“Rewiring Rhythm: An Adaptive Pacemaker Inspired by the Brain”
We are CResPulse—A European Innovation Council (EIC) Transition-funded Consortium—developing a new medical technology that could change how we treat and manage chronic heart problems, as well as certain nerve disorders. Our innovation is an adaptive pacemaker device that mimics the body’s own nervous system. It uses small artificial brain-like networks called central pattern generators (CPGs) to generate heart rhythms with natural adaptation to breathing, exercise, blood pressure and other body functions.
Our CPGs are built on tiny analogue chips that can quickly respond to changes in the body, making the implants safer, simpler, and able to last for the rest of a patient’s life without needing replacement.
By combining advanced computer models with real data from the body, the team has developed a way to automatically “teach” the device how to recreate healthy patterns even under changing conditions.
This new pacemaker has already been successfully tested in living models and shows promise in restoring natural heart rhythms. It could offer a powerful new therapy for patients with irregular heartbeats, heart failure, and related conditions—helping them live longer and feel better.
Who we are
We are CResPulse – a consortium of academic institutions, including the University of Bath (United Kingdom), the Medical University of Vienna (Austria) and the International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno (Czechia). We are funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC) Transition programme to mature and validate our novel pacemaker technology towards market readiness, with a vision for:
Advancing heart care with neural-inspired technology for lifelong, adaptive rhythm control
European Innovation Council
The European Innovation Council (EIC) was established by the European Commission in 2021 following a 3 years successful pilot phase. It has a mission to identify, develop and scale up breakthrough technologies and disruptive innovation. It has a budget of over €10 billion for the period 2021-2027.
The funding and support is organised into three main funding schemes covering all technology readiness levels: EIC Pathfinder for advanced research to develop the scientific basis to underpin breakthrough technologies; EIC Transition to validate technologies and develop business plans for specific applications; and the EIC Accelerator to support companies (SMEs, start-ups, spin-outs and in exceptional cases small mid-caps) to bring their innovations to market and scale up. The Accelerator provides a combination of grant support and direct equity investments in companies through a dedicated EIC Fund, which also provides a platform for co-investments with other investors.
For all schemes, the direct financial support is augmented with access to a range of Business Acceleration Services.
The strategy and implementation of the EIC is overseen by the EIC Board of twenty individuals from the innovation ecosystem (academia, business, investment, ecosystem builders). The EIC also employs dedicated Programme Managers with high level expertise in their fields, to set the challenges and proactively manage portfolios of projects towards technological breakthroughs.