In a move that put Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc. on a path to walk over other firms developing exoskeletons, the company acquired the Human Motion and Control (HMC) business unit from Parker Hannifin Corp. The deal expands Ekso’s lower-limb exoskeleton line to include the Indego Personal and Indego Therapy devices, which like its own exoskeleton platform, help patients recovering from stroke or spinal cord injuries walk again. The transaction also includes the development of related robotic-assisted orthotic and prosthetic devices.

Stimulating the brain via implanted electrodes is used to treat both movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, and some psychiatric conditions such as obsessive compulsive disorder. But researchers are also working on ways to make such implanted electrodes listen instead of talk – and translate neuronal signals for people that have lost the ability speak, or the ability to move.

Stimulating the brain via implanted electrodes is used to treat both movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, and some psychiatric conditions such as obsessive compulsive disorder. But researchers are also working on ways to make such implanted electrodes listen instead of talk – and translate neuronal signals for people that have lost the ability speak, or the ability to move. At the Neurophysiology: Decoding and Neural Processing II session of the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, researchers from the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering (Switzerland) presented a device implanted in the brain that allowed restoration of movement and speech.

Researchers at the Neurorestore research center created a device that allows paralyzed patients with no sensation in their legs to walk again, providing hope for others with complete spinal injury. More remarkably, the team discovered the specific neurons that take over the signaling function between the brain and muscles to permit movement in response to the device’s electrical stimulation, offering a path forward for researchers, clinicians and patients affected by a wide range of neurological disorders.

Kringle Pharma Inc.’s phase II trial evaluating its recombinant human hepatocyte growth factor ligand, oremepermin alfa, failed to meet both primary and secondary endpoints in a study of its potential to help people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Onward Medical NV reported initial patient enrollment in its Hemon early feasibility study and first-in-human trial of its ARC implantable pulse generator. The study will examine stabilization of hemodynamic function in patients with a spinal cord injury. It is taking place at Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV). “Implanting into a human for the first time is an important step forward for our neurostimulation technology, designed to help refine and implement epidural stimulation therapy in patients with spinal cord injury,” Dave Marver, CEO of Onward, told BioWorld.

PARIS – Two months after successfully listing on Euronext Brussels and Euronext Amsterdam stock exchanges, raising nearly $100 million, Onward Medical NV reported completion of enrollment in its Up-LIFT study on its noninvasive electrical spinal cord stimulation, called Arc therapy.

Using a minimally invasive brain implant, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research scientists produced tingling sensations in the fingers of patients who lacked the sense of touch as a result of nerve damage, according to a study published in Brain Stimulation. A second study by the team, which appeared in Frontiers in Neuroscience, used stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) electrodes to decode neural signals to improve the hand control algorithms in brain-computer interfaces.