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Welcome to the USC Institute for Technology and Medical Systems Innovation (ITEMS). Our interdisciplinary approach focuses on the convergence of engineering and medicine in the development and application of neuroprosthetics for novel diagnostics and therapeutics.

Our Team

FACULTY

ITEMS brings together a diverse group of faculty working at the intersection of engineering and medicine. Our multidisciplinary team combines expertise in neuroscience, electronics, bioengineering, electromagnetics, and integrated circuits.

Meet our Faculty >
FACULTY
FACULTY

Our Team

FACULTY

ITEMS brings together a diverse group of faculty working at the intersection of engineering and medicine. Our multidisciplinary team combines expertise in neuroscience, electronics, bioengineering, electromagnetics, and integrated circuits.

Meet our Faculty >

Pursuing Breakthroughs in Neuroprosthetics

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Neural Interfaces

Neural interfaces directly interact with neurons in our body. Neural recordings of brain activity are one of the key elements for studying the brain, which has led to remarkable breakthroughs in science, engineering and medicine. Similarly, neural stimulation of key brain regions has enabled treatment of medical conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and others.

Currently approved neural interface devices have limited bandwidth and spatial coverage of the brain, with up to tens or hundreds of channels in the system. The majority of these channels are dedicated to recording and only a few to stimulation. Future high-density, high-bandwidth bidirectional neural interface systems will support thousands of channels for simultaneous recording and stimulation, and could provide real-time visualization of multiple brain-regions with high temporal and spatial resolution.

Learn more >
Integrated Circuits for Neuroprosthetics

Integrated circuits are essential for the development of advance prosthetics and miniaturization of medical systems. They need to be small and consume very low power while performing important tasks such as signal acquisition and conditioning, signal processing, on-chip computation, wireless communication, and neuromodulation.

We focus on developing new circuit-level, system-level, and integration-level techniques for the design of novel neuroprosthetics. Our approach uses analog, mixed-signal, and radio-frequency techniques, and integrates advanced materials, devices, and biological and chemical sensors and actuators.

Learn more >
Specific Absorption Rate testing

Neural interfaces directly interact with neurons in our body. Neural recordings of brain activity are one of the key elements for studying the brain, which has led to remarkable breakthroughs in science, engineering and medicine. Similarly, neural stimulation of key brain regions has enabled treatment of medical conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and others.

Currently approved neural interface devices have limited bandwidth and spatial coverage of the brain, with up to tens or hundreds of channels in the system. The majority of these channels are dedicated to recording and only a few to stimulation. Future high-density, high-bandwidth bidirectional neural interface systems will support thousands of channels for simultaneous recording and stimulation, and could provide real-time visualization of multiple brain-regions with high temporal and spatial resolution.

Learn more >
Retinal Prosthesis

Neural interfaces directly interact with neurons in our body. Neural recordings of brain activity are one of the key elements for studying the brain, which has led to remarkable breakthroughs in science, engineering and medicine. Similarly, neural stimulation of key brain regions has enabled treatment of medical conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and others.

Currently approved neural interface devices have limited bandwidth and spatial coverage of the brain, with up to tens or hundreds of channels in the system. The majority of these channels are dedicated to recording and only a few to stimulation. Future high-density, high-bandwidth bidirectional neural interface systems will support thousands of channels for simultaneous recording and stimulation, and could provide real-time visualization of multiple brain-regions with high temporal and spatial resolution.

Learn more >

OUR

RESEARCH

Neural Interfaces

Neural interfaces directly interact with neurons in our body. Neural recordings of brain activity are one of the key elements for studying the brain, which has led to remarkable breakthroughs in science, engineering and medicine. Similarly, neural stimulation of key brain regions has enabled treatment of medical conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and others.

Currently approved neural interface devices have limited bandwidth and spatial coverage of the brain, with up to tens or hundreds of channels in the system. The majority of these channels are dedicated to recording and only a few to stimulation. Future high-density, high-bandwidth bidirectional neural interface systems will support thousands of channels for simultaneous recording and stimulation, and could provide real-time visualization of multiple brain-regions with high temporal and spatial resolution.

OUR

RESEARCH

Integrated Circuits for Neuroprosthetics

Integrated circuits are essential for the development of advance prosthetics and miniaturization of medical systems. They need to be small and consume very low power while performing important tasks such as signal acquisition and conditioning, signal processing, on-chip computation, wireless communication, and neuromodulation.

We focus on developing new circuit-level, system-level, and integration-level techniques for the design of novel neuroprosthetics. Our approach uses analog, mixed-signal, and radio-frequency techniques, and integrates advanced materials, devices, and biological and chemical sensors and actuators.

OUR

RESEARCH

Specific Absorption Rate testing

Neural interfaces directly interact with neurons in our body. Neural recordings of brain activity are one of the key elements for studying the brain, which has led to remarkable breakthroughs in science, engineering and medicine. Similarly, neural stimulation of key brain regions has enabled treatment of medical conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and others.

Currently approved neural interface devices have limited bandwidth and spatial coverage of the brain, with up to tens or hundreds of channels in the system. The majority of these channels are dedicated to recording and only a few to stimulation. Future high-density, high-bandwidth bidirectional neural interface systems will support thousands of channels for simultaneous recording and stimulation, and could provide real-time visualization of multiple brain-regions with high temporal and spatial resolution.

OUR

RESEARCH

Retinal Prosthesis

Neural interfaces directly interact with neurons in our body. Neural recordings of brain activity are one of the key elements for studying the brain, which has led to remarkable breakthroughs in science, engineering and medicine. Similarly, neural stimulation of key brain regions has enabled treatment of medical conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and others.

Currently approved neural interface devices have limited bandwidth and spatial coverage of the brain, with up to tens or hundreds of channels in the system. The majority of these channels are dedicated to recording and only a few to stimulation. Future high-density, high-bandwidth bidirectional neural interface systems will support thousands of channels for simultaneous recording and stimulation, and could provide real-time visualization of multiple brain-regions with high temporal and spatial resolution.

LATEST

NEWS

Gianluca Lazzi elected to the National Academy of Inventors!

Prof. Gianluca Lazzi has been elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Quoting the NAI, “the NAI Fellows Program highlights academic inventors who have demonstrated a spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.”

LATEST

NEWS

Manuel Monge receives NIBIB Trailblazer Award!

Manuel Monge receives the NIH/NIBIB Trailblazer Award to support his work on MRI-Inspired Electronics.
The Trailblazer R21 Award is an opportunity for New and Early Stage Investigators to pursue research programs of high interest to the NIBIB at the interface of the life sciences with engineering and the physical sciences. A Trailblazer project may be exploratory, developmental, proof of concept, or high risk-high impact, and may be technology design-directed, discovery-driven, or hypothesis-driven. Importantly, applicants are expected to propose research approaches for which there are minimal or no preliminary data.

LATEST

NEWS

ATOMS in Solid-State Circuits Magazine!

Our work on ATOMS has been published in the Fall edition of the Solid-State Circuits Magazine. Emami A & Monge M. MRI-Inspired High-Resolution Localization for Biomedical Applications: Artificial Nuclear Spins on a Chip.IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine 10, 34-42 (2018)

LATEST

NEWS

Joining USC!

The Integrated Medical Electronics Lab has officially opened at USC, joining the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering and the new Institute for Technology and Medical Systems Innovation!

LATEST

NEWS

Gianluca Lazzi elected to the National Academy of Inventors!

Prof. Gianluca Lazzi has been elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Quoting the NAI, “the NAI Fellows Program highlights academic inventors who have demonstrated a spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.”

Manuel Monge receives NIBIB Trailblazer Award!

Manuel Monge receives the NIH/NIBIB Trailblazer Award to support his work on MRI-Inspired Electronics.
The Trailblazer R21 Award is an opportunity for New and Early Stage Investigators to pursue research programs of high interest to the NIBIB at the interface of the life sciences with engineering and the physical sciences. A Trailblazer project may be exploratory, developmental, proof of concept, or high risk-high impact, and may be technology design-directed, discovery-driven, or hypothesis-driven. Importantly, applicants are expected to propose research approaches for which there are minimal or no preliminary data.

ATOMS in Solid-State Circuits Magazine!

Our work on ATOMS has been published in the Fall edition of the Solid-State Circuits Magazine. Emami A & Monge M. MRI-Inspired High-Resolution Localization for Biomedical Applications: Artificial Nuclear Spins on a Chip.IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine 10, 34-42 (2018)

Joining USC!

The Integrated Medical Electronics Lab has officially opened at USC, joining the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering and the new Institute for Technology and Medical Systems Innovation!

Institute for Technology and Medical Systems Innovation University of Southern California


USC Healthcare Center 4 (HC4)
1450 San Pablo St, Los Angeles, CA 90033

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