MINI – Magnetically induced neuroinhibition

Focus topic:	Life Science Technologies
Type of funding:	Project funding programmes
Programme:	CZS Wildcard
Funded institution:	Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

MINI is investigating the non-invasive blockade of nerve conduction using high-frequency magnetic stimulation. To this end, the project team combines scientific expertise from the fields of anesthesiology, medical physics and biomedical microtechnology.

Goals

Nerves conduct pleasant stimuli and unpleasant sensations such as pain. The injection of local anesthetics can prevent the transmission of pain, but is invasive and risky.

In the interdisciplinary MINI (Magnetically Induced NeuroInhibition) project, scientists from the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at the University Medical Center Freiburg (Dr. Jakob Hufschmidt and Prof. Dr. Nils Schallner), the Department of Medical Physics at the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology (Dr. Sebastian Littin) and the Department of Biomedical Microtechnology at the Institute of Microsystems Engineering at the University of Freiburg (Prof. Dr. Thomas Stieglitz) are working together.

They are researching the non-invasive, reversible blockade of nerve conduction using magnetic stimulation in the kilohertz range. In clinical applications, pain transmission from various regions of the body could be blocked quickly, non-invasively and reversibly with the help of magnetic fields and without the injection of local anesthetics. This could open up new possibilities and sustainably improve patient care in anesthesiology and non-surgical pain therapy.