MYokinetic Towards Innovation

Introduction

MYTI - MYokinetic Towards Innovation, aims at boosting the clinical translation of the technology developed within the ERC funded project MYKI - A Bidirectional MyoKinetic Implanted Interface for Natural Control of Artificial Limbs.

Project Overview

Core of the project is an innovative human-machine interface for the control of upper-limb prostheses, which relies on a multitude of permanent magnets implanted within the residual muscles.

Functionality

Briefly, external electronic components acquire the magnetic field of the magnets, retrieve their displacement resulting from muscle contraction, and subsequently decode the user’s intention to control multiple degrees of freedom of the prosthesis in a natural and intuitive way.

Clinical Demonstration

The MYKI project led to the successful first-in-human clinical demonstration of the interface: one participant received the short-term (six-week) implantation of multiple magnets and was fitted with a self-contained myokinetic prosthesis. In just six weeks, the participant achieved performance comparable to those achieved with standard-of-care solutions.

Objectives of MYTI

Building on the know-how acquired within MYKI, MYTI will address the weaknesses uncovered by past research and push forward the advancement of the solution for its adoption into standard-of-care settings. Practically, it will address the open challenges related to the long-term usability of the interface, to enable extensive long-term clinical trials necessary to validate the technology, while laying the groundwork for its future commercialization.

Main Objectives

The translation from research towards innovation will be achieved through three main objectives:

1. The identification of a magnet coating material suitable for chronic applications.
2. The effective insertion of the magnets inside the muscles, through the development of a dedicated surgical injector to be used under ultrasound guidance.
3. The conduction of an in-depth market research and the definition of an IPR strategy aimed at the future technology commercialization.