A Universal Brain Atlas for Implanting and Managing Deep Brain Stimulators

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Deep brain stimulation has risen as a neurosurgical procedure of choice for patients with disabling neurological or psychiatric disorders for its abiliy to modulate improvement in the activity of certain circuits. The procedure is currently approved for treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD), essential tremor (ET), dystonia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder and is showing promises for the treatment of intractable epilepsy, Tourette's syndrome and depression. However, DBStherapy is currently limited by an incomplete understanding of DBS mechanisms of action due to complexity of the targeted neural circuits, as well as by significant technical issues around the need for precise lead positioning and patient-specific stimulation programming. There is a clinical need and significant commercial opportunity for innovative next-generation DBS systems that provide enhanced targeting, intra-operative guidance and postoperative lead programming. Neurotargeting, LLC has emerged fromthe need to make available to the medical community, a decade of research performed at Vanderbilt, supported by NIH funding and focused on improving and assisting DBS surgery with the help of a universal physiological atlas adapted to each patient undergoing surgery. Neurotargeting has shown the feasibility of this approach during the STTR Phase I. This application is a logical step in moving towards a commercially available solution that addresses the needs of the larger DBS community to facilitate DBS therapy and research. Specifically, this proposed Phase II project is aimed at adapting our prototype system to a fully validated, clinical software solution that, at the end of this project, will be positioned for clincal commercialization. In so doing, Neurotargeting will have made leading-edge research technology available to any patient to improve and advance treatments of significant neurological disorders in the US and global markets. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) implantrequires precise placement of electrodes deep within the brain and can be challenging to program the device once implanted. Neurotargeting has successfully developed and tested advanced tools and technology that revolutionize the surgery and management strategy of DBS implants through a unique set of software tools linked to a common database known as the CranialVault. We now propose to develop and test a commercially available system that will provide a complete solution to DBS therapy.