group, we are all Engineers, physicists or computer scientists, but all of our projects are with hospitals. It is the clinical doctors who best understand the problems involved in the pathologies we want to work on,” he said.
According to Rocon, technology has a lot to contribute with solutions to reduce the limitations caused by some diseases. “Chemical medicine helped extend people’s lives. Many today live to be 80, 90 years old. However, in these last years of our lives, we have a series of limitations, due to some syndromes that do not kill, but prevent an independent life. Technology, with the advancement of artificial intelligence algorithms and processors, which allow much more complex things to be done on much smaller devices, can increasingly propose solutions to help improve the lives of these people”, stated Rocon.
One of the lines of research developed by the group sought to understand the tremor of the upper limbs, present in patients with Parkinson's and other pathologies that affect the brain. In the first phase of the study, the group sought to distinguish tremor and voluntary movements. Thus, an exoskeleton was produced that applied forces to the upper limb to cancel the tremor. “It was a robot that had a series of motors and could control the flexion-extension of the wrist, the pronation-supination of the forearm and the flexion-extension of the elbow,” he explained.
Despite being successful, the exoskeleton did not meet the daily life needs of the patients, who did not intend to “carry a robot on their arm to go to a restaurant, for example”, reported the researcher.
But, according to Rodon, the knowledge generated allowed the research to continue and the development of a type of glove, which used the human muscles themselves to cancel the tremor. “It was the same concept: measure, separate the tremor in real time and stimulate the muscles to cancel that tremor,” he explained.
In the next phase of the research, the group looked for a solution that could be implanted inside the body and could cancel the tremor through the stimulation of relevant areas of the brain. “We went from a solution that was not acceptable to users, to much more acceptable and marketable solutions that people can use on a daily basis,” said Rocon.
The research has now been transferred to a North American company, which has the necessary resources to develop the product. According to Rocon, the prospect is that the product will reach the market in 5 or 10 years. “Currently, they are carrying out clinical validation in the United States. The idea is that a solution that is fully implantable under the skin will come to the market,” she reported.
