SKRAPS: Deep Dive

Julia Child was a master. She was not a classically trained chef, but pursued cooking as a hobby. Her super power? Passion. A passion for making gastronomy accessible, to deliver an honest and attainable presentation, and she possessed a pure, unadulterated joy for her craft. While Michael Ackermann isn’t a neurotechnolgy hobbyist, he does share other qualities with the inimitable Child. He brings a passion for neurotechnology, mixes it with technical expertise picked up at Case Western Reserve University, panache earned through his time at Stanford BioDesign, and pairs it with an excellent vintage of management style. 

Hungry yet? We thought you might be. Ackermann was actually one of our early targets for an interview on Skraps. Perhaps it was his humility and desire to keep the focus on the science instead of the personalities that caused him to decline our first plea invitation to record with us, but maybe as we grew in our professionalism and track record, Michael became just a tiny bit more comfortable with the idea. But he did it. We did it. We finally got him on the podcast. I promise, it’s worth the wait. 

Listen on for the behind the science peek at Ackermann’s time in the BioDesign Program, check in as he deftly maneuvers Oculeve to success, and check out what’s happening now at Presidio Medical and beyond. Who knows what’s next? Perhaps a chocolate soufflé for his wife’s recent birthday (I know this because he was unable to join the Cleveland NeuroDesign faculty in person.)

Bon appétit!

Papers of interest:

1. Presidio's published research
2. Michael Ackermann's Patents on Nerve Block

SKRAPS is your podcast, where we on your behalf explores unsaid, underappreciated and sometimes, untold stories of sparks of brilliance in science, technology and innovation.

Show Credits

• Created & Produced by: Arun Sridhar & JoJo Platt
• Editing: Arun Sridhar
• Sound design: Arun Sridhar & Swaminathan ThiruGnanaSambandam
• Sound mixing and mastering: Swaminathan ThiruGnanaSambandam

Social Media:

• Twitter: @PodcastSkraps
• LinkedIn: SKRAPS
• Arun's Twitter Feed
• JoJo's Twitter Feed

You can help us fund the production costs by donating as little as $5 or £5 or in any currency of your choice as a one time or a recurring payment HERE

Skraps is turning two. Or is it our second anniversary? I can't quite decide so let's celebrate both.

Join us as we walk down memory lane with some highlights (and hopefully no lowlights) of the past two years of their audio partnership. Re-live some of our favorite moments - laughter, tears, learning, and even occasionally, listening. We revisit early episodes (and see how far we've come) with Kit Parker, Stanton Rowe, Sandy Greenberg, and more.

With so many hours under our belts, it is impossible to pick "favorites" but we'd love to hear what some of your favorite moments have been, what you'd like to hear more of, and what we can leave on the cutting room floor (that's a reference for an increasingly limited audience - Arun and I are old.)

SKRAPS is your podcast, where we, on your behalf, explore unsaid, underappreciated and sometimes, untold stories of sparks of brilliance in science, technology, and innovation.

Show Credits

• Created & Produced by: Arun Sridhar & JoJo Platt
• Editing: Arun Sridhar
• Sound design: Arun Sridhar & Swaminathan ThiruGnanaSambandam
• Sound mixing and mastering: Swaminathan ThiruGnanaSambandam

Social Media:

• Twitter: @PodcastSkraps
• LinkedIn: SKRAPS
• Arun's Twitter Feed
• JoJo's Twitter Feed

You can help us fund the production costs by donating as little as $5 or £5 or in any currency of your choice as a one time or a recurring payment HERE

Hello friends and dear listeners,

Recently, we were urged by a couple of our British listeners and experienced audio producers in the podcasting space, to nominate our last season’s science documentary podcast on Psychedelics for the British Podcast awards.

Without further adieu, here is the 30 minute tape we sent for the second stage of the nomination.

SKRAPS is your podcast, where we on your behalf explores unsaid, underappreciated and sometimes, untold stories of sparks of brilliance in science, technology and innovation.

Show Credits

• Created & Produced by: Arun Sridhar & JoJo Platt
• Editing: Arun Sridhar
• Sound design: Arun Sridhar & Swaminathan ThiruGnanaSambandam
• Sound mixing and mastering: Swaminathan ThiruGnanaSambandam

Social Media:

• Twitter: @PodcastSkraps
• LinkedIn: SKRAPS
• Arun's Twitter Feed
• JoJo's Twitter Feed

You can help us fund the production costs by donating as little as $5 or £5 or in any currency of your choice as a one time or a recurring payment HERE

Funding for Bioelectronic Medicines does not come from traditional venture capital. It also comes from grant funding agencies. While the most well known grant funding bodies are NIH and DARPA in this area, there is also a renewed deeper interest in funding early research to develop products for clinical applications from the EU as well.

So we invited, Dr. Enrique Claverol-Tinture (Enric), Program Manager of the Medical Technologies Program to talk about their most recent EIC pathfinder and accelerator challenges that they ran (2021 Pathfinder challenge results here). EIC is a new body and Enric has autonomy to propose new grant funding ideas for Medical Technologies (MedTech) and run funding cycles. He, inspired by the DARPA model can oversee a MedTech idea from conception to fruition.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How the EIC interest in NeuroTech came to be?
• How does it operate?
• What did the last pool of successful applicants look like?
• How the proposals are evaluated?
• How does the project move from early feasibility to proof of concept to a clinical application?
• Trials and tribulations of establishing something from ground up.

SKRAPS is your podcast, where we on your behalf explores unsaid, underappreciated and sometimes, untold stories of sparks of brilliance in science, technology and innovation.

Show Credits

• Created & Produced by: Arun Sridhar & JoJo Platt
• Editing: Arun Sridhar
• Sound design: Arun Sridhar & Swaminathan ThiruGnanaSambandam
• Sound mixing and mastering: Swaminathan ThiruGnanaSambandam

Social Media:

• Twitter: @PodcastSkraps
• LinkedIn: SKRAPS
• Arun's Twitter Feed
• JoJo's Twitter Feed

You can help us fund the production costs by donating as little as $5 or £5 or in any currency of your choice as a one time or a recurring payment HERE

“Laugh and the world laughs with you. Snore and you sleep alone” is a famous quote from the author Anthony Burgess.

Sleep Apnea affects 425 million adults over the age of 40. Yet, good treatments are unavailable. In this episode we address how Bioelectronic Medicines helps to alleviate the problem.

Links as promised:

1. Inspire Medical - the first hypoglossal nerve stimulation product on the market.
2. Kingman Strohl’s lecture
3. A Ted Talk on Didgeridoo

SKRAPS is your podcast, where we on your behalf explores unsaid, underappreciated and sometimes, untold stories of sparks of brilliance in science, technology and innovation.

Show Credits

• Created & Produced by: Arun Sridhar & JoJo Platt
• Editing: Arun Sridhar
• Sound design: Arun Sridhar & Swaminathan ThiruGnanaSambandam
• Sound mixing and mastering: Swaminathan ThiruGnanaSambandam

Social Media:

• Twitter: @PodcastSkraps
• LinkedIn: SKRAPS
• Arun's Twitter Feed
• JoJo's Twitter Feed

You can help us fund the production costs by donating as little as $5 or £5 or in any currency of your choice as a one time or a recurring payment HERE

We are joined by Imran Eba of GlaxoSmithKline's Bioelectronic Medicine fund - Action Potential Venture Capital to talk about investing in Bioelectronic Medicines. APV is the only fund that invests exclusively in bioelectronic medicines - and they've been here since the beginning.

This leads to the ongoing question: what is and what is not a bioelectronic medicine (hear all three answers.)

After we get through the personal grooming habits of the hosts and our guest as well as the obligatory cricket references (it's hard to put JoJo on her heels in professional sports parlance - but Arun and Imran manage to  keep her quiet for a record time) we launch into a casual conversation about what's happening in neurotech investing.

We talk about the trials and tribulations of how the world perceives Bioelectronic Medicines, what it should be, and what the reality is. Generously, Imran also shares with us some insights that every investigator, inventor, and investor should consider when preparing to raise funds in the field of neurotechnology, wait, no - BCIs, no -neuromodulation, gah - I mean... bioelectronic medicine.

And if you are looking for the framework for Bioelectronic Medicine that we discuss, you can get it here.

Special thanks to our sound engineer, Mr. Swaminathan ThiruGnanaSambandam for his artsy work on audio mixing/mastering and sound design for this episode.

Special thanks to our sponsors, CorTec Neuro & Cirtec Medical.

Podchaser: 6xQc3dDQaIFab7JcLAab

Most of us can pretty certainly say that we are alone within our heads. We may joke about inner voices, but what really happens when there genuinely is an external influence deep within a brain? The answer?

In the case of two research pioneers, Ian Burkhart and Benjamin Stecher, the answer is nothing short of a miracle. These two souls both underwent life altering surgeries - not just in terms of literally allowing a device to tap into their brains, but surgeries that would do for them what no pill, no prayer, and no person could do for them.

Ian Burkhart was paralysed after a spinal cord injury endured while on holiday. What should have been a celebratory day at the beach, enjoyed, recorded, and then stored in his memory bank for future reflection ended in severe physical disability. Ian now serves as a Vice President of the North American Spinal Cord Consortium and is an advocate, speaker, and research pioneer.

Benjamin Stecher was handed a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease at the impossibly early age of 29. He should have been enjoying what many of us believe are the prime years of adulthood when, instead, he was trying desperately to hold on to a “normal” life. He scoured manuscripts, spoke to experts, tested pharmaceutical cocktails to curtail the progression of his disease. Benjamin is an author, advocate, and chair of the Rune Labs Patient Advisory Board.

Both of these lionhearted men decided to do what few have done - they have invited a device to take up residence in their respective brains. Listen in to hear the first hand accounts of the what, why, and how they have gone to such lengths. We’ll share with you their stories and their triumphs, and certainly their challenges along the way. At the end of this tale, you will know that both are superhuman, but not for the reasons you may think. You’ll hear about their journeys that have turned them into authors and advocates, and above all, men of science.

Learn more about Ian Burkhart through the Ian Burkhart Foundation and read Benjamin’s book, “Brain Fables”.

Special thanks to our sponsors, CorTec Neuro & Cirtec Medical. 

Research & Interviews: JoJo Platt

Script: Arun Sridhar

Editing: Arun Sridhar

Sound design: Arun Sridhar & Swaminathan ThiruGnanaSambandam

Audio engineering/mastering: Swaminathan ThiruGnanaSambandam

PUT YOUR HEADPHONES ON!

What does a 4 cm long and 25g in weight crustacean have to teach us about Bioelectronic Medicine and human health? And what does its feeding habits have to tell us about how we deal with tumours?

Well, there is more than what meets the eye! If we reveal more than this, we are breaking the plot to you and making your life easy.

So, it is time to do the hard yards and go on this underwater exploration first, before we figure out a new frontier for Ultrasound modulation of nerve tumours (in this case - glioblastoma). We cover Dr. Vijay Agarwal and his company - Alpheus Medical for what they are dreaming of, having been inspired by this seemingly innocuous crustacean that has links to World War II, submarines, symbiotic relationships and sonodynamic therapy?

Can Alpheus Medical help treat cancer? There is only way to find out. But first, listen to this journey!

Our deepest thanks to CorTec Neuro and CirTec Medical for their kind help in bringing these episodes to you.

Useful links:

1. Our website: www.skrapspodcast.com
2. Donation Page: www.skrapspodcast.com/donate
3. Our LinkedIn 
4. Our Twitter 

The saying, as grotesque as it might be, goes "there's more than one way to skin a cat." In our case, there's more than one way to stimulate a nerve and we've gathered some experts leading the charge (pun very much intended.) Gather around the fire, bring some marshmallows and listen in as we chat with Hubert Lim of the University of Minnesota, Christopher Puleo of GE Research, and Mikhail Shapiro of CalTech about the power and the fury of ultrasound.

There are two things that are guaranteed with this group - you will laugh and you will learn something. So, please forgive our indulgences as we dig into the when, the why, and the how this unlikely team came to be and all that they've accomplished so far.

To kick off the laugh track, Hubert and Mikhail were kind enough to share some wicked awesome dance moves from each of their respective labs. The Solid Gold Dancers have been put on notice.

Our deepest thanks to CorTec Neuro and CirTec Medical for their kind help in bringing these episodes to you.

Useful links:

1. Our website: www.skrapspodcast.com
2. Donation Page: www.skrapspodcast.com/donate
3. Our LinkedIn 
4. Our Twitter 

Have you ever wondered what decisions go behind deciding if  a pharmaceutical is to be administered either orally or intravenously or via inhalation. Who decides that? Well, the short answer is that it is decided based on a tested pharmaceutical developmental framework that has stood the test of time. First, it is determined by a clinical need, then by what the drug does to the body (pharmacodynamics) and what the body does to the drug (pharmacokinetics) married with other commercial question.

Now, if we flip it to Bioelectronic Medicines, we have realized that the field does not have an established framework that is available for everyone to discuss. So we sought to establish that via this episode.

We are joined by Dr. Victor Pikov,  who unpicks these crucial questions, as it pertains to Bioelectronic Medicines. We discuss all the crucial questions that needs to be discussed and considered.

Special thanks to Laura Szklarski for providing us with a great testimonial and some key actions for you to consider.

Our deepest thanks to CorTec Neuro and CirTec Medical for their kind help in bringing these episodes to you.

SKRAPS will always remain free, but production of SKRAPS is not. We appreciate kind, recurring donations to help produce such content. You can find more information HERE.