Building the Future of Prosthetics with Cindy Chestek

SciFi to Reality

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Cindy Chestek about her work on signal processing for prosthetics and what the future of prosthetics might look like.
YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/gEp6Z-E0CVo
Our Website: https://www.scifitoreality.com/
Our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/RealSciFiToReality
Cindy's favorite SciFi book recommendations:
Lock In: https://amzn.to/2WWerwA
The Three Body Problem: https://amzn.to/3tlqY8v
Cindy's google scholar page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=36sxAZEAAAAJ Cindy's Research page: https://chestekresearch.engin.umich.edu/
Cindy's Twitter: https://twitter.com/chesteklab
Show Notes:
0:00 - Intro
1:15 - How do the muscle grafts that Cindy's lab work on get us larger signals from nerves? Here is a rather old research paper that gives a high level overview of nerve cuffs. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254428346_NERVE_CUFF_ELECTRODES_FOR_PROSTHETIC_AND_RESEARCH_APPLICATIONS
Presentation on some of Cindy's research: https://spotlight.engin.umich.edu/mind-control-prosthesis/
4:20 - Paul Cederna, the plastic surgeon who enables a lot of this work is mentioned: https://www.uofmhealth.org/profile/387/paul-stephen-cederna-md
5:18 - The work Cindy's lab is doing in the brain
9:47 - What are the limitations on current prosthetic research? DEKA arm https://www.analog.com/en/landing-pages/001/deka.html
The 5 finger Ozer hand Cindy mentions refers to the i-limb prosthetic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-LIMB_Hand
11:43 - If Cindy's lab had an infinitely capable prosthetic what could they do with their nerve signals?
12:22 - What prosthetic manufacturers Cindy's lab has been working with.
13:28 - What are the physical limits of prosthetic manufacturing?
15:47 - How long and what will the research path look like to make prosthetics better than our organic limbs?
18:19 - Going through the ethics of prosthetics and the risks. It is great to hear how important regulation is and how grateful Cindy is for their study participants.
22:12 - What an experiment for these prosthetics looks like.
23:16 - Cindy's take on scientific journalism
25:40 - Is Cindy's lab writing to nerves to simulate feeling as well? Yes, they are doing nerve stimulation as well. The University of Utah has some good work in this area: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5702130/
As does Case Western: https://engineering.case.edu/news/new-understanding-neural-language-gives-amputees-ability-discern-light-touch-intense-pressure
31:54 Cindy's work in brain-computer interfaces?
33:16 - Brain implants in the motor cortex for amputees?
35:32 - Cindy's favorite science fiction ideas: Lock-in: https://amzn.to/2WWerwA
38:47 - What other BCI companies are you excited about?
https://neuralink.com/
Stentrode based BCI https://synchron.com/
https://www.paradromics.com/
Despite Doug's protests, he was thinking of Synchron Neuralink pong video: https://youtu.be/rsCul1sp4hQ
41:28 - How do you work on what Cindy works on?
43:05 - Cindy's path on her career https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna_Shenoy
44:41 - What Cindy would like you to check out: The Three Body problem: https://amzn.to/3tlqY8v
Chong Xie's electrodes from Rice: https://news.rice.edu/2020/09/14/gentle-probes-could-enable-massive-brain-data-collection/ His research: https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Chong-Xie-2117777010
Nick Melosh's BCI work: https://www.meloshgroup.com/neural-interface
Brain Controlled stimulation of a paralyzed limb at Case Western: https://thedaily.case.edu/man-quadriplegia-employs-injury-bridging-technologies-move-just-thinking/