Bionics Institute
The Bionics Institute of Australia is a biomedical research institute focusing on medical bionics that creates, designs, evaluates and improves bionic devices that interface with the human body to restore impaired sensory or other nervous system and bodily functions. The Bionics Institute is located in Melbourne, Australia. The Bionics Institute is made up of researchers, engineers, technicians and students working closely with clinicians to pioneer new technologies that address the unmet needs of patients living with hearing loss, tinnitus, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, balance and movement disorders, stroke, inflammatory bowel disease, and urinary incontinence. The institute is dedicated  to translational research leading to clinical outcomes. Examples of clinical trials in which the institute has been involved include; completion of the Bionic Vision Australia trial of the prototype bionic eye; an evaluation of a novel stimulation method to improve speech perception in cochlear implant patients; in early 2020, the first patients in a first-in-human clinical trial were implanted with a device called Minder™, designed to provide clinicians with an accurate and long-term record of epileptic seizures; in late 2020, a clinical trial is due to commence with a novel device to detect gut inflammation. History . The Bionic Ear Institute was founded in 1986 by Professor Graeme Clark AC, one of the original developers of the cochlear implant. Professor Clark founded the institute with the goal of improving the device which he first implanted into a human in 1978. Professor Clark built the institute into a leading independent cochlear implant research center and was its director until 2005. From 2005 to 2017, the Bionics Institute was under the directorship of Professor Rob Shepherd AM. The institute changed its name to the Bionics Institute in 2011 to reflect the breadth of its work across many conditions besides  hearing impairment. Professor Shepherd was one of the original members of the University of Melbourne team that created the cochlear implant, and was responsible for the pre-clinical safety and efficacy studies that enabled FDA approval for the device in 1985. He drove the expansion of research into different areas of clinical need including blindness and inflammatory bowel disease. In 2017, Robert Klupacs was appointed CEO. With over 30 years of experience in research commercialisation and bio-technology transfer, Robert drove an increased focus on opportunities and diversification of the institute's funding streams enabling more rapid translation of research  into devices and products that make a tangible difference to the quality of life of patients around the world. Location. The Bionics Institute has two campuses, one located in East Melbourne and the other in nearby Fitzroy. Mollison House (East Melbourne) is the site of the institute's administrative team as well as the bulk of its human research. The second campus exists in the Daly Wing of St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne which houses the institute's wet labs and materials fabrication facilities. Research. The Bionics Institute's research is in five areas; hearing impairment, neurological conditions, movement disorders , inflammatory diseases and electric medicine. Hearing Impairment. Hearing impairment can severely impact a person's life, causing problems with communication, education, employment and social inclusion. The Bionics Institute undertake research by applying their unique multi-disciplinary approach and diverse experimental tools – from brain imaging to nanotechnology and gene therapy techniques. The various areas of research in hearing impairment underway at the institute currently focus on; Restoring hearing, for those that suffer from hearing loss; Infant hearing, developing a medical device designed to optimise language development in hearing impaired babies; Optogenetics, exploring the use of light to improve the selectivity of  auditory nerve stimulation provided by cochlear implants and other neural stimulation devices; Improving cochlear implants, Tinnitus, Programming cochlear implants, Understanding the hearing brain and Understanding listening effort. Neurological Conditions. There are a wide variety of neurological diseases affecting the brain and nervous system, and treatment varies including drugs and therapy. Diagnosis is usually by observing the brain's electrical activity via electroencephalography (EEG). Conventional EEG recordings are not practical for more than a day, and repeated hospital visits are expensive. Researchers at the Bionics Institute have developed a medical device Minder to measure brain activity over longer periods of time ; specifically to monitor epileptic seizures outside of the clinic as patients go about their daily lives. This research is currently in clinical trials. Movement Disorders. Movement disorders are a group of nervous system conditions that cause you to have abnormal voluntary or involuntary movements, or slow, reduced movements. Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) uses a surgically implanted, battery-operated medical device to deliver electrical stimulation to specific areas in the brain that control movement. Researchers at the Bionics Institute have discovered a unique brain signal (a biomarker) in patients receiving DBS implants for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. The aim  of the institute's DBS research program is to improve the performance of existing DBS devices, gain a greater understanding of how positive therapeutic outcomes are achieved through DBS, and to develop its own advanced DBS system based on cochlear type implant technology. Inflammatory Disease. Inflammatory Diseases include a broad range of disorders and conditions characterised by inflammation, which is a defence mechanism in the body. Devices that modulate the activity of peripheral nerves to restore healthy organ function could replace the use of pharmaceutical agents and also manage conditions currently not treatable with traditional methods. This approach offers exciting  possibilities for future treatments for inflammatory diseases. Inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, is a debilitating, relapsing condition that first emerges in young adulthood and affects patients throughout their life. The Bionics Institute is involved in a collaborative project to create a novel device that will enable detection of gut inflammation and will therapeutically stimulate the vagus nerve.First-in-human clinical trials for this device are due to commence at the end of 2020. Electric Medicine. Electric medicine underpins much of the work done at the Bionics Institute. It involves using electrical impulses to provide  therapeutic benefit and this is usually achieved through an implanted device with electrical contacts (electrodes) placed on or near a nerve: it works because it's using the same 'language' as the nervous system. The electrical impulses mimic those produced by the nervous system to either bypass damage, as is the case in cochlear implants, or disrupt abnormal activity, as is the case in deep brain stimulation. Researchers at the Bionics Institute are aiming to develop and validate a recording technology that can record neural activity during bladder filling and voiding. Controlling urination with bioelectric neuromodulation devices is an emerging  treatment strategy for bladder incontinence or underactivity as it can be rapidly adjusted to respond to changing patient needs, known as closed-looped control. Further development of the technology to differentiate between different types of neural activity will be required as a crucial first step towards closed-loop control. Staffing. Institute Staff are recruited from disciplines including neuroscience, psychophysics, medicine, electrical and acoustic engineering, signal processing, and computer science. Past experience with the cochlear implant platform is the basis upon which much of this present work is being undertaken. Its Clinical Research Fellows who are either clinicians or surgeons work  with the institute on an honorary basis. Funding and commercialisation. The Bionics Institute is funded through a combination of government funding, private donations, and contract research. In 2019, the institute's annual expenditure was A$10.8 million. In 2019, 26.5% income was from Government Grants and 18.6% income was from donations and bequests. In 2015, the Bionics Institute moved their focus towards undertaking contract research in the areas of trial design, rapid prototyping, biocompatibility testing, and other safety and feasibility studies within the field of medical bionics. Contract research represented 4% of the institute's annual income as of 2014 ; in 2019, this had risen to 27%. Collaborations. The University of Melbourne, Medical Bionics Department. From July 2012, the University of Melbourne School of Medicine and Dentistry created Medical Bionics Department in partnership with the Bionics Institute. In 2013 the Medical Bionics Department offered its first postgraduate PhD program. A/Prof James Fallon is the head of the Medical Bionics Department of the University of Melbourne.