Engineers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are teaming up with neurosurgeons at UCLA and industry partners to develop an implantable neural device that can restore memories in patients with traumatic brain injuries, and even Alzheimer’s disease. Research engineer Angela Tooker says this neural implant work was leveraged by the lab’s successful role with the artificial retina.

"Neural implants, as kind of the class, have been around for a while, but the artificial retina’s kind of the first huge push to get them into humans. There were zero commercially-available devices to restore sight. There weren’t even any major efforts on the research side at universities to do that either."

The neural implant in the brain would essentially work by stimulating neurons in the brain to bridge a gap and to help restore memory. The next step is to test the device in humans.

"The technology is mostly there. We have all of the right tools, we’ve just got to get them all put together."

After that, Tooker says it’s a matter of working with the surgeons.