Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, and Arizona State University (ASU) announced the launch of a grant program that will team research scientists and clinicians from both institutions to develop solutions for patients. The inaugural Mayo Clinic and ASU Team Science Grants will fund biomedical sensing, functional restoration, and biomedical imaging/informatics themed projects-one of which involves upper-limb prosthetics. Together Mayo Clinic and ASU have committed up to $2.7 million in funding that will be split among three multidisciplinary research teams for these collaborative efforts.
The three teams will be jointly led by faculty from both institutions. A description of the project that pertains to O&P follows:
A multidisciplinary approach to optimize integration of sensory feedback for prosthetic applications in people with upper-limb loss: A multidisciplinary team will work to enhance intuitive motor control and the ability for those with upper-limb loss to feel with their prostheses. The project will test and validate sensor technologies integrated with a prosthesis to address the unmet needs of individuals who have upper-limb loss. Coprincipal investigators are Kristin Zhao, PhD, Mayo Clinic, and Marco Santello, PhD, school director and professor with ASU’s School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.