Brazil to Implant World’s First Robotic Arm into a Human

The Syrian-Lebanese Hospital, in the southeastern Brazilian city of São Paulo, is going to perform the first surgery in the world for implantation of robotic arms into a human being, to be moved by brain signals.

The agreement for realization of the surgery was signed last month with the Santos Dumont Association for Support to Research. The surgery is scheduled to take place in three years.


“This is an innovative technique which is going to bring a great advance,” stated the hospital’s corporate superintendent, Maurí­cio Ceschin.


According to him, this was a great discovery that has been developed by Duke University, in the United States, and coordinated by Brazilian neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis, who is the director of the Neuroscience Laboratory at the university and established the Santos Dumont Association.


According to Ceschin, the technique consists on implanting a microchip into the human brain to translate the nerve pulses into electric pulses, making it possible for the patient to move robotic prosthetics.


Tests were made at Duke University on monkeys that had electrodes implanted into the regions of their brains that are associated with movement.


The monkeys underwent an experiment in which they had to control a joystick and accompany the trajectory of a cursor on a computer screen.


The cursor movements were transmitted to a robotic arm that was installed in a room in front of the one in which the monkey was.


The second step was to remove the joystick from the monkey, who then noticed that the cursor was moved by brain waves, as if it were an extension of its body.


Nicolelis believes that the adult brain has such a great adaptation capacity that it is possible to incorporate an external member.


In Brazil


According to Ceschin, up to the execution of the first surgery for implantation of robotic arms moved by brain signals, the Education and Teaching Institute of the Syrian-Lebanese hospital will have a laboratory turned to research in neuroscience, where new tests will take place before the first surgery.


The superintendent also stated that a team of hospital neurosurgeons is getting ready to apply the new technique. “It will still take between two and three years for tests to be concluded on animals. The doctors must feel secure,” he said.


Nicolelis established the Santos Dumont Association for Support to Research to present this new project in Brazil. He created an international network of neuroscience institutions, based in Switzerland, and the Syrian-Lebanese hospital is part of this partnership, together with centers in the United States, Jerusalem, Japan and Natal, in the northeastern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte, where the project is still being developed.


The Mentor


Miguel í‚ngelo Laporta Nicolelis was born in São Paulo, graduated in medicine from the University of São Paulo (USP), where he also got a doctor’s degree in neurophysiology. Nicolelis also got a doctors degree at Hahnemann University, in Philadelphia, United States.


Nicolelis currently runs the neuroscience laboratory at Duke University, which is considered the largest laboratory in the sector in the world. At the same university he is the Neurobiology and Biomedical Engineering chair, and joint director of the Neuroengineering Center.


Duke University is in the city of Durham, in North Carolina and its history began in 1838, when it was a rural school. The university is currently one of the main education, research, and medical care institutions in the world.


ANBA – www.anba.com.br

Tags:

You May Also Like

US’s Latest Effort to Break Brazil’s Trade Barriers

US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez arrived today, October 8, in Uruguay as part ...

Brazil’s Gol Airlines Ends Year with New Routes and Tricks

Brazil Airline Gol announced it will equip its new Boeing 737-800 Next Generation aircraft ...

Brazilian Students and Workers Represented at World Social Forum

Demonstrators from all over the world, human rights activists or just people opposed to ...

Chinese Ask for Less Red Tape in Their Dealings with Brazil

Brazilian Vice President, José Alencar, on the second day of his trip to China, ...

Exchange Students Leave Close to US$ 300 Million in Brazil Every Year

Brazil receives about 60,000 foreign students per year, according to information from a research ...

LETTERS

TerminologyBy Brazzil Magazine

Brazil’s Lula Will Not Attend Arafat’s Funeral

In an official note, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations lamented the death of ...

Past Bird Flu Scare Brazilian Firm Back to Killing One Million Chickens a Day

The world president of the Doux Group, Charles Doux, and the director for institutional ...

Brazil Fashion Label Mabel Magalhí£es at Home in France, US and Middle East

Luxury dresses, the ones that are long, rich in details, draped and embroidered with ...

Razing History in Brazil

I come back to reality. The dwelling inhabited by the famous writer Clarice Lispector ...