Miami Project Scientist Shares Major Prize for Research on Brain Function

Ioan Opris, Ph.D., an associate scientist at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, will share a major new European research prize — the $100,000 Frontiers Spotlight Award — for assembling an exceptional collection of research on the augmentation of brain function.

Memory chip.

Opris and collaborators Mikhail Lebedev, Ph.D., at Duke University’s Center for Neuroengineering, and Manuel F. Casanova, M.D., at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, assembled nearly 150 articles contributed by more than 600 authors on topics ranging from brain-machine interfaces to neuro-stimulators to the application of neuro-pharmacology. The collection was published in Frontiers in Neuroscience.

Their winning research topic, “Augmentation of Brain Function: Facts, Fiction and Controversy,” competed against nine other finalists. It received more than 1 million views and downloads, demonstrating the enormous scientific interest and social relevance of this area of research. It was judged the winner based on international reach, subject novelty and coverage, interdisciplinary character, and academic excellence.

The award will enable Opris’ team to organize an international scientific conference around their research topic. The goal to create a forum that will foster collaboration, inspire the community and highlight emerging research in their field. It will be held at a premier location — the SwissTech Convention Center on the campus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

“There are as many possibilities as imaginations of researchers,” said Opris.

Tags: brain augmentation, Frontiers in Neuroscience, Frontiers Spotlight Award, Miller School of Medicine, The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, University of Miami