BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE THAT HELPS A PARALYZED MAN TO SPEAK WINS NATIONAL CLINICAL EXCELLENCE AWARD

2025 Top Ten Clinical Research Achievement Awards showcase clinical and translational research advances that benefit the health and welfare of all Americans.

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, April 22, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Clinical Research (CR) Forum, comprised of top clinical research experts and thought leaders from the nation’s leading academic health centers, awarded its most prestigious honor, The Herbert Pardes Clinical Research Excellence Award, to Dr. David M. Brandman of University of California, Davis. Dr. Brandman and his team have demonstrated that brain-computer interfaces have moved beyond a proof-of-principle to a device that is useful to people. They implanted four small devices in the speech area of the brain of a 46-year-old man with ALS, enabling him to “speak” by using his recorded brain signals. The patient is part of an ongoing clinical trial called BrainGate2, and it offers hope for thousands of people living with paralysis today. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

This study was recognized during the CR Forum’s annual Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Awards on April 14th at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. The Top 10 Awards highlight outstanding research advances that involve both innovation and impact on human diseases. A complete list of the 2025 Top 10 Award Winners is available on the website at https://www.clinicalresearchforum.org/page/TopTen.

“This study is spectacular, in that not only can this man communicate with his family and maintain his livelihood, but he is actually able to speak using recordings of his own voice,” said Harry P. Selker, MD, MSPH, CR Forum Board Chair and Dean of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Tufts University. “Indeed, all the Top 10 studies are scientifically brilliant, and have the potential to improve millions of lives. I cannot emphasize enough the pride I feel for the amazing work of our colleagues and for clinical research as a field.”

In addition to the award, named after CR Forum’s Founding Vice Chair Dr. Herbert Pardes, Dr. Brandman and his team at UC Davis also received a $7,500 cash prize.

Two other studies were recognized with Distinguished Clinical Research Achievement Awards and received a $5,000 prize:
• RCT for Treatment of Food Allergies, nominated by Johns Hopkins University and published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February 2024, showed that omalizumab, an FDA-approved drug for the treatment of asthma, was also effective in protecting patients with multiple, severe food allergies from potentially life-threatening reactions. Dr. Robert Wood and his team’s ground-breaking study led to FDA approval of this existing medication for the treatment of multiple food allergies.

• Hepatitis C Treatment through Facilitated Telehealth in Opioid Use Disorder, nominated by the University at Buffalo, demonstrated that facilitated telemedicine for patients that had contracted hepatitis C due to opioid use disorder increased the cure rate to 90%, versus 39% in usual care. Further, two years later, Dr. Andrew Talal and his team showed that those cured of hepatitis C also demonstrated significant decreases in substance abuse.

The 2025 Top Ten Clinical Research Achievement Awards showcase clinical and translational research advances that benefit the health and welfare of all Americans, and reflect the influential work being done by investigators at over 60 research institutions and hospitals across the United States, as well as partner institutions around the world.

Andrea Van Hook
Clinical Research Forum
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CR Forum Top 10 Empowering a Man with ALS to Speak

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