Leigh Hochberg - Ivy@50

"If Brown didn't have a fencing team, I probably would have would up matriculating somewhere else."

And Leigh Hochberg's decades-long association with Brown University has brought him to the cusp of a major medical milestone -- enabling people who are paralyzed to control devices with their minds.

He's the principal investigator for a study using the BrainGate Neural Interface System on live subjects -- in this case, with patients who have lost use of their limbs -- taking place at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital. The BrainGate system is a 4mm square (baby aspirin-sized) semiconductor implanted into the patient's motor cortex, the part of the brain that normally controls movement. It then sends motor cortex signals to an outside processor, which translates the signals into computer directives. "The first person [with the implant] controlled a TV, opened simulated email, and transported a piece of candy to someone's hand with a robotic arm," says Hochberg.

For Hochberg, the journey to this achievement started while he was a Brown undergraduate. "My first undergraduate neural science course was with John Donoghue," remembers Hochberg. The association continues to this day, for Dr. Donoghue is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, the maker of the BrainGate implant. Hochberg soon found a career path. "The neuroscience laboratory course in my junior year was when I realized that science could be part of a future career," he says.

For Stephen Eschenbach's full story, please visit Ivy@50.