The use of neural prosthetics to replace motor, sensory, or cognitive functions lost by disease or injury holds great therapeutic promise.

However, neural prosthetics have not yet been widely used in humans.

This meeting will highlight the developments in the field of neural prosthetics and will include a review of the current obstacles to using neural prosthetics therapeutically, as well as the related ethical and regulatory issues.  The conference agenda will address the following;

1) a presentation of recent advances in basic neurobiological research to inform development of neural prosthetics,

2) an overview of discoveries in bioengineering and materials that will allow for the development of neural prosthetic devices that function effectively within the human body,

3) a discussion of how to improve upon the clinical trial results on neural prosthetics,

4) the regulatory and ethical problems that are associated with using neural prosthetics in people, and

5) how to use neural prosthetics to treat disorders including not only neurodegenerative diseases and paralysis, but also depression and epilepsy.