After the success of the LifeHand2 project, the aim is now to further strengthen the Italian network of clinical and research skills. The ITT of Genoa and the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa are also involved. Every year 3.600 amputations or malformations involve the upper limb
Rome, 2 April 2014 - Develop and make a high-tech hand prosthesis usable, based on the use of neural interfaces, which allow it to communicate directly with the brain of the amputee. This is the challenge of the research project which now brings together theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma and the Inail Prosthetic Center in Vigorso di Budrio (Bologna). L'three-year agreement, financed by Inail, was just signed this morning by Henry Lanzone, Director of the Prosthesis Center, and by Andrea Onetti Muda e Paolo Sormanirespectively Rector and Director General of the University.
After the collaborations started in recent months with the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) of Genoa, to develop a robotic hand, and with the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa, to create a prototype of a finger phalanx capable of restoring sensitivity to the person who will wear the prosthesis, Inail adds the last piece to its development plan for upper limb prostheses. “Thanks to this new collaboration – underlines the President of Inail, Massimo De Felice the Institute further strengthens its commitment to the search for technologically advanced solutions which its clients can benefit from. Also in this case, in fact, the excellence of the Campus Bio-Medico in the field of scientific innovation is destined to integrate effectively with the application experience gained by our Center in the field of prosthetics and rehabilitation".
PPR2 – this is the name of the project that officially started today with the signing of the agreement – has in particular as its objective the development of neural connectors capable of detecting the neuro-electrical signal for the control of technologically advanced prostheses, giving back to the amputee some forms of perception "proprioceptive", i.e. the ability to recognize the position of one's hand and arm in space and to receive sensory information. Fundamental functions for the effective control of the prosthesis in the daily manipulation of objects. New impulses are also expected from the research activity for the treatment of the so-called phantom limb pain, the neurological syndrome that causes severe pain in amputees, giving them the feeling of still being in possession of the missing limb and of having this limb as crushed by a press.
"We are very happy with the partnership with Inail – explains the Rector Andrea Onetti Muda – because it will allow us to make the results of our studies on sensory hand prostheses connected with neural interfaces to the nervous system concretely applicable on a large scale. Furthermore, being able to have dedicated spaces for our researchers within the Vigorso Center in Budrio, it will be easier and more immediate to obtain feedback on research and get ideas for any new applications".
The signing of the agreement takes place two months after publication in the magazine Science Translational Medicine of the results obtained with phase 2 of the LifeHand program. A European project which, alongside foreign groups such as the EPFL of Lausanne, has seen the Campus Bio-Medico of Rome and the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa involved precisely in the experimental and temporary implantation of a biomechatronic hand prosthesis. Also from these results it is now a matter of restarting for the development of a definitively implantable solution. All this, starting today, with the clinical experience of the Inail Prosthesis Center, which has 11.000 patients assisted every year. “The project is part of a broad development plan for upper limb prosthetics involving fingers, hands and arms – explains the Director of the Centre, Enrico Lanzone – A project that Inail, through the Prosthesis Center of Vigorso di Budrio, is developing with important research institutes. We intend to develop a series of innovative devices and advanced solutions to improve prosthetic systems for the upper limb and make them more accessible to our patients".
To confirm the importance of the project just launched are also the data provided by the Ministry of Health, according to which every year in Italy there are over 3.600 cases of congenital malformations of the upper limbs or amputationsmost of which occur in the workplace. The hand, in particular, is home to most of man's sensory capacities, as well as allowing the grip and manipulation of objects. The study and development activity, which will be carried out both in the laboratories of the Research Pole of the Bio-Medico Campus in Rome and at the Inail Prosthesis Center in Vigorso di Budrio, will be entrusted to the scientific direction of the Professors Eugenio Guglielmelli, Silvia Sterzi e Loredana Zollo for the Roman University and the Engineers Rinaldo Sacchetti e Angelo Davalli, and Doctor Paolo Catitti for Inail.
