LASIGE congratulates its researcher Nuno Garcia (integrated researcher) on receiving funding from the “la Caixa” Foundation through the CaixaImpulse programme, which had an acceptance rate of around 5 per cent out of a total of 449 applications.

The CaixaImpulse programme is an initiative designed to transfer scientific results to society, to bring products to market or create a spin-off, whilst providing mentoring to guide the journey towards clinical application and market launch. Over 12 months, this support will enable the development and validation of systems for the new artificial intelligence architecture of the LUPIN project, demonstrating that laboratory rigour can be transferred to accessible devices.
Garcia notes that “the project seeks to make brain-computer interfaces more reliable and accessible outside the laboratory. These systems read brain activity and translate it into commands: moving a cursor, activating a device or following a rehabilitation exercise. In the laboratory, they are very precise, but they require caps with dozens of electrodes and lengthy calibration sessions. When we move to a simpler, cheaper device, designed for use at home, that accuracy is lost”.

The main beneficiaries will be people who have suffered a stroke, those with spinal cord injuries or those with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, as rehabilitation can move beyond the hospital setting and into patients’ homes. This will enable frequent rehabilitation and alternative forms of neural communication, which could make a real difference to patients’ independence and quality of life.

The team is multidisciplinary, combining artificial intelligence, human-machine interaction, and medicine. João Garcia Farinha, a PhD student at LASIGE, is leading the integration of the system, from the hardware to real-time signal processing and Carlos Duarte, also LASIGE integrated member, has over 20 years’ experience in adaptive multimodal systems and accessibility. Professor Mamede de Carvalho, from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Lisbon, is a leading figure in clinical neurophysiology and ALS; his expertise ensures the project remains closely aligned with patients’ real needs and is already paving the way for the transition to clinical trials.

This recognition is very important because it highlights an idea born out of fundamental research into artificial intelligence that has the potential to make a tangible impact on healthcare.