The consortium

The FEEL EUROPE project includes a consortium of 2 partners from 2 European countries. In the past, thanks to several projects, the partners have shown the needed proficiency.

Partner 1: FhG-IBMT

The Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering is working in close collaboration with industry since its foundation in 1987. IBMT offers solutions in the areas of biomedical and medical engineering, biotechnology, health telematics, environmental control systems, material testing, home systems, air quality control in homes and cars, security systems as well as industrial process automation and in-line/on-line process control, in particular for food, chemical and pharmaceutical industry.

The research purpose of the department medical technology and neuroprosthetics at IBMT is the development and application of intelligent invasive and non-invasive interfaces to the neural system and their use for the stimulation and recording of bioelectrical potentials. The hard- and software components required for this purpose are developed and manufactured. The spectrum ranges from miniaturized, implantable electrodes, monitoring systems and signal processing to the application. All essential technological requirements, such as clean room, plasma equipment, parylene coating, electrode characterization, simulation environment etc. are available in the department.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering is involved in the work packages as coordinator, research and development of microelectrodes, encapsulation, microelectronic and for system integration. The FhG-IBMT has through several projects the experiences of coordination and management (MICROMEDICS, Jan. 2002 - June 2005, Access to and support for biomedical microdevices, IST-2001-32247; INTECS, January 2000 - December 2001, IST – 13368) as well as for all involved research and development parts (REBEC, Features Restoration of Bladder Function by Neuroprosthetics, QLG5-CT-2001-00822; CYBERHAND, Development of cybernetic hand prosthesis, IST-2001-35094; IMEX Implantierbare und extrakorporale modulare Mikrosystemtechnikplattform, BMBF, VDI/VDE-IT; SALIWELL Intelligent Micro-Sensor, Electro-Actuated, Stimulator for Salivary Glands, EU, IST Programme, IST-2001-37409; NEUROBOTICS- The fusion of Neuroscience and Robotics for augmenting human capabilities, EU, FP6-IST-001917)

Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Klaus-Peter Hoffmann
Klaus-Peter Hoffmann received the doctoral degree (Dr.-Ing.) in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Technology in Ilmenau, Germany, in 1987. He is currently a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Hochschule fuer Technik und Wirtschaft des Saarlandes and acting as the head of the Department Medical Engineering and Neuroprosthetics at the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering in St. Ingbert. From 1980 to 1993 he was a Research Fellow at the University clinic of Neurology in Jena and led the Neuroelectrodiagnostic group. In 1991/92, he was Visiting Honorary Research Fellow at the ASTON University in Birmingham (UK) for a period of four months. After 1993, he was acting as product line manager for devices in Neurology and Polysomnography at Madaus Schwarzer Medizintechnik GmbH & Co KG in Munich. Since 1996, he was Professor for Medical Devices and Medical Measurement Technology at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in Köthen, Germany. He founded the Institute of Medicine and Technology and acted as leading director. He also established the Biomedical Engineering Program and taught the course on Biomedical Engineering. From 1998 to 2003, he was Vice president of academic affairs at this University. His main research interests include the fields of clinical neurophysiology especially saccadic eye movement and Neuromonitoring as well as the field of Microsystems in Medicine especially sensors and actuators for Neuroprosthetics. He is the coordinator of national and European projects, and the author of more than 80 scientific papers and 10 book articles. He is also a member of the Board of Micro medicine of the German Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE) and member of the Board of Elsevier Neurophysiologie-Labor, Journal of neurophysiologic function diagnostics.
Professor Hoffmann is head of the working group “Neuroprosthetics”, a resource of the VDE. He was coordinator of the roadmap “Microsystems in Medicine”, a publication of the “VDE Initiative MicroMedicine within the German Association for Biomedical Engineering (DGBMT)”.

Key people: Dr.-Ing. Dara Feili, Andreas Schneider, Michael Schweigmann, Jochen Schmidt.

Partner 2: Facultad de Medicina Universidad Miguel Hernandez

The Miguel Hernández University (UMH) is a public young dynamic university, placed in the Southeast of Spain, a high economical and enterprising potential area. UMH is an advanced University equipped with the most modern infrastructures and technological equipment which make it possible to be strong in research, with specialized units directed by professional people of high prestige. During the Fifth Frame Programme, the UMH coordinated four important projects, one of them in the Innovation Area and the other in the environmental and health science fields. Furthermore, the UMH University was partner in more than 20 actions including cooperative and collaborative projects, coordination actions, specific measures and Marie Curie projects. Within the current Sixth Frame Programme, the UMH is participating in four IPs, one NoEs, four STREPs and two CRAFT projects and has an important participation within the Human Resources and Mobility Programme due to the excellent work of the young researchers that have been recently incorporated. The UMH also maintains an important activity cooperating with industry (mainly with SMEs and Industrial Associations).
Together with the biomedical groups of faculties of Medicine, engineering, chemical technology and computer science, the UMH-IB group constitutes the Bioengineering Institute (over 80 researchers) which has a large expertise in biomedical engineering and multidisciplinary research activities. A major topic in the research institute is the synergistic convergence of diverse and previously separated fields of science and technology to create key new neural interfaces. The Bioengineering Institute has established numerous research and collaborations with both academic and industrial partners all over Europe, USA and Asia. Furthermore the UMH-IB is linked to the professional world through agreements of collaboration with hospitals, companies and institutes in order to accelerate developments in medical technology and healthcare.
The UMH group participates regularly in the R&D programs of the European Union and is managing several European and National projects in the field of Neurotechnology and Neuroprosthesis. One of the main goals of the UMH group is to develop innovative solutions to the problems raised by interfacing the human nervous system and on this basis, develop a two-way direct communication with neurons and ensembles of neurons which could be applied to enhance the life of people that are affected by local neural deficiencies caused by accident or stroke, or to treat several neurodegenerative diseases (like e.g. Parkinson) more specifically and effectively. The Neuroprosthesis group has a fully equipped surgery room, electrophysiological recording equipments (including setups for multielectrode extracellular recordings, intracellular recordings and patch-clamp techniques) and all necessary facilities for light microscopy, electron microscopy, immunocytochemistry, biochemical techniques, morphometry and analysis of image including sophisticated series recontruction and 3D visualization techniques. It also has the personal and all necessary facilities for clinical neurophysiology and a fully equipped microelectronic lab.

Key People: The following key people will be involved in the proposed FEEL EUROPE project for UMH:

Prof. Eduardo Fernandez. He received the M.D. degree from the University of Alicante (1986) and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience with honors in 1990. He has been visiting professor at the University of Utah (USA), Oldenburg (Germany), Beth Israel and Harvard Medical School (USA) and Vienna (Austria). He is currently Professor and Chairman of the Department of Histology and Anatomy and Director of the Foundations of Vision and Neuroprostheses Division of the Bioengineering Institute of the University Miguel Hernández, Alicante (Spain). His research interest is in using morphological as well as electrophysiological techniques to understand the management and coding of visual information by population of neurons. He is also actively working on the development of neuroprostheses and brain-machine interfaces and coordinating an European Project which tries to demonstrate the feasibility of a neuroprostheses, interfaced with the occipital cortex, as a means through which a limited but useful sense of vision could be restored to profoundly blind. In the last 5 years he has been using histological and electrophysiological techniques to asses the response to implantation and general biocompatibility issues regarding intracortical microelectrodes. He is also working on brain plasticity and the development of a non-invasive methodology for the selection of suitable subjects for cortical prosthesis using fMRI and TMS techniques.

Key people: Dr. Marcelino Aviles, Sagrario Marcos, Markus Bongard, Magdalena Cornejo