Team Innerva Gets Competitive

by Amy Weldon In May, three INBT and materials science and engineering undergraduate students were awarded the “Cure it!” Lemelson-MIT Student Prize. Michael Lan, Anson Zhou, and Bruce Enzmann, who make up team Innerva, received $10,000 for their device, which helps patients suffering from peripheral nerve damage. The cone-shaped device helps direct nerve regrowth and prevent neuromas, which cause severe pain. Then in September, undergraduate materials science and engineering student Juan Diego Carrizo joined team Innerva and they became finalists in the Collegiate Inventors Competition. According to the Innerva team, 20 million people in the U.S. are living with peripheral nerve injuries, the most severe of which are caused by amputations. During the recovery process after an amputation, the severed nerve cells often grow back in a disorganized way, forming cell clusters that generate non-cancerous, but very painful tumors known as neuromas. The discomfort these neuromas can cause is debilitating for the patient and seriously impede a patient’s recovery and overall wellbeing. This results in the prescription of pain medications and sometimes follow-up surgeries and recovery time which can cost the patient tens of thousands of dollars in medical expenses alone. Currently, there is no technology or treatment that can promote functional peripheral nerve regeneration and prevent painful neuromas formation. While targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR) is a promising approach to amputation, in which surgeons stitch the severed nerve to smaller motor nerves, there is a considerable disparity in size between the two nerve types, and the remaining disorganized axons can continue to grow and form neuromas. The team’s solution is a cone-shaped, biodegradable device that bridges the gaps between nerves of different sizes and can be implanted within TMR. Team advisors include Hai-Quan Mao, INBT associate director, Sami Tuffaha, a faculty surgeon in the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and Dr. Ahmet Hoke, professor of neurology and neuroscience and INBT affiliate researcher.