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Speakers
Guest of Honour and Plenary Speaker |
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Associate Professor Jim Patrick
Chief Scientist, Cochlear Ltd.
Presentation Topic: Medical Bionics - From Laboratory to Clinic
Jim Patrick is Chief Scientist at Cochlear Limited and recognized as a world authority on cochlear implants. He joined Professor Graeme Clark’s research team at Melbourne University in 1975. With training in physics and communications engineering, and an interest in how electrical stimulation might be used to help people hear, he led the successful development of "UMDOLEE", the ten channel cochlear implant developed by the Departments of Otolaryngology and Electrical Engineering.
When initial proof of concept generated Federal Government support for commercial development in 1981, Jim moved to Sydney as a member of the Cochlear "Tiger Team", established by Paul Trainor inside the Nucleus group to develop a ‘clinically applicable' cochlear implant. Jim was responsible for systems engineering, and the digital aspects of the implantable stimulator, playing the key leadership role in the development of the commercial medical implant.
Since 1981 he has been a member of Cochlear's senior management team, holding a number of technology management roles, including responsibility for R&D, Quality and Manufacturing. Currently, Jim is responsible for Cochlear's global research programme, exploring how novel forms of signal processing can improve the performance of the cochlear implant, and how advances in biology and electro-neural interfaces can be applied to future implant designs. He has honorary appointments as Associate Professor, The University of Melbourne and Adjunct Professor, La Trobe University. |
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International Keynote Speakers: |
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Dr. Stuart Cogan
EIC Laboratories, Boston, MA, USA.
General Topic: Electrode materials for stimulation and recording; electrochemically safe stimulation; future materials for neural prostheses
Stuart Cogan is Vice-President and Director of Advanced Materials Research at EIC Laboratories. Dr. Cogan received a B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering and a M.S. degree in Materials Science from Duke University in 1975 and 1977, respectively. He obtained a Sc.D. in Materials Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1979. From 1979 to 1980, Dr. Cogan was a Visiting Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke University where he worked on amorphous semiconductor materials for solar cells. He returned to MIT as a Research Associate in 1981. His research at MIT focused on the fabrication and high magnetic field properties of superconducting metal-matrix composites. In 1983 he joined EIC Laboratories. Dr. Cogan's research interests at EIC have included thin-film electrochromics for optical switching devices, materials for encapsulating implanted medical devices, and electrode materials for stimulation and recording in prosthetic and pacing applications. Dr. Cogan is presently working on electrodes for retinal prostheses, vision prostheses using intracortical stimulation, coatings for cardiac pacing and defibrillation, microECoG recording arrays, and on neurotrophin releasing polymers for intracortical electrodes. His research interests broadly focus on the electrochemical properties of the electrode-tissue interface and on methods for controlling and stabilizing the interface for stimulation and recording applications. |
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Dr Charles C. Della Santina
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Presentation Title: Restoring the Sixth Sense in 3D - Progress Toward a Multichannel Vestibular Prosthesis
Dr. Della Santina is a Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery and Biomedical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he directs the Johns Hopkins Vestibular Neuro Engineering Laboratory.
Dr. Della Santina received his PhD in Bioengineering from the University of California at Berkeley, where his work focused on development of micromachined silicon devices for chronic multi-unit interfacing to the auditory / vestibular nerve. Since completing his medical degree at the University of California at San Francisco and residency at Johns Hopkins, he has been a clinician-scientist on the faculties of the Johns Hopkins Departments of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery and Biomedical Engineering.
As a board-certified otologic/neurotologic surgeon, Dr. Della Santina specializes in treatment of disorders of the middle and inner ear. His clinical interests include restoration of hearing (via cochlear implantation and other implantable devices for treatment of conductive and sensorineural hearing loss) and management of patients who suffer from vestibular disorders. He frequently lectures on these topics, and he is the author of multiple related clinical research articles, reviews and book chapters. His laboratory research centers on development of a multichannel vestibular prosthesis intended to restore inner ear sensation of head movement. His >50 publications include studies characterizing inner ear physiology and anatomy; developing novel clinical tests of vestibular function; and clarifying the effects of cochlear implantation, superior canal dehiscence syndrome, and intratympanic gentamicin therapy on the vestibular labyrinth. His recent honors include an American Otological Society Clinician-Scientist Award, the Robert Bárány Society Young Scientist of the Year Award, the American Neurotology Society Frank M. Nizer Lectureship, the ENTER Foundation Award for Innovation in Otolaryngology, the ENT-UK Gordon Smyth Lectureship, and induction into the American Otological Society. |
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Dr. Damiaan Denys
University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Damiaan Denys, MD, PhD completed a degree in philosophy and medicine at the University of Leuven, Belgium. Since 2002 he has worked in the department of psychiatry of the University Medical Center (UMC) of Utrecht, the Netherlands. He obtained his doctorate cum laude from Utrecht University with a dissertation entitled "On certainty: studies in obsessive compulsive disorder" and he received the "Ramaer Medal" from the Dutch Society of Psychiatry for outstanding clinical research in psychiatry. From 2004-2006 he was Chief of the section of anxiety disorders at the department of psychiatry at the UMC Utrecht. Currently, he is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Amsterdam and Chair of the department of psychiatry at the Academic Medical Centre (AMC), Amsterdam. |
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Prof. Nick Donaldson
Department of Medical Physics & Bioengineering, University College London, London.
General Topic: Restoring function to paralysed muscles
Nick Donaldson studied Engineering and Electrical Sciences at Cambridge University. From 1977 to 1992 he worked for the Medical Research Council, Neurological Prostheses Unit, under the direction of Professor G.S. Brindley. In that period, his main field of research was the technology and application of implanted devices for the restoration of useful leg function to paraplegics. Since 1992, Donaldson has been Head of the Implanted Devices Group at University College London. He has been Principal Investigator for many projects related to implanted devices and functional electrical stimulation. He is a Professor in the University. His research interests now include implanted device technology, the development of implanted devices that use natural nerve signals as inputs; stimulators of nerve roots; the use of electrical stimulation for recreational exercise of paralysed legs; and methods to encourage functional neurological recovery after injury. |
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Prof. E Duco Jansen
Vanderbilt University, USA
General Topic: Optical Stimulation of Neural Tissue
E. Duco Jansen is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neurosurgery at Vanderbilt University and a faculty member in the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Sciences (VUIIS). He is the Director of Graduate Studies of the Biomedical Engineering Department at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Jansen received his M.S. (Drs) degree in Medical Biology from the University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands in 1990, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992 and 1994 respectively. He joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University in 1997 as Assistant Professor. His research interests include novel approaches to optically probe and manipulate the neural system, mechanisms of pulsed laser ablation of biological tissue, cellular and biochemical responses of biological tissue to laser radiation, medical applications of lasers. A significant part of his research efforts involve the development and application of optical technologies to image tissue ultrastructure and cellular and molecular processes, including gene expression. Dr. Jansen is one of the co-founders of the Vanderbilt Center for Biomedical Photonics. |
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Stefan Launer
VP Advanced Concepts & Technologies, Phonak AG
Presentation Topic: Innovative Concepts for Bionic Hearing Health Care
Stefan Launer studied Physics with a focus on Medical Physics in Goettingen and later on in Oldenburg. He finished his PhD-thesis on "Loudness Perception in Hearing-Impaired Subjects" with the development of a loudness-model which accounts for hearing impairment. Since June 1995 he is in various functions with Phonak's Research and Development. Among others, he was heading the department "Signal Processing" and in that function in charge of research and development related to audio logical and clinical procedures of hearing instrument fitting and evaluation as well as the development of future digital signal processing algorithms for hearing instruments. Currently he is responsible for coordinating Phonak's / Sonova's corporate research and technology program including hearing instrument technology, wireless technology as well as hearing implants. |
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Dr. Doug McCreery
Huntington Medical Research Institute, Pasadena, CA, USA.
General Topic: Neural damage mechanisms associated with electrical stimulation of neural tissue; future neural prostheses
Douglas McCreery received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1966, 1970, and 1975, respectively. He completed his postdoctoral training in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Minnesota. He now lives in Pasadena ,CA, USA where he is director of the Neural Engineering Program at Huntington Medical Research Institutes. His research interests include the development of neuroprostheses and devices for neuromodulation for the central nervous system, and the physiologic and histologic effects of electrical stimulation of the central and peripheral nervous systems. |
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Dr. Henny C. van der Mei
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University Medical Centre, Groningen, The Netherlands.
General Topic: Formation and control of biofilms associated with implantable materials.
Since 2001 I am a full professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering and head of the bioadhesion division at the University Medical Center Groningen and University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. Since February 2011 I am the director of the W.J. Kolff Institute (www.kolff-umcg.nl).
I did my PhD in 1989 on the physico-chemical surface properties of oral streptococci at the University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
My main interest in research is: biofilm formation on biomaterials implants and the related infections and how to avoid this biofilm formation. The research is focusing on how to make multifunctional coatings on biomaterials which repel bacteria and stimulate tissue integration. |
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Prof. Richard Normann
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Utah.
General Topic: Electrode design for recording from and stimulating the CNS; Visual prostheses; Future neural prostheses.
Richard A. Normann, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering and Ophthalmology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City where he conducts research on sensory encoding and information processing by neural ensembles in the vertebrate central and peripheral nervous systems. He is the inventor of the Utah Electrode Array technologies and other high-electrode-count microelectrode arrays that can be used for basic and applied research in emerging field of neuroprosthetics. His current research interests are the cortically based restoration of vision in those with profound blindness, and peripheral nerve interventions for the restoration of stance and bladder control in those who have lost these functions. |
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Dr Helmut Sachs
Klinikum Dresden Friedrichstadt
Presentation Topic: Fundamentals of a Neural Prosthesis: A Surgical Perspective
Helmut G. Sachs received his Medical Training in Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität) where he served as extern in the Institute for Medical Psychology. He completed his Residency in Ophthalmology at the University of Regensburg with Prof. V-P. Gabel were he became commissionary Director of the University Eye Clinic in Regensburg in 2006. Since 2008 is head of the Dept. of Ophthalmology in Dresden Friedrichstadt (Teaching Hospital of the Technical University in Dresden).
Dr Sachs devoted most of his scientific activities to retinal prosthesis development in the German Subretinal Implant Project which was coordinated by Prof. Zrenner from Tuebingen.
During his research work in Regensburg he developed the transchoroidal implantation technique in various animal models and transferred the technique from the laboratory setting to the clinic. He was the first to carry out implantations via this new approach in patients.
His Particular interests include vitreoretinal surgery age related macular degeneration and macular pathologies were he was Principal Clinical Investigator in different major clinical studies for macular pathologies.
He serves as scientific reviewer for many major scientific ophthalmic journals including British Journal of Ophthalmology, European Journal of Ophthalmology, Graefe´s Archives of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology, Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, Klinische Monatsblätter, Ophthalmic Research, Experimental Eye Research, and Biomedical Engineering. |
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Dr Jochen Tillein
J.W. Goethe University, Germany
Presentation Title: Protection of Inner Ear Function after Cochlear Implantation - Technologies and Animal Studies
Jochen Tillein conducted his dissertation (Dr. rer. nat.) at the Technical University (TU) Darmstadt (Germany) at the Department of Zoology about the processing of complex acoustic stimuli in the auditory cortex of gerbils. Since 1993 he is working in the field of cochlear implants starting his research in Magdeburg at the Institute for Neurobiology (IfN) in the group of Prof. Dr. Scheich where he focused on cortical processing of electrical stimulated cochlea of gerbils. In 1994 he moved to the Department of Physiology at the J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt. His first project in the lab of Prof. Dr. Klinke dealt with electrical current focusing methods, which he tested on cortex slices of young rats. From 1997-1999 he investigated cortical plasticity after cochlear implant stimulation in congenitally deaf cats in collaboration with Dr. Hartmann and Dr. Kral. The following projects focused on nerve fiber activities during combined electric-acoustic stimulation (EAS), drug delivery and hearing preservation after implantation which were performed in cooperation with the ENT Department of the J.W. Goethe University. Since 1999 he is senior scientist at the MEDEL company Innsbruck (Austria) as a member of the Life Science Research group (Dr. Garnham). He is still working at the ENT Department of Frankfurt University Clinics headed by Prof. Dr. Stoever. Current interests are methods for hearing preservation and drug delivery but also middle ear implants and effects of binaural cochlear implants on cortical plasticity of congenitally deaf cats. The latter project is performed in collaboration with the VIANNA Institute in Hannover together with Prof. Dr. Andej Kral. |
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Local Keynote Speakers:
Prof Penny Allen
CERA/RVEEH, Australia
Prof Peter Blamey
Bionics Institute, Melbourne, Australia
Professor Peter Blamey has dedicated his 30 year career to improving hearing and language for children and adults with hearing difficulties through focused research, innovation and commercialisation. Peter was part of Professor Graeme Clark's successful research team at the University of Melbourne where he helped develop the first multichannel cochlear implant, the Bionic Ear, an Australian success story that has restored hearing to over 150,000 deaf people around the world. Peter has continued to pursue these parallel academic and commercial career paths and brings this wealth of experience to his role as Deputy Director (IP and Commercialisation) at the Institute.
Prof Frank Caruso
University of Melbourne
Professor Frank Caruso is an ARC Federation Fellow at The University of Melbourne. His research interests focus on developing advanced nano- and biomaterials for biotechnology and medicine. He has published over 260 peer-reviewed papers, ten book chapters, is on the ISI's most highly cited list (ranked in top 20 Materials Scientists in 2011), and is co-inventor of over 25 patents. He has been awarded a number of awards for his scientific achievements, including the Australian Academy of Science Le Fevre Memorial Prize (2005), the Royal Australian Chemical Institute David Sangster Polymer Science and Technology Achievement Award (2006), and Australian Research Council Federation Fellowships (2001 and 2007). He is an Editor of Chemistry of Materials and is on the editorial advisory boards of Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Nano Today and Advances in Colloid and Interface Science. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2009.
Prof Mark Cook
University of Melbourne
Dr. James Fallon
Bionics Institute
Dr James Fallon did not always plan a career in medical bionics research, but his studies at Monash University including a BSc (Physiology), BE(Hons) (Electrical and Computer Science) and a PhD (Biomedical Engineering) have provided him a broad background in a range of relevant areas. After finishing his studies in 2002, James got his first taste of cochlear implant research during a brief period working for Prof Robert Shepherd (now director of the Bionics Institute). However, before embarking on his current research direction, James moved to Sydney to work at the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute as a research fellow; here he studied a range of phenomena related to our sense of touch. Since 2005, James has been working at the Bionics Institute study the protective and plastic effects of chronic electrical stimulation in relation to both cochlear implants, and more recently bionic eyes.
Prof Paul Fitzgerald
Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, The Alfred and Monash University, Australia
Professor Paul Fitzgerald is Professor of Psychiatry, Deputy Director and Consultant Psychiatrist at the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, a joint research centre of Monash University and the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. He is a qualified psychiatrist, has a Masters of Psychological Medicine and research PhD. He runs a substantive research program utilising brain stimulation and neuroimaging techniques including transcranial magnetic stimulation, functional and structural MRI, EEG and near infrared spectroscopy. The program has focussed on the conduct of investigative studies of brain function / dysfunction as well as the conduct of a variety of novel clinical trials in Mood, Anxiety, Psychotic and Developmental Disorders. He has published over 175 papers and received grant funding from the NHMRC, ARC and a number of US based organisations and is a current NHMRC Practitioner Fellowship holder.
Prof Dexter Irvine
Bionics Institute
Dexter Irvine is a Professorial Research Fellow at The Bionics Institute and an Emeritus Professor in the School of Psychology and Psychiatry at Monash University. He completed a BA (Hons) degree in Psychology at the University of Sydney in 1966 and a PhD in auditory neuroscience at Monash University in 1971. After post-doctoral training at the University of Western Australia and the University of California at Irvine he returned to a faculty position in the Department of Psychology at Monash. His research has been directed to various aspects of the neural processing of auditory information, at levels from the cochlea to the cortex, mainly using animal models. In the last 20 years or so, his major focus has been on plasticity in the adult auditory system. Since 2003 he has had a part-time appointment at the Bionics Institute, where he works on a number of projects investigating auditory cortical plasticity as a consequence of deafness and use of a cochlear implant.
Prof Hugh McDermott
Bionics Institute, Melbourne, Australia
Professor Hugh McDermott joined the Bionics Institute in February 2010 as Deputy Director following a highly successful career as a research scientist with the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Melbourne. Hugh has devised and developed a number of commercially successful devices that help restore hearing for deaf and hearing impaired people. These include the widely used speech processing software that provides improved communication for over 150,000 cochlear implant users worldwide, and leading the team that devised and evaluated highly successful and widely used technology for hearing aids.
Dr Bryony Nayagam
University of Melbourne, Australia
Dr Nayagam is an Australian-Based NH&MRC Biomedical Research Fellow and obtained her PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2007 under the supervision of Professor Rob Shepherd and Dr Michelle de Silva. She completed post-doctoral training with Professor Albert Edge at the Eaton-Peabody Laboratory, Boston and Professor David Ryugo at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. With undergraduate training in Biochemistry (BSc) and Neuroscience (Hons), Bryony currently heads a research team in Stem Cells and Regeneration at the Eye and Ear Hospital in East Melbourne, with a focus on regenerating the damaged cochlea using stem cells and electrical stimulation.
Dr Carrie Newbold
The Hearing CRC, Australia
Carrie Newbold graduated with a degree in Medical Engineering in 2000 and has been working on cochlear implant electrodes ever since. Her early work at the CRC for Cochlear Implant and Hearing Aid Innovation involved researching material biocompatibilities, evaluating electrode designs and patient outcomes with existing devices. Carrie followed this with a PhD on the development and use of an in vitro model of the electrode-tissue interface.
Carrie moved to Cochlear Ltd in Sydney where her research work involved mid- to long-term electrode technologies. She also worked as Cochlear's Innovation Manager, training Cochlear employees on the use of innovation tools and techniques. Carrie has recently returned to Melbourne and the HEARing CRC. She is project leader of the Biosafety and Electro-neural interface projects.
Dr John Parker
Research Group Leader, NICTA
Presentation Topic: New Technologies for Active Implantable Devices: Evoked Potentials in the Spinal Cord During Stimulation for Pain Management.
Dr Lisa Pettingill
Bionics Institute, Australia
Dr Lisa Pettingill received her PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2004 under the supervision of Professors Graeme Clark and Perry Bartlett. Lisa continued to pursue her research interests investigating the potential of neurotrophins to protect the inner ear from the degenerative changes that occur in deafness, as a post-doctoral research fellow under the auspices of Professor Rob Shepherd. Dr Pettingill's current research at the Bionics Institute combines cell-based therapies and cell encapsulation techniques to deliver neurotrophins to the deaf cochlea to promote the survival of auditory neurons in a clinically transferable way.
Prof Steven Prawer
University of Melbourne
Prof Jeffrey Rosenfeld
Monash University, Australia
Jeffrey V. Rosenfeld is the Professor and Head of the Department of Surgery, Central Clinical School, Monash University and the Director, Department of Neurosurgery at the Alfred Hospital. He is inaugural Director of the Monash Institute for Brain Development and Repair. He is also Adjunct Professor Centre for Military and Veterans' Health, University of Queensland and Honorary Professor in Neurosurgery to the University of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Honorary Professor of the Neurosurgical Department of the Beijing Tiantan Hospital and of the Capital University of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China. He is a Major General in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and Surgeon General, Australian Defence Force - Reserves.
Prof Rob Shepherd
Bionics Institute, Melbourne, Australia
Professor Rob Shepherd was part of the successful multi-disciplinary team that developed the world's first multi-channel cochlear implant, the Bionic Ear. Rob's doctoral thesis examined the safety and medical effectiveness of this remarkable device that today brings the gift of hearing to over 150,000 deaf adults and children worldwide. More recently, Rob has lead the Institute in using this same research approach to develop new medical bionics devices.
Dr Gregg Suaning
UNSW, Australia
Gregg J. Suaning has over two decades of experience in implantable neuroprosthesis in both industry and academia. He received his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from the California State University in 1986 and 1988 respectively. His Ph.D. in visual prosthesis from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia was awarded in 2003. He is currently an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the UNSW's Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering. He is a prolific inventor with several patents in the medical devicefield and has authored over 100 book chapters, refereed journal manuscripts andconference proceedings. He holds a Conjoint Associate Professorship in the School of Engineering at the University of Newcastle, and has been a Visiting Scientist at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and Aalborg University, Denmark. His primary research is in implantable sensory neuroprosthesis along with a number of projects in movement disorders and medical diagnostics.
Prof Gordon Wallace
University of Wollongong
Dr. Robert Wilke
University of New South Wales
Prof Chris Williams
Bionics Institute, Melbourne, Australia
Associate Professor Chris Williams is a Neuroscientist with an impressive track record in translational medical research. Each day almost 1000 pre-term babies in neonatal intensive care units gain the benefits of brain monitoring devices and 'cool caps' developed by Chris. These devices can reduce the damage done to cells in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) caused by inadequate oxygen. Chris brings this 'can do' approach to his exciting work on the development of a Bionic Eye at the Institute.
Dr Andrew Wise
Bionics Institute, Melbourne, Australia
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| Medical Bionics Conference 2011 Secretariat |
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+61 3 9681 6288 |
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+61 3 9681 6653 |
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| Hosted by |
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| The Conference would like to thank their sponsors: |
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| Principal Sponsor |
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| Major Sponsor |
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| The Conference Organising Committee appreciates all sponsors - click here to view all sponsors |
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