04/24/2024

Ohio State University, Battelle Create NeuroTech Institute

The Columbus institutions are partnering to advance brain science

Neurosurgeon Tim Lucas was frustrated. He was sure technology could improve his patients' quality of life, especially those whose paralysis prevented them from performing the simplest of hygienic tasks. But advances were painfully slow, stalled by a lack of funding and money-making potential, as well as a culture of scientific competitiveness that often kept collaborators at arm's length.

“Our patients were being left behind,” said Lucas, whose passion for his work comes in part from a younger sister whose massive brain tumor left her with multiple mobility and sensory challenges two decades ago.

Now, Lucas is leading the charge to speed up technological advances for patients as founder and CEO of the NeuroTech Institute, a partnership between Ohio State University and Battelle that launched in October 2022. The nonprofit, housed on the OSU campus, is a biotechnology accelerator where scientists, clinicians and engineers develop inventions to improve patients’ lives and then spin off for-profit businesses to manufacture the inventions. “Here, we have patients as our core,” Lucas said. 

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