spring NEWSLETTER 2010 The Bionic Ear Institutebionicsinstitute.org/.../10/Newsletter-Spring10.pdf · eminent clinician, who has recently been awarded the Lister Medal from the Royal

Institute appoints Honorary Clinical Research FellowshipsThe Institute welcomes eight eminent clinicians as Honorary Clinical Research Fellows. These new appointments are in recognition of the vital role played by clinicians in the translation of medical bionics technology into clinical solutions and outcomes.

The Institute has an ambitious vision to become the world’s pre-eminent medical bionics institute through our translational research program covering the three key themes of bionic hearing, bionic vision, and neurobionics. Within each of these broad themes, we have invited eminent clinicians in Melbourne to become Honorary Clinical Research Fellows to provide the strong clinical links and guidance that the Institute requires to reach our goals.

We have traditionally had strong clinical links and guidance in bionic hearing from our Founder, Professor Graeme Clark AC, a very eminent clinician, who has recently been awarded the Lister Medal from the Royal College of Surgeons of England for his work on the Bionic Ear. This prestigious award was celebrated at Graeme’s 75th birthday dinner hosted at the University of Melbourne last month. There are only two other Australians to win the Lister Medal, Sir Peter Morris for transplant surgery and Sir Howard Florey for his work in penicillin. We congratulate Professor Clark on being awarded this prestigious prize.

Our current Honorary Clinical Research Fellows in bionic hearing are: Professor Stephen O’Leary, Professor Richard Dowell, Mr Michael Tykocinski and Dr Marcus Dahm. In neurobionics, Professor David Castle, Professor Paul Fitzgerald, and Urologist, Dr Helen O’Connell, join Professor Mark Cook who has worked with the Institute for many years to develop a device for the detection and suppression of epileptic seizures.

These new and existing collaborations will enable the Institute to continue exploring scientific and clinical research questions across the broad field of medical bionics. For example, we are beginning to explore the use of deep brain stimulation for the treatment of obsessive/compulsive disorder with Professor David Castle and the treatment of refractory depression with Professor Paul Fitzgerald.

Medical Bionics can improve health outcomes by replacing, enhancing or monitoring damaged organs using devices that interface with the human body.

s p r i n g N E W S L E T T E R 2 0 1 0

The Bionic EarInstitute

Director’s MessageWelcome to our Spring newsletter! Change is in the air! Our newsletter contains a number of interesting stories about our research, our staff and exciting progress in medical bionics that I hope you find interesting. A significant new institute initiative has been the development of our Honorary Clinical Research Fellowship scheme. As an independent medical research institute it is essential that BEI scientists and engineers maintain a very close dialogue with our clinical colleagues in order ensure our research is focused on clinical delivery. A number of Melbourne’s eminent clinicians have accepted our invitation to become Honorary Clinical Research Fellows of the institute in recognition of the close collaborative links we have developed. I welcome our inaugural Fellows to this scheme and look forward to a long and productive research association with each one. Additional Fellows will be announced in the near future.

A second theme of this newsletter reflects the importance for institutes such as ours to establish and nurture international research collaborations as science is truly an international language! Over the past year we have been delighted to host a number of international visitors including A/Prof Ian Bruce from McMaster University in Canada, and Anette Fransson from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. You will read their experiences of living and working in Melbourne – one of the world’s great cities! We look forward to maintaining our research links with both Anette and Ian.

Finally, I would like to mention an article highlighting one of our very talented PhD students – Rosemary Cicione. It is vital that organisations like ours nurture young students such as Rosie – they will be the next generation of researchers that will be responsible for discoveries in medical science that we have not even dreamt of!

“I am delighted to accept this appointment as Honorary Clinical Research Fellow. My clinical experience with patients affected by the most severe forms of chronic depression strongly reinforces the need for new and more-effective treatments. I look forward to engaging in innovative research with the Institute to develop advanced techniques for alleviating these disabling and distressing conditions. Where conventional treatments provide little benefit, electrical stimulation techniques based on the highly successful Bionic Ear implant offer new hope for these patients. In collaboration with the Institute, we have the potential to become global leaders in the development and application of this rapidly emerging technology.”

– Professor Paul B Fitzgerald

Professor Paul B Fitzgerald Professor of Psychiatry, Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAP-RC), The Alfred and Monash University

www.bionicear.org

More than 50,000 Australians, and many more globally, suffer from severe to total visual impairment. Blindness has a profound effect on the quality of life for sufferers and their families. It also greatly impacts the community and costs Australia in excess of $3 billion annually. The emotional and psychological costs are immeasurable.

The Bionic Ear Institute is a member of the Bionic Vision Australia consortium (BVA). BVA is a partnership of five world-leading research institutes collaborating to develop an advanced Bionic Eye. The other team members are the Centre for Eye Research Australia, National ICT Australia, The University of Melbourne, and The University of New South Wales. The Australian National University and the University of Western Sydney are project partners.

At the Institute, innovative Bionic Eye technology and stimulation techniques have been developed over the past year. Our research has concentrated so far on an experimental ‘wide view’ electrode array which can electrically stimulate a relatively large area of the retina (the structure that normally converts light into neural activity). This electrode array can be used to apply artificial stimulation across a broad region of the retina in patients with total blindness. One version of the electrode array is made of soft biocompatible materials that mould to the shape of the eye to facilitate implantation. Initial studies are showing that this approach simplifies the surgery for implantation and reduces the risk of surgical complications.

As we hope that the first patients may be implanted with this experimental device as soon as 2012, we have recently started to develop equipment and procedures that will enable research studies to be carried out efficiently with them. Our plan is for the first patients to receive the electrode array for a limited period of time, during which we will carefully investigate exactly what they can perceive with it. These studies will involve stimulation being presented through each of the electrodes in the array, both singly and in various combinations. The patients will be asked to describe what they see – including the size, shape, and position of the artificial images – and their reports will be related to the parameters of the electrical stimulation. For example, based on our experience with the Bionic Ear, we anticipate that stimulation at higher current levels will produce visual

sensations that are more intense. Once we have mapped out the specific relationships between the stimulation parameters and the perception of the patients, we will be able to guide the individual fitting of the vision processor. In collaboration with our BVA partners, we hope to have both a wearable processor and the detailed information needed to fit this to each patient available within the next two years. With this system, the first patients will be able to carry a small video camera connected to the processor unit to see objects in their immediate environment. However, because the wide-view electrode array has a limited number of electrodes, we expect that these patients may experience difficulty in perceiving fine details. Most likely their bionic vision will assist them with mobility and enable them to recognise common objects.

If preliminary research with the first patients and devices is successful, the BVA consortium will proceed towards implantation of a ‘high acuity’ Bionic Eye. This device, which is already under development, will have approximately 1000 electrodes, and should therefore provide much better vision. The Bionic Ear Institute will contribute its expertise, particularly on biological safety studies and in neurophysiology, to the ongoing research with this device.

We acknowledge the generous support from BVA’s Special Research Initiative in Bionic Vision Science and Technology from the Australian Research Council; The Ian Potter Foundation; and John T Reid Charitable Trusts.

Bionic Eye within our sights

Photograph of the back of the eye (retina) showing the location of an implanted wide-view electrode array

‘Wide view’ electrode array (magnified 5 times)

Left to Right: A/Prof Chris Williams, Dr Mark McCombe (CERA), and Dr Penny Allen (CERA)

Rosemary is in her second year of her PhD candidature at the Bionic Ear Institute and a member of the Bionic Vision Australia team. She completed her Masters in Biomedical Engineering at Latrobe University in 2008 and was encouraged to visit the Institute and observe the different areas of research being carried out. The chance to be a part of an exciting and pioneering research team aiming to produce a prototype bionic eye in the next few years was an opportunity too good to miss. Rosemary says, “How cool is it that you could make someone see again! The bionic ear has worked so well. If we can have the same success with a bionic eye, then that would just be wonderful.”

A bionic eye aims to restore vision in blind patients through stimulation of nerve cells (neurons) in the retina using electrical pulses. Rosemary recognises that it is important

that electrical stimulation does not cause any further damage to the retina yet is strong enough to elicit a response in the remaining neurons. Her research requires both engineering and biological know-how and is investigating the different modes of electrical stimulation of the retina required to produce activity in the visual parts of the brain. Rosemary’s research will help guide the stimulation strategies used in our very first retinal implant.

Rosemary receives a La Trobe University Postgraduate Research Scholarship and is supervised by Institute researchers Associate Professor Chris Williams and Dr. Mohit Shivdasani, and Mr. Graeme Rathbone from the School of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at La Trobe University. Next year she hopes to attend the premier international meeting for eye research – the Association

for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology conference – in Florida, USA. With dedicated sessions on bionic eye research at this conference, she is excited by the prospect of representing the Bionic Ear Institute and presenting her findings to an international audience.

Student Profile: Rosemary Cicione

Dr Mohit Shivdasani and Rosemary Cicone

Associate Professor Ian Bruce from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) recently chose to spend a 12 month sabbatical at the Bionic Ear Institute (June 2009 – June 2010). He has maintained strong links with the Institute since completing his PhD at the Institute in 1998.

His current research focuses on using engineering methods to study and model the mechanisms that contribute to hearing loss with the aim of improving the performance of hearing aids and cochlear implants. In collaboration with Institute researchers Dr James Fallon, Dr Andrew Wise and Prof Robert Shepherd, and the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (University of Melbourne), he examined ways in which the coding of temporal (time-based) aspects of sounds could be improved in cochlear implants.

Ian used computational modelling techniques to compare how the auditory nerve responds to sounds compared to electrical activation via a cochlear implant.

These types of experiments can identify the limitations of the auditory nerve’s response and therefore can guide the development of new speech processing strategies in cochlear implants.

Ms Anette Fransson works in the Center for Hearing and Communication Research at the Karolinska Institute – Sweden’s highest ranking university and home of several Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine. Her research has focused on ways of enhancing the survival of auditory neurons following deafness by introducing neuron survival factors (neurotrophins) into the cochlea and examining the resulting changes in function and structure.

The Bionic Ear Institute’s international reputation and common research focus led Anette to spend six months study leave with us (January – June 2010). Working primarily with Institute researcher Dr Andrew Wise, she examined how treatment with neurotrophins, combined with a cochlear implant, affected the degenerative changes in auditory cells following deafness. On leaving, Dr Fransson said she had greatly enjoyed her work at the Bionic Ear Institute and her stay in Melbourne. She particularly liked the mixture of different cultures in Melbourne and the fact that there was always something going on – both culturally and academically.

Bionic Ear Institute researcher Dr James Fallon (left) and Associate Professor Ian Bruce

Visiting Swedish researcher Anette Fransson

International Researchers Visit Institute

s p r i n g N E W S L E T T E R 2 0 1 0

In July, Kilmore resident, Donna Brown raised $2,500 for the Institute’s hearing research by running her first half marathon in The Age’s Run Melbourne event.

Donna is the mother of five year old Alana, a bilateral cochlear implant recipient. Alana was born profoundly deaf and received her first cochlear implant at 16 months and her second at 22 months. Now a healthy and happy five year old, Alana’s passion is for music and dancing and she has recently performed solo at a dance school concert.

We wish to thank all the family and friends of the Brown family who supported Donna’s fundraiser.

A family poem dedicated to Alana:

We cried the day that we found out, she could not hear a whisper even a shout.

Sounds of music and birds that sing she couldn’t hear a single thing.

Now a miracle has made her hear, it brought us hope and joy and many more tears.

Now our girl can hear these things, can dance and move and even sing.

New Music for Bionic EarsCochlear implants are currently successful in restoring speech perception to the profoundly deaf. However, musical perception and appreciation are still a problem for many cochlear implant recipients.

Musician, composer and sound artist Robin Fox is leading a group of five other composers in collaboration with researchers at the Bionic Ear Institute. They are creating a series of six new musical works specifically designed for music lovers with impaired hearing.

These innovative musical works will be performed at a concert where people with both impaired hearing and natural hearing will be able to enjoy and discuss their experiences together, perhaps for the first time. The Institute will use the opportunity to receive feedback from concert attendees to help with our research in designing the next generation of bionic ear.

On Sunday 13 February 2011 two concerts will be held at the George Fairfax Studio, Victoria Arts Centre in Melbourne. Ticket availability and costs will be publicised in December and January on our website, www.bionicear.org, or you can contact our Public Relations team on 03 9667 7500.

Donna Runs for Hearing Research

Kyle Slater

The concert is generously supported by The Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Victoria, the Cochlear Foundation, Arts Access Victoria and was initiated through a Synapse Residency presented by the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) in partnership with Arts Access Australia. We are also grateful for the support from the Cochlear Implant Clinic, Department of Otolarynology, University of Melbourne.

Proudly Supported by Woodards Real Estatewww.woodards.com.au

Graphic Design by Nuttshell Graphicswww.nuttshell.com.au

NUTTSHELL GRAPHICS

PhD Student Awarded First Place in IET South Pacific FinalKyle Slater, a PhD student at the Bionic Ear Institute was awarded first place at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) “South Pacific Present Around the World” competition for his final year University of Melbourne Electrical Engineering project, SoundBeam.

SoundBeam is a highly directional speaker Kyle developed, that uses an array of ultrasonic transducers to generate a narrow beam of audible sound.

Eight state finalists from Australia and New Zealand competed for their place in the global final held in London this month.

Kyle is now part of the psychophysics research team at the Bionic Ear Institute working on the bionic eye.

We acknowledge the generosity of the members of the Country Women’s Association of Victoria who chose the Institute as their charity partner for their Thanksgiving Fund in 2009 – 2010 and donated $20,000 to our medical bionics research. We congratulate the members for their commitment and support throughout the year.

Thanksgiving Fund raised $20,000

Helen Christie, President, Country Women’s Association being presented with a Certificate of Appreciation by the Bionic Ear Institute’s Director, Professor Rob Shepherd