ERC Consolidator Grant for Charité neuroscientist Surjo Soekadar

Berlin, 24.07.2023
Sophisticated brain stimulation technologies and brain-computer interfaces are the field of Prof. Dr. Surjo Soekadar, Einstein Professor of Clinical Neurotechnology at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. With his team, he develops and tests systems that enable communication between the brain and external devices. In this way, severely paralysed people, among others, can control exoskeletons using their thoughts. But the systems have their limits. And brain areas located deeper inside the skull are difficult to reach. A new generation of these interfaces, equipped with high-resolution sensors and a particularly effective stimulation method, should change that – supported by the European Research Council (ERC) with around two million euros over the next five years.
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) use the fact that the brain generates electrical fields. These fields can be measured on the scalp. BCIs then translate the brain activity into control signals from external devices such as prostheses, robots or exoskeletons. For people with severe paralysis, this can enable movement or communication. So-called bidirectional BCIs also make it possible to stimulate brain activity electrically in a targeted manner, for example to simulate tactile sensation when controlling a prosthesis. BCI systems are of medical use in the field of neurological rehabilitation, for example, when it comes to restoring the ability of severely paralysed people to communicate or move.
Expanding the therapeutic spectrum of BCIs
Helping people with neurological and psychiatric diseases to achieve a new quality of life is a concern of Prof. Soekadar. For the past five years, he has headed the Translation and Neurotechnology research area and the Clinical Neurotechnology working group at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Charité Mitte campus. He recognised the therapeutic potential of BCI systems early on. Beyond restoring sensorimotor functions, they are now also to be used in the treatment of psychiatric diseases. With the current funding from the European Research Council, the Berlin neuroscientist now wants to overcome decisive hurdles on the way to a safe and effective bidirectional brain-computer interface.
Probably the largest of these is the human skull itself. If brain activity is measured from outside the bone cover, for example by means of electroencephalography (EEG), the accuracy of BCI has so far been limited. The implantation of electrodes or sensors into the skull, on the other hand, is costly and carries numerous risks. Prof. Soekadar’s team is looking for alternatives and is currently testing the use of ultra-precise sensors, so-called quantum sensors, which can measure brain activity at the surface of the head with much greater accuracy than EEG or other non-invasive methods. With the support of the Einstein Foundation Berlin and in collaboration with the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and the Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin), a prototype of such a quantum BCI has already been created. The basis of the high-tech sensors are gaseous atoms that act as magnetic field probes and react to the electrical brain signals. They are called optically pumped magnetometers (OPM).
World’s first non-invasive bidirectional brain-computer interface
Despite rapid progress in the field of neurotechnology, there is currently no bidirectional BCI based on non-invasive, i.e. non-surgical, methods. The reason for this is, on the one hand, the necessary sensitivity of the sensors and, on the other hand, the strength of the stimulation required to stimulate the brain through the skull bone. Interfering signals that occur in the process do not yet allow reliable measurement and interpretation of brain signals. “This is exactly the problem we want to solve,” explains Prof. Soekadar. “At Charité, we plan to develop the world’s first bidirectional brain-computer interface based on quantum sensors and Temporal Interference Magnetic Stimulation, or TIMS, a particularly effective form of neurostimulation. Our goal here is to make the system accessible in particular for the treatment of psychiatric diseases, for example depression.”
The new brain stimulation method TIMS is expected to play a key role in this. It is based on superimposed, mutually amplifying or attenuating magnetic fields. The researchers around Prof. Soekadar established this principle within the framework of a previous ERC Starting Grant and built such a prototype with the help of the SPARK-BIH innovation programme. In the now upcoming ERC Consolidator project BNCI2, this prototype is to be extended and finally combined with quantum BCI. “Prof. Soekadar is convinced that “the possibilities that this combination opens up for science and the clinic are very far-reaching. For example, it should be possible to specifically stimulate the activity of deep areas of the brain depending on certain brain states.
The use of high-resolution quantum sensors should achieve a measurement accuracy that was previously only reserved for invasive procedures. “We hope to use the system to recognise activity patterns in the brain that are responsible for the occurrence of certain clinical symptoms. In a second step, the occurrence of these symptoms should be specifically influenced via a closed neuromodulation circuit,” he says. The fact that this is a non-invasive system is an important prerequisite for a broad clinical application that can improve the lives of many patients in the long term. At the same time, ethical challenges and aspects of cyber security must be taken into account in this advance into still unknown dimensions of therapeutic neuromodulation.
Short vita Prof. Dr. Surjo R. Soekadar
After studying medicine at the Universities of Mainz, Heidelberg and Baltimore, Surjo Soekadar received his doctorate at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim in 2005. In addition to his further training as a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy at the University Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy in Tübingen, he spent three years doing research at the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) in Bethesda, Maryland. After returning to Tübingen, Surjo Soekadar took over as head of the “Applied Neurotechnology” research group and was awarded his habilitation in 2017. In 2018, with the help of the Einstein Foundation Berlin, he was appointed Germany’s first professor of clinical neurotechnology at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
ERC Consolidator Grant
The ERC Consolidator Grant supports excellent scientists who want to conduct groundbreaking research in Europe as research or project leaders in consolidating their own independent research group. The programme is intended for researchers who have completed their doctorate between seven and twelve years ago. Consolidator Grants are awarded by the European Research Council (ERC) in the Horizon Europe framework programme. The projects each have around two million euros at their disposal for a period of five years.