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Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

Machine Biointerface Lab: Overview

Dr. Fridman's research group invents and develops bioelectronics for Neuroengineering and Medical Instrumentation applications. We develop innovative medical technology and we also conduct the necessary biological studies to understand how the technology could be effective and safe for people.

Our lab is currently focused on developing the "Safe Direct Current Stimulation" technology, or SDCS. Unlike the currently available commercial neural prosthetic devices, such as cochlear implants, pacemakers, or Parkinson's deep brain stimulators that can only excite neurons, SDCS can excite, inhibit, and even sensitize them to input. This new technology opens a door to a wide range of applications that we are currently exploring along with device development: e.g. peripheral nerve stimulation for suppressing neuropathic pain, vestibular nerve stimulation to correct balance disorders, vagal nerve stimulation to suppress an asthma attack, and a host of other neuroprosthetic applications.

Medical Instrumentation MouthLab is a "tricorder" device that we invented here in the Machine Biointerface Lab. The device currently obtains all vital signs within 60s: Pulse rate, breathing rate, temperature, blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation, electrocardiogram, and FEV1 (lung function) measurement. Because the device is in the mouth, it has access to saliva and to breath and we are focused now on expanding its capability to obtaining measures of dehydration and biomarkers that could be indicative of a wide range of internal disorders ranging from stress to kidney failure and even lung cancer.

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Latest Research

See the latest research from this lab in PubMed and Google Scholar.

Principal Investigator

Gene Y. Fridman, PhD

  • Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

Collaborators

Lab Members

  • Kelly Lane
  • Felix Aplin
  • Raviraj Thakur
  • Dilawer Singh
  • Golnoosh Kamali
  • Ankitha Rajagopalan Nair
  • Chojun Cheng

Publications

  • Chang AD, Berges VA, Chung SJ, Fridman GY, Baraban JM, Reti IM.  High Frequency Stimulation at the Subthalamic Nucleus Suppresses Excessive Self-Grooming in Autism-Like Mouse Models. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2015 Nov 26. doi: 10.1038/npp.2015.350. [Epub ahead of print]  PMID: 26606849
  • Fridman GY, Tang H, Feller-Kopman D, Hong Y. MouthLab: A Tricorder Concept Optimized for Rapid Medical Assessment. Ann Biomed Eng. 2015 Sep;43(9):2175-84. doi: 10.1007/s10439-015-1247-1. Epub 2015 Jan 21. PubMed PMID: 25605586.
  • Hageman KN, Kalayjian ZK, Tejada F, Chiang B, Rahman MA, Fridman GY, Dai C, Pouliquen PO, Georgiou J, Della Santina CC, Andreou AG. A CMOS Neural Interface for a Multichannel Vestibular Prosthesis. IEEE Trans Biomed Circuits Syst. 2015 May 11. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 25974945.
  • Fridman GY, Della Santina CC., Safe direct current stimulator 2: concept and design. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2013;2013:3126-9. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2013.6610203  PMID: 24110390
  • Valentin NS, Hageman K, Dai C, Della Santina CC,  Fridman GY, “Development of a Multichannel Vestibular Prosthesis Prototype by Modification of a Commercially Available Cochlear Implant, IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2013 May 1. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 23649285
  • Fridman GY, Della Santina CC, “Safe Direct Current Stimulation to Expand Capabilities of Neural Prostheses”, IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2013 May 1. PubMed PMID: 23649285
  • Davidovics NS, Rahman MA, Dai C, Ahn JH, Fridman GY, Della Santina CC, “Multichannel Vestibular Prosthesis Employing Modulation of Pulse Rate and Current with Alignment Precompensation Elicits Improved VOR Performance in Monkeys”, J Assoc Res Otolaryngol. 2013 Apr;14(2):233-48. doi: 10.1007/s10162-013-0370-7. Epub 2013 Jan 26. PubMed PMID: 23355001; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3660911
  • Fridman GY, Della Santina CC., “Progress toward development of a multichannel vestibular prosthesis for treatment of bilateral vestibular deficiency.”, Anat Rec (Hoboken). 2012 Nov;295(11):2010-29. doi: 10.1002/ar.22581. Epub 2012 Oct 8
  • Davidovics NS, Fridman GY, Della Santina CC., “Co-modulation of stimulus rate and current from elevated baselines expands head motion encoding range of the vestibular prosthesis.”, Exp Brain Res. 2012 May;218(3):389-400. doi: 10.1007/s00221-012-3025-8. Epub 2012 Feb 19.
  • Sun D.Q., Rahman MA, Fridman GY, Chiang B, Dai C, Della Santina CC, “Chronic Stimulation of the Semicircular Canals Using a Multichannel Vestibular Prosthesis: Effects on Locomotion and Angular Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex in Chinchillas”, Conf. Proc. IEEE 33rd Annual EMBC Conference, Boston, MA 2011
  • Rahman MA, Dai C, Fridman GY, Davidovics NS, Chiang B, Ahn JH, Hayden R, Melvin TN, Sun DQ, and Della Santina CC, “Restoring the 3D Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex via Electrical Stimulation: The Johns Hopkins Multichannel Vestibular Prosthesis Project” Conf. Proc. IEEE 33rd Annual EMBC Conference, Boston, MA 2011 
  • Dai, C, Fridman GY, Chiang B, Davidovics NS, Melvin TA, Cullen KE, Della Santina CC, “Cross-axis adaptation improves 3D vestiblulo-ocular reflex alignment during chronic stimulation via a head-mounted multichannel vestibular prosthesis”, Exp Brain Res. 2011 May;210(3-4):595-606. Epub 2011 Mar 4.
  • Chiang B, Fridman G, Dai C, Della Santina C, “Design and performance of a multichannel vestibular prosthesis that restores semicircular canal sensation in macaques.”,  IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2011 Oct;19(5):588-98. Epub 2011 Aug 18.
  • Dai C, Fridman GY, Della Santina CC. “Effects of Vestibular Prosthesis Electrode Implantation and Stimulation on Hearing in Rhesus Monkey”, Hear Res. 2011 Jul;277(1-2):204-10. Epub 2010 Dec 31.
  • Della Santina CC, Migliaccio AA, Hayden R, Melvin TA, Fridman GY, Chiang B, Davidovics NS, Dai C, Carey JP, Minor LB, Anderson ICW, Park H, Lyford-Pike S, Tang S,  “Current and Future Management of Bilateral Loss of Vestibular Sensation – An update on the Johns Hopkins Multichannel Vestibular Prosthesis Project,” Cochlear Implants International 2010 Sept 11(s2): 2-11.
  • Davidovics NS, Fridman GY, Chiang B, Della Santina CC, “Effects of biphasic current pulse frequency, amplitude, duration and interphase gap on eye movement responses to prosthetic electrical stimulation of the vestibular nerve”, IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2011 Feb;19(1):84-94. Epub 2010 Sep 2.
  • Fridman GY., Davidovics NS, Dai CC, Migliaccio AA, Della Santina CC “Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex Responses to a Multichannel Vestibular Prosthesis Incorporating a 3D Coordinate Transformation for Correction of Misalignment”, J Assoc Res Otolaryngol. 2010 Sep;11(3):367-81. Epub 2010 Feb 23.
  • Fridman GY, Blair HT, Blaisdell AP,  Judy JW. “Perceived intensity of somatosensory cortical electrical stimulation”, Exp Brain Res. 2010 Jun; 203(3):499-515.
  • Jacobs AL, Fridman GY, Douglas RM, Alam NJ, Latham PE, Prusky GT, Nirenberg S, (2009) “Ruling Out and Ruling in Neural Codes”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 106 (14): 5936-5941 April 7, 2009
  • Litvak LM, Spahr AJ, Saoji AA, Fridman GY, (2007) “Relationship Between Perception of Spectral Ripple and Speech Recognition in Cochlear Implant and Vocoder Listeners”, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 122 (2): 982-991 AUG 2007
  • Fridman GY, Blair HT, Blaisdell AP, Judy JW, “Somatosensory Feedback to Improve Brain-Machine Interfaces:  Stimulation Studies in Rat Whisker Barrel Somatosensory Cortex”, 2007 3rd International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, Vols 1 and 2  Pages: 379-385 

Funding

Learn more about the Machine Biointerface Lab’s funding.