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Hybrid Enhanced Regenerative Medicine Systems

Project description

DEENESFRITPL

Brain repair via the integration of regenerative medicine with a neuroprosthetic approach

Brain disorders have a significant impact on society and healthcare systems. Regenerative medicine (RM) attempts to restore brain function by rebuilding brain tissue. The hardest challenge in brain repair is the control of the integration of grafted cells or tissue with the host brain. Brain-inspired neuroprostheses represent innovative controllable devices for brain function replacement, but they cannot rebuild brain matter. The EU-funded HERMES project aims to create a new field of enhanced RM and provide a proof-of-concept that the integration of bioengineered and mammalian brain tissue can be established and controlled, healing brain damage. The innovative solution involves intelligent bio-hybrids, made via the integration of bioengineered brain tissue, neuromorphic microelectronics and artificial intelligence.

Objective

Brain disorders are the most invalidating condition, exceeding HIV, cancer and heart ischemia, with significant impact on society and public health. Regenerative medicine is a promising branch of health science that aims at restoring brain function by rebuilding brain tissue. However, repairing the brain is one of the hardest challenges and we are still unable to effectively rebuild brain matter. Epilepsy is particularly challenging due to its dynamic nature caused by the relentless brain damage and aberrant rearrangements of brain rewiring. To overcome the biological uncertainty of canonical regenerative approaches, we propose an innovative solution based on intelligent biohybrids, made by the symbiotic integration of bioengineered brain tissue, neuromorphic microelectronics and artificial intelligence, to effectively drive self-repair of dysfunctional brain circuits and we validate it against animal models of epilepsy. HERMES fosters the emergence of a novel biomedical paradigm, rooted in the use of biohybrid neuronics (neural electronics), which we name enhanced regenerative medicine. To this end, HERMES will promote interdisciplinary cross-fertilization within and outside the consortium; it will extend the concepts of enhanced brain regeneration to philosophy, ethics, policy and society to foster the emergence of a new innovation eco-system. Intelligent biohybrids will represent a major breakthrough to advance brain repair research beyond regenerative medicine and neurotechnology alone; it will bring new knowledge in neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience and philosophy, and new neuromorphic technology and AI algorithms. HERMES will bring a giant conceptual leap that will shift the concept of biomedical interventions from treating to healing. In turn, it will potentially generate major returns on health care and society at large by bringing previously unimaginable possibilities to defeat disorders that represent today a global major burden of disease.

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Topic(s)

Call for proposal

H2020-FETPROACT-2018-2020

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Sub call

H2020-FETPROACT-2018-01

Funding Scheme

RIA - Research and Innovation action

Coordinator

FONDAZIONE ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA
Net EU contribution
€ 1 830 812,50
Address
VIA MOREGO 30
16163 Genova
Italy

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Region
Nord-Ovest Liguria Genova
Activity type
Research Organisations
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Total cost
€ 1 830 812,50

Participants (11)

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Last update: 2 April 2024

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/824164

European Union, 2024