Scientists Are Making Self-Powered Implants to Restore Touch in Nerve Damage Patients

Researcher Ben Maoz was on a walk with hand surgeon Amir Arami when Maoz had an idea. He says that Arami, his friend and colleague, was lamenting that about half of his patients endure permanent loss of sensation after trauma to the nerves or skin of the hand. Maoz, a faculty member in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, thought he could use his lab’s technology to develop a solution. “I said, 'Okay, challenge accepted,'” Maoz says.