Sergey Stavisky, assistant professor in UC Davis Health's Department of Neurological Surgery and an affiliate faculty member at the Center for Mind and Brain, has been selected by the National Institutes of Health to receive a 2022 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award.

The NIH awards this grant to exceptionally creative early career investigators who propose innovative, high-impact projects in the biomedical, behavioral or social sciences. Besides the recognition, the award provides $2.3 million over five years for selected early career researchers.

Stavisky, who co-directs the UC Davis Neuroprosthetics Lab, is working with a team of researchers to develop technology to restore abilities — like communication and movement — affected by neurological injury and disease, such as ALS or stroke. By combining neuroscience insights and engineering principles, they are developing electronic medical devices, known as brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). These BCIs are placed in the brain to measure participants’ brain activity as they try to talk, with the aim of helping restore speech for people who cannot speak. 

We’re trying to accomplish something that’s never been done. We’re taking a different approach from most of the field. The award will allow us to aggressively invest in the people and equipment we need to develop new neurotechnology that lets people speak again.” — Sergey Stavisky

Read the full UC Davis Health article.