Apodaca: Continued support for new scientific endeavors will bring life-changing advancements

The subject sat on a bed at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center. She awaited instructions on a first-of-its-kind experiment to test what was hoped would lead to a revolutionary advancement in mobility for millions of paraplegic patients.

The instructions came for her to move her legs as if walking. The electrodes that had been surgically placed on her brain in specific spots sent signals via cables through her scalp to a small external device, which in turn sent wireless signals to a robotic exoskeleton — a wearable frame that assists with walking — situated in another room.

The exoskeleton recognized the brain waves and began stepping. As extraordinary as that might seem, here comes the really mind-blowing part.

Signals were then sent back to the unit — the brain-computer interface, as it’s called — and the information received was used to electrically stimulate sensory areas of brain to create an artificial sense of leg movement.

Simply put, the patient could “feel” the legs of the exoskeleton moving.

It marked the first successful demonstration of the possibility for spinal cord patients to not only walk with prosthetics, but to experience the sensation of walking, which would result in safer, more realistic movements.

This triumphant moment, made public this month, was the result of 13 years of work by scientists and engineers at UC Irvine, who collaborated on the project with other brainiacs at USC and Caltech.

Their announcement came just days after NASA’s Artemis II spacecraft successfully completed its record-breaking journey around the moon, an accomplishment that rekindled interest in space flight and appreciation of the potential for science to achieve near-impossible feats.

So I’m tempted to compare the breakthrough achieved by the UCI team and its collaborators to a moon shot. I shared that thought with the three team leaders that spoke to me recently via Zoom: Dr. An Do, UC Irvine associate professor of neurology; Payam Heydari, UC Irvine professor of electrical engineering and computer science; and Zoran Nenadic, UC Irvine professor of biomedical engineering.

Do acknowledged that there are similarities, in that what he and his colleagues are attempting involves years of painstaking research, experimentation and outside-the-box thinking by specialists from a variety of related fields working together toward a common goal.

“When we set out to work on this we had this grand vision,” he said.

“We know now that this has a chance of working.”

To be clear, there is still a long way to go. A very long way. That’s how science works — step by step, with each incremental advancement a victory in its own right.

For example, the above-mentioned test was not done with a spinal-cord injury patient, but with an epilepsy patient. That’s because the patient was already scheduled for a procedure to implant electrodes on her brain to try to better understand and, in turn, better control her seizures. The team was able to piggyback onto that study.

The hope is that they can now expand the testing to five to 10 spinal cord patients. That’s a complicated next step that would involve invasive surgery and a large staff to implement and oversee the procedures. Extraordinary effort must be made to minimize risk.

What they learn could lead them to fine tune their methods and equipment. They would likely incorporate innovations and advancements in technology as they are developed. Miniaturization techniques, for example, could lead to a new design for the device used to decode and record brain signals that could be implanted under the skin.

It will take years, likely even decades, to work through all the clinical trails, safety studies, and regulatory approvals. Other questions would have to be answered: Who would commercialize the devices? Who would prescribe the procedures? How would training be handled? What safety standards would need to be developed?

“It’s a very complex environment that has to be built up,” said Do.

All of this requires not only time and perseverance, but money.

So far, the team has secured two rounds of funding, for $1.2 million and $8 million, from the National Science Foundation. But more will be needed.

The securing of funding for scientific research is always a difficult dance, but it’s particularly tough right now. For the second year in a row, the Trump administration has proposed significant cuts to the budgets of major U.S. science agencies that provide backing for research.

That has put scientists all over the country in a precarious position. Some projects have stalled as funding sources dry up.

It’s a dangerous turn considering that scientific research is an important driver of economic growth and progress toward a healthier, more robust society. The UCI-led project alone could have far-reaching consequences.

Applications could potentially extend, for instance, to the upper extremities. Certain types of stroke patients, and those with bladder and bowel control issues, might also benefit. Patients experiencing cell death because of poor circulation due to lack of movement could have blood flow restored.

It’s an exciting list of possibilities that for some people, at some point down the line, could be life-changing. For now, the team is focused on maintaining that one-step-at-a-time mentality needed to turn its ambitious goal into reality.

I hope that our support for scientific endeavors such as this potential game-changer remains strong, despite the recent headwinds. That’s how moon shots, through all the trials and tribulations, eventually lead us to moon landings.