Brain disease is a growing socioeconomic problem. In the US, chronic pain affects over 100 million people, with over $600B annual cost; Alzheimer’s disease affects 5.4 million people, with the cost of care exceeding sales of Google; another 5 million live with long-term disability as a result of traumatic brain injury, and there are millions with epilepsy. Drug therapy has failed. The development of neuromodulation technology has become a major medical and social priority.
While much progress has been made in generating brain-machine interface and restoring limb movement, it is much more difficult to restore memories, especially declarative memories, or treat network-scale neuropsychiatric indications. Fueled by insights from clinical neuroscience and engineering, I will discuss a leading-edge technology that can make the fulfillment of memory restoration and the treatment of neuropsychiatric symptoms highly likely.
Biography:
Dejan Marković is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also affiliated with UCLA Bioengineering Department, Neuroengineering field. He completed the Ph.D. degree in 2006 at the University of California, Berkeley, for which he was awarded 2007 David J. Sakrison Memorial Prize. His current research is focused on implantable neuromodulation systems, domain-specific compute architectures, embedded systems, and design methodologies. Dr. Marković co-founded Flex Logix Technologies, a semiconductor IP startup, in 2014. He received an NSF CAREER Award in 2009. In 2010, he was a co-recipient of ISSCC Jack Raper Award for Outstanding Technology Directions. Most recently, he received the 2014 ISSCC Lewis Winner Award for Outstanding Paper.