Arash Mahnan, doctoral student at the School of Kinesiology and member of the Human Sensorimotor Control (HSC) Laboratory, is the recipient of the 2019-2020 MnDRIVE Commercialization Fellowship in Neuromodulation – Discoveries through Industry Partnerships.

The MNDrive (Minnesota Discovery, Research and InnoVation Economy) award will cover Mahnan for up to $70,000 in stipend, benefits, and tuition over one year. This fellowship funding, in conjunction with potential grant-funded partnerships with the National Spasmodic Dysphonia Association (NSDA) and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s (CTSI) Office of Discovery and Translation (ODAT), will help Mahnan continue his work on the development of a non-invasive neuromodulation medical device for treatment of the voice disorder spasmodic dysphonia (SD).

SD is a voice disorder that leads to strained or choked speech. It is considered a rare disease, with an estimated 50,000 people affected in the United States. There are two types of SD, adductor SD and abductor SD, each affecting speech in a slightly different way. Although it can start at any time during life, SD seems to begin more often when people are middle-aged and remains for the rest of their life. There is no cure for those affected with SD.

The HSC lab’s preliminary work has shown that voice quality in SD improves when vibrotactile stimulation (VTS), vibration used to affect a tactile sensation, is applied to the larynx. This is a non-invasive form of neuromodulation, defined by the International Neuromodulation Society as “the alteration of nerve activity through targeted delivery of a stimulus, such as electrical stimulation or chemical agents, to specific neurological sites in the body.” Neuromodulation, a growing class of therapies, has been in use since the 1980s, and can help restore function or relieve symptoms that have a neurological basis. SD patients need a device that applies VTS and can be worn during daily life. Mahnan’s project seeks to design and build such a device and to test it with a sample of patients. For this effort to succeed, the project requires close collaboration among engineers, motor control scientists and voice disorder clinicians.

Over the past year, Mahnan has designed and developed the first generation model of this wearable device. Currently, he is helping lead research in a three-year clinical trial at HSC lab supported by NIH to investigate the long-term effect of VTS on patients with adductor SD. Additionally, he has presented his work at multiple conferences in both the medical and movement disorder fields. In April, he will present his research at the 2019 Design of Medical Devices Conference (DMD), the world’s largest premiere medical devices conference. He will also present his device at the DMD’s Emerging Medical Innovation Valuation Competition. Winners of this competition are awarded a full device valuation from the UMN’s Medical Industry Valuation Laboratory (the regular fee for this service is $15,000).

Mahnan’s MnDRIVE Fellowship award will allow him to develop and test a second generation of the wearable device to treat SD, and to hold a second clinical trial, this time focusing on patients affected by abductor SD.

“Because this disease is classified as a rare disease, most large medical companies don’t want to devote the time and money into the research required to develop a treatment,” Mahnan said. “I am excited to move this technology forward. My goal is to make it real, to eventually bring the device to the market, and to help SD patients to get their voice back.”

Awards are funded by the Brain Conditions core area of the MnDRIVE initiative. Fellowships are awarded to an outstanding individual trainee or trainee team that has a translational- and neuromodulation-focused research topic with high commercial potential and a strong collaboration with an industry partner. This funding is intended to equip trainees with unique seed funds and to help foster University-industry collaborations that seek to deliver neuromodulation discoveries and innovations with high commercial potential.

Awards are funded by the Brain Conditions core area of the MnDRIVE initiative. Fellowships are awarded to an outstanding individual trainee or trainee team that has a translational- and neuromodulation-focused research topic with high commercial potential and a strong collaboration with an industry partner. This funding is intended to equip trainees with unique seed funds and to help foster University-industry collaborations that seek to deliver neuromodulation discoveries and innovations with high commercial potential.