The University of Washington’s Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering has been granted $16 million dollars over the next 4 years to carry out research that hopefully will one day allow people who have been paralyzed by injury or stroke to move their limbs.

The research centers on attempting to create a device to implant into the brain that can send signals between regions of the brain or nervous system that no longer communicate with each other because of injury.

Of course, there are many hurdles to jump over before the device is ready for testing (hopefully in 8-10 years). They must develop powerful algorithms to correctly decipher brain signals and deliver the information to the right part of the brain. They must develop a device that can be embedded in the brain without the brain developing scar tissue around it that may make the device malfunction. And, interestingly, they must consider the ethical ramification of using such devices. The grant specifically provides money to study these ethical ramifications.

You can read about all of this here:

[UW brain implant could help paralyzed limbs move again](http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/uw-working-on-device-that-could-help-the-paralyzed-move-again/)

The implications for patients, including many of our former, current and future clients, with brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, strokes, and other paralyzing conditions are staggering.