MEMS and more for the brain: The cluster of excellence brainlinks-braintools at the university of freiburg

Abstract

In the fierce competition among German academic institutions in the national Excellence Initiative, the University of Freiburg has successfully defended the excellence cluster project BRAINLINKS–BRAINTOOLS. The cluster benefits of 28 Mio € of funding for the period from Nov. 2012 to Oct. 2017. Over 40 principal investigators of the University Clinic Freiburg and the Faculties of Biology and Engineering are teaming up, involving about a hundred young scientists. The cluster aims to bring the state of the art in bi-directional brain-machine interfaces to a new level. Its research program merges results on the neurocomputational foundations, novel MEMS tools, and computer science methods into platforms designed for clinically relevant applications. With Parkin-son’s disease, epilepsy, stroke, and paralysis, four major neurological disabilities are addressed.