Neuromod is part of IEM INNOVATION WEEK (April 8th-12th, 2024)

Add-ons are available for other Innovation Week Events

SESSION CHAIRS

Biography

Dr. Nahas is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Nahas scientific interests lie in translational research of mood dysregulation and depressive disorders. His unique expertise is in functional neuroimaging and brain stimulation across various modalities [Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS), Prefrontal Cortical Stimulation (PCS), Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) and Focally Electrically Administered Seizure Therapy (FEAST)]. He is an MPI on the recently awarded NCCIH SPARC grant investigating the effects of VNS on peripheral organ systems. 

Biography

Dr. Manda Keller-Ross is an Assistant Professor in the Divisions of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine within the Medical School at the University of Minnesota. She received her Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT) and PhD at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Dr. Keller-Ross is interested in autonomic and vascular blood pressure regulation in health and disease. Her recent work and NIH funding targets how factors associated with menopause influence CVD risk factors. In particular, she investigates how the age of menopause and menopausal symptoms, including vasomotor symptoms and sleep difficulty, influence sympathetic nerve function, baroreflex sensitivity, and vascular conductance. Further, Dr. Keller-Ross has an interest in interventions to modulate autonomic function with the goal of restoring the sympathetic and parasympathetic balance in populations who demonstrate autonomic imbalance.

Biography

Dr. Saydra Wilson is an Interventional Psychiatrist. Her clinical practice involves the use of neuromodulation and interventions for treatment resistant depression. Her research program impacts access to evidence-based neuromodulation techniques in three ways. First, investigation of potential health disparities in transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) access in the clinical sphere and the research space. Second, collection and review clinical evidence that has implications for insurance access to neuromodulation. Lastly, design of TMS mechanistic studies with the aspiration that further mechanistic knowledge will allow for the development of more efficient and clinically effective TMS protocols. Dr. Wilson serves on the Board of Directors of the Clinical TMS Society which facilitates her advocacy work.

Biography

Dr. Sarah L. Swisher received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  Upon graduation, she spent several years as the lead electrical design engineer for a series of GPS-enabled bicycle computers at Garmin.  She then received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. Prof. Swisher joined the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota in 2015. Her research sits at the intersection of semiconductor device physics, materials science, and bioengineering. She leverages the beneficial properties of nanomaterials and flexible electronics to enable new technologies and advancements in biological sensors and medical devices. Her research approach is collaborative and multidisciplinary, with ties to the Center for Neuroengineering (CNE), the Institute for Engineering in Medicine (IEM), the Materials Science Research and Engineering Center (MRSEC), and the Center for Excellence in Sensing Technologies and Analytics (CESTA).

Biography

Hubert Lim is a Professor in the Biomedical Engineering and Otolaryngology Departments at the University of Minnesota and was hired as an Institute for Translational Neuroscience Scholar. He currently holds the Endowed Lions Professorship in Otolaryngology and is also a Co-Director for the Center for Neural Engineering. He completed a B.S.E. in Bioengineering at UC-San Diego, followed by a dual Masters in Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and then a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan. At the University of Minnesota, his lab’s research focuses on neural engineering, neuromodulation technologies, sensory neuroscience, neural plasticity, and neuro-immune physiology with the aim of developing new electrical and ultrasound stimulation treatments for hearing disorders, pain and inflammatory conditions in collaboration with multiple clinicians and companies. Outside his academic activities, he is involved with two start-up companies, serving as the Chief Scientific Officer of Neuromod Devices (developing a tinnitus treatment device) and as the Chief Scientific Officer of SecondWave Systems (developing a wearable phased-array ultrasound device for treating various immune and pain conditions). Further information can be found at his lab website: http://soniclab.umn.edu.

Biography

Dr. Theoden Netoff is the Co-Director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Neuroengineering with Dr. Hubert Lim. He has chaired the Neuromodulation conference 3 times and is serving as the Conference Director this year. His research focuses on closed-loop and optimization of neuromodulation therapies for epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury, and depression.

Biography

Alena Talkachova is a Professor in the Biomedical Engineering and Assistant Director for Strategic Research Initiatives at the Institute for Engineering in Medicine Departments, at the University of Minnesota. She obtained MS in Theoretical Physics from Belarussian State University and PhD in Laser Physics from Nice University, France. She also received postdoctoral trainings in cardiac electrophysiology from Duke University and SUNY Upstate Medical University, USA. Talkachova’s laboratory combines a wide spectrum of experimental techniques and numerical simulations to study electrical activity in the heart, with the emphasis on prediction and control of cardiac arrhythmias. Her laboratory also develops novel signal processing approaches and uses machine learning to perform bio-signals analysis for mapping-specific arrhythmias ablation and neuromodulation-based treatment for cardiac diseases.

Biography

Dr. Osborn received his Ph.D. in 1986 in physiology from the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he studied the neurohumoral mechanisms of hypertension. He then went to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine for a post-doctoral fellowship in biomedical engineering, where he focused on spinal level control of the sympathetic nervous system. While at Johns Hopkins, he received a 5-year NIH R29 grant (FIRST award) to study mechanisms and treatment of autonomic hyperreflexia in spinal cord injury. Dr. Osborn joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota in 1988, was promoted to Professor in 1997, and was appointed the Marvin and Hadassah Bacaner Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Physiology in 2002. In 2019, Dr. Osborn moved to the Department of Surgery to establish the Minnesota Consortium for Autonomic Neuromodulation (MCAN). Dr. Osborn has studied the relationship between sympathetic nervous system activity and hypertension throughout his career. His earlier studies focused on central nervous system pathways and hypertension. More recently, he has shifted his focus tounderstanding the role of peripheral organ-specific sympathetic pathways in the pathogenesis of cardiometabolic disease, with the long-term goal of developing device-based neuromodulation therapies. He served on the 2019 National, Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Task Force “Hypertension: Barriers to Translation.” He has published 120 papers and his research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health. In 2022, Dr. Osborn, along with UMN faculty Hubert Lim (ENT, BME), Ziad Nahas (Psychiatry), Sayeed Ikramuddin (Surgery), Lynne Eberly (Public Health), and Monash University faculty (Melbourne, AUS) Vaughan Macefield, was awarded an NIH U54 grant “Research Evaluating Vagal Excitation and Anatomical Linkages (REVEAL)” to conduct a global clinical study on the physiological responses to vagal nerve stimulation in humans.