Tim Gardner, an associate professor of bioengineering at the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, has received a $350,000 award from the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation (AMRF) to accelerate the development of next-generation neural-interface technologies for studying brain injury and repair.

The AMRF is a unique funding initiative that first identifies investigators in key fields, such as neural engineering, and invites them to develop collaborative research projects in a defined area of need. The Foundation is funding Gardner’s lab to develop advanced neuralinterfaces for long-term electrophysiology recordings from the brain to study both injury and repair processes. 

At the Knight Campus, Gardner leads a research group that has developed 3D-printed implantable devices designed for the brain and peripheral nerves, and deep learning-based computational methods to analyze neural data. Building on this expertise, Gardner’s team will use both human brain organoids and mouse models to understand stroke injuries and recovery.