ARIA’s new Precision Neurotechnologies programme will unite the frontiers of engineered biology and hardware to treat many of the most complex and devastating brain disorders affecting individuals and communities worldwide.

Researchers from the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, also working as part of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (OH BRC), will lead two of the teams receiving funding as part of the ‘Future Adoption’ workstream. These projects will explore how neurotechnologies can be designed inclusively, recognising the importance of engaging clinicians and people with lived experiences of brain disorders for greater, more equitable adoption of future tech.

A team led by Associate Professor Melanie Fleming, with co-investigators from Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and University College London, aims to overcome barriers to translation of brain stimulation technologies for patient care. By seeking input from patients and the public as well as clinicians, researchers, ethicists, and industry experts, the team will develop a roadmap of recommendations that can be used to develop, improve and implement brain stimulation technologies for conditions such as stroke, depression and dementia.

Prof Fleming says: ‘Neurotechnologies hold great promise for treating the symptoms and altering the course of neurological diseases…however, fulfilling this promise requires substantial technical development, and the successful translation of research into clinical practice.’

Professor Ben Seymour’s team brings together researchers from Oxford’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering and the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Services, as well as Warwick Business School, to develop a new tool for predicting patient preferences and possible uptake of interventional neurotechnologies.

Predicting adoption of any new health intervention is essential for planning and prioritising investment in future clinical research. The team will work with people with lived experience to co-design and develop the tool, based on designing a hypothetical gamified health market in which people think in depth about how they would trade-off health outcomes against other commodities. They can then show how this can be embedded within health economic modelling to better guide funding, investment and prioritisation decisions.

Prof Seymour says: ‘We’re really excited about this opportunity to think clearly and openly about the really transformational interventions that we can design and be part in some way of the next generation of treatments of neurological and mental health challenges. We’re an interdisciplinary team spanning clinical neuroscience, behavioural and health economics, computational psychology, and game theory. We work together as part of the Oxford Health BRC, and have come together with WBS to create this unique team that spans cutting-edge science and health policy’.

Meet the teams:

Mel’s team includes:

• Charlotte Stagg, Professor of Neurophysiology, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford
• Matthew Weightman, Postdoctoral Researcher, Wellcome Institute for Integrative Neuroimaging University of Oxford,
• Anton Pick, Clinical Lead Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust
• Jessica Walsh, Senior Translational Research Manager, Translational Research Group, University College London
• Eleanor Martin, Principal Research Fellow, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London

Ben’s team includes:

• Apostolos Tsiachristas, Associate Professor of Health Economics, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences and Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford
• Wako Yoshida, Senior Researcher, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford
• Professor Nick Chater, Professor of Behavioural Science, Warwick BusinessSchool, University of Warwick

About the programme:

ARIA is an R&D funding agency created to unlock technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. Sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, they fund teams of scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of what is scientifically and technologically possible.

Led by Programme Director Jacques Carolan, and backed by £69 million over four years, ARIA are funding 18 teams with expertise across a myriad of disciplines and a strong institutional mix, spanning academia, non-profit R&D organisations, and startups. Together, they’ll unlock new ways to interface with the brain at the circuit level, understand the human challenges to adoption, and design future technologies for greater inclusivity and equity.

Read more: https://www.aria.org.uk/opportunity-spaces/scalable-neural-interfaces/precision-neurotechnologies

Original article reproduced with kind permission of Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences