John Donoghue (neuroscientist)

John Philip Donoghue (born 1949)[1] is an American neuroscientist; he is currently the Henry Merritt Wriston Professor of Neuroscience and Professor of Engineering at Brown University, where he has taught since 1984.

John P. Donoghue
Born1949 (age 74–75)
Alma mater
Scientific career
InstitutionsBrown University
Thesis Thalamic projections to the somatic sensory-motor cortex  (1979)
Doctoral advisorFord F. Ebner
Notable students

Donoghue founded Brown's Carney Institute for Brain Science and directed the institute from 2008 to 2015. He later served as the founding director of the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering at Campus Biotech in Geneva, Switzerland. Donoghue is best known for his work developing BrainGate and is recognized as a pioneer in neuroprosthetics and brain–computer interfaces.[2][3]

Early life and education edit

John P. Donoghue was born in 1949 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Boston University in 1971, a master's degree in anatomy from the University of Vermont in 1976, and a PhD from Brown University in 1979.[4] Donoghue's doctoral dissertation was entitled Thalamic projections to the somatic sensory-motor cortex.[5]

Professional career edit

 
Donoghue speaks at Stanford Bio-X in October 2008

Donoghue is a founder of the discipline of neuroprosthetics and coordinated the team that developed the brain–computer interface 'BrainGate' to restore movement for people with paralysis.[6] He was a co-founder of an early neurotechnology startup company, Cyberkinetics.

Beginning in 1999, Donoghue served as the inaugural director of Brown's Brain Science Program. The program grew into the Brown Institute for Brain Science, which was renamed the Carney Institute for Brain Science in 2019. Since 2001, Donoghue has held the Henry Merritt Wriston chair at Brown.[6]

He conducts research at the Providence VA Medical Center.[7]

In November 2014 he was appointed the first director of the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering in Geneva, in association with which he was appointed to an adjunct professorship at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and a visiting professorship at the University of Geneva.[6] He served a five-year term in the position and was succeeded by Mary Tolikas in June 2019.[8]

Recognition edit

Donoghue has received several honors for the BrainGate neurotechnology: the Zülch Prize [de] in 2007,[6][9] a Roche-Nature Medicine senior award in 2010,[10] and with Arto Nurmikko the inaugural Moshe Mirilashvili Memorial Fund B.R.A.I.N. (Breakthrough Research And Innovation in Neurotechnology) Prize in 2013.[7] In addition in 2012 with Patrick van der Smagt he won the Erwin Schrödinger Prize of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres for a thought-controlled robotic arm developed by BrainGate.[11][12]

He is a fellow of several academies including the US Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Academy of Inventors.

He was also a member of the National Institutes of Health advisory committee for the White House BRAIN Initiative instituted under President Obama.[13][14]

References edit

  1. ^ Zhuang, Jun; Truccolo, Wilson; Vargas-Irwin, Carlos; Donoghue, John P. (April 7, 2010). "Decoding 3-D Reach and Grasp Kinematics from High-Frequency Local Field Potentials in Primate Primary Motor Cortex". IEEE Transactions on Bio-Medical Engineering. 57 (7): 1774–1784. doi:10.1109/TBME.2010.2047015. ISSN 0018-9294. PMC 3049269. PMID 20403782.
  2. ^ Dreifus, Claudia (2010-08-02). "Connecting Brains to the Outside World". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
  3. ^ Richardson, John H. "Inside the Race to Hack the Human Brain". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
  4. ^ John Donoghue, PhD, BrainGate, retrieved September 15, 2020.
  5. ^ "Theses and Dissertations". library.brown.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  6. ^ a b c d "John P. Donoghue is taking the Lead of the Wyss Center", EPFL News, July 11, 2014 (press release).
  7. ^ a b David Orenstein, "BrainGate team wins $1M prize in Israel", Brown University, October 15, 2013 (press release).
  8. ^ "Dr Mary Tolikas announced as new Director of the Wyss Center", Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering, June 3, 2019 (press release).
  9. ^ "John Donoghue wins K.J. Zulch Prize", Rehabilitation Research & Development Service, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, January 21, 2010 (press release).
  10. ^ Juan Carlos Lopez, "The 2010 Roche – Nature Medicine Translational Neuroscience Symposium", Spoonful of Medicine, Nature, December 21, 2010.
  11. ^ "The Stifterverband Science Award – Erwin Schrödinger Prize", Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, retrieved September 15, 2020.
  12. ^ Katie Moisse, "Paralyzed Woman Moves Robotic Arm With Her Mind", ABC News, May 15, 2012.
  13. ^ "National Institutes of Health Advisory Committee to the Director", Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Working Group, archived from the original on April 24, 2013.
  14. ^ Maia Szalavitz, "Brain Map: President Obama Proposes First Detailed Guide of Human Brain Function", Time, February 19, 2013.

External links edit