Jocelyne Bloch (born

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

) is a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

neuroscientist and a neurosurgeon at

Lausanne University Hospital The Lausanne University Hospital (french: Centre hospitalier universitaire vaudois, CHUV), in Lausanne, is one of the five university hospitals in Switzerland. The Lausanne University Hospital is linked to the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of ...

and at EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne).

Life

Bloch graduated in the Faculty of Medicine of

Lausanne University The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switze ...

in December 1994 and she obtained her neurosurgical degree in 2002. Her area of expertise is

deep brain stimulation Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a neurosurgical procedure involving the placement of a medical device called a neurostimulator, which sends electrical impulses, through implanted electrodes, to specific targets in the brain (the brain nucleu ...

and brain repair in relation to

movement disorders Movement disorder refers to any clinical syndrome with either an excess of movement or a paucity of voluntary and involuntary movements, unrelated to weakness or spasticity. Movement disorders are synonymous with basal ganglia or extrapyramidal d ...

. In collaboration with EPFL, she is currently leading a clinical feasibility study that evaluates the therapeutic potential of this

spinal cord The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue, which extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone). The backbone encloses the central canal of the spi ...

stimulation technology, without a

brain implant Brain implants, often referred to as neural implants, are technological devices that connect directly to a biological subject's brain – usually placed on the surface of the brain, or attached to the brain's cortex. A common purpose of modern brai ...

, to improve the walking ability in people with partial spinal cord injury affecting the lower limbs. Since 2019 she has also been an Adjunct Professor of neuroscience at EPFL. Since 2019, Bloch together with Grégoire Courtine, leads the .Neurorestore Laboratory, jointly managed by the

, the University of Lausanne, the Defitech Foundation and the EPFL. Bloch was awarded the Ronald Tasker Award (2019) of the World Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery for her innovative research in

neuromodulation Neuromodulation is the physiological process by which a given neuron uses one or more chemicals to regulate diverse populations of neurons. Neuromodulators typically bind to metabotropic, G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) to initiate a second ...

and spinal cord repair.

Paralysed but walking: Brain and spine implants help monkeys move again

The wireless brain and spine implants used could help paralysed people regain control of their bodies. Monkeys with spinal injuries that have left them paralysed are able to walk again through wireless implants in their brains and spines that bypass the damaged tissue. Scientists developed a brain-spinal interface to transmit neural signals from the brain to a site in the spinal cord downstream of the injury. Neurosurgeon Jocelyne Bloch of the Lausanne University Hospital, who surgically implanted the brain and spinal cord implants, says: "The link between the decoding of the brain and the stimulation of the spinal cord – to make this communication exist – is completely new".

References

External links

* * * Website o
.Neurorestore
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloch, Jocelyne Swiss neurosurgeons Women neurosurgeons University of Lausanne alumni Living people Swiss women neuroscientists 21st-century Swiss physicians 21st-century Swiss women scientists 21st-century Swiss scientists 21st-century women physicians 1968 births Academic staff of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne