Imagine a tiny, high-tech bridge that helps a broken spinal cord heal. It uses special conductive fibers and a slow-release medicine gel to guide nerve growth, while a small battery-powered device sends electrical pulses to wake up the nerves. It's like installing a smart electrical cable that also delivers medicine to fix a severed connection.
Spinal cord injuries often result in permanent paralysis because the gap in the spinal cord does not heal naturally. Current treatments lack a way to simultaneously provide structural support, drug delivery, and electrical stimulation to trigger nerve regrowth.
A drug-releasing electroactive implant consisting of microfiber/gel bundles, spinal electrode arrays, and an implantable electric pulse generator.
If you are a manufacturer dealing with the lack of effective spinal repair tools — this project developed a procedure pack combining microfibers, electrode arrays, and a pulse generator that promotes axonal regrowth. This allows for the creation of a first-in-class product for severe spinal lesions.
If you are a biotech firm dealing with the challenge of delivering drugs to the central nervous system — this project developed drug-eluting hydrogels and conducting polymer-coated fibers. This enables targeted pharmaceutical delivery directly into the spinal cord gap.
If you are a clinic dealing with patients with permanent paralysis from large spinal lesions — this project developed a combined electrical and chemical implant. This provides a potential therapeutic path to restore function through neural regeneration.
Based on available project data, the specific cost or price of the device is not mentioned.
The project is currently maturing the technology through TRL 4-5 to create a Minimum Viable Product, meaning it is not yet at full industrial scale.
The inventors have filed a patent application (P202230626) and created a spin-off company, Spinal Cord Technologies (SCT S.L.), to handle commercialization.
The implant is being developed as a procedure pack according to the European Medical Device Regulation (MDR) 2017/745.
The project period runs from 2023-12-01 to 2026-11-30.
The consortium is highly commercially oriented with a 50% industry ratio, consisting of 4 partners across 3 countries (ES, DE, FR). The presence of 2 SMEs and a dedicated spin-off (SCT S.L.) indicates a strong drive toward market entry rather than purely academic research.
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