Neurotech Reports Editors Announce Winners of 2006 Gold Electrode Awards

The editors of Neurotech Reports, the publisher of Neurotech Business Report, have announced the winners of the 2006 Gold Electrode Awards, established in 2004 to recognize individuals and organizations that have helped foster the growth of the neurotechnology industry.
Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems Inc. received the best new product award for its Andara OFS spinal cord stimulation system. The company’s oscillating field stimulator has shown great promise as a potential treatment for spinal cord injury, promoting nerve fiber regeneration.

The recipient of the Gold Electrode Award for most promising start-up firm is Medtrode Inc. of London, Ontario in Canada. The firm is developing a multichannel electrode system for deep-brain stimulation that will offer feedback signals as well as stimulation so that clinicians can fine-tune the implantation and programming processes.

Michael Merzenich of the University of California, San Francisco, received the Neurotechnology Researcher of the Year award for 2006. Merzenich is a pioneer in the field of cortical plasticity, and has used his expertise in this area to promote commercial development of software products that promote healthy aging, and may prove useful in the treatment of a number of neurological disorders. Merzenich is the chief scientific officer of Posit Science, a San Francisco, CA company he founded to develop tools that exploit cortical plasticity.

Neurotech Reports editors recognized the Whitaker Foundation as the most valuable nonprofit organization. Although the foundation closed its doors as planned in 2006, during its 30 years of grant making, it funded several key areas of neurotechnology research at a number of institutions, and fostered the generation of new researchers by supporting academic research, curriculum development, and laboratory construction.

Finally, the award for most useful financial professional went to Alfred Mann, founder of several neurotechnology firms, including Advanced Bionics, Quallion, Second Sight, and Bioness Inc. The Alfred Mann Foundation has fostered leading edge research in a number of areas related to neurotechnology commercial development. And Mann has personally contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to universities in the U.S. to establish research centers in neural engineering and related disciplines.

The 2006 Gold Electrode Awards were presented during a luncheon ceremony at the 2006 Neurotech Leaders Forum on September 29, 2006 in San Francisco.