Postdoctoral researcher designing brain-computer interface to stabilize blood pressure after spinal cord injury

Most brain-computer interfaces are designed to restore movement. Dr. Wenbin Yang, PhD, a postdoctoral trainee at the Cumming School of Medicine, is developing one to restore something people rarely think about—blood pressure. 

Spinal cord injuries often disrupt the nervous system, impairing the body’s ability to control blood pressure. This leads to extreme swings between dangerously low pressure and life-threatening high pressure, which negatively impact daily life and increase cardiovascular disease risk.

Yang’s research project, a cardiovascular brain-computer interface that communicates with a spinal cord stimulator developed in the lab of his supervisor Dr. Aaron Phillips, PhD, is being designed to restore the body’s ability to automatically regulate blood pressure following a spinal cord injury. 

“Spinal cord injury cuts off communication,” says Yang. “The idea behind this system is to reconnect the spinal cord and brain and use the brain signals to decode blood pressure state. The interface will then act as an automatic trigger for the electrical stimulation device implanted in the lower thoracic.” 

The team has already developed this closed-loop system in animal models and is now validating its use. 

As part of postdoctoral work, Yang is also looking at how sex and gender differences may impact men and women with spinal cord injury with the goal of optimizing care. He recently received a prestigious Canadian Institutes of Health Canada Postdoctoral Research Award to support the project.  

“This work is important because although spinal cord injuries are more frequent for men, women have a stronger risk of hypotension (low blood pressure) after spinal cord injury,” says Yang, adding he recently co-authored a study looking at the issue. 

Yang has always been interested in the brain. 

Even as a youngster growing up in China, he questioned many things, like how memory was formed and how people learned. 

Although he began in physics, Yang found himself increasingly drawn to neuroscience. Research experiences in Germany and at Harvard confirmed that fascination, eventually leading him to Switzerland, where he completed his PhD studying memory formation and false memories.

But Yang wanted his work to have a more direct impact on people's lives. A podcast featuring his current supervisor, Phillips, convinced him Calgary was where he could do that.

“I knew I wanted to make a more societal impact,” says Yang, noting he was immediately drawn to study in the lab. 

After two years, Yang is still excited by the possibilities.

“The Phillips lab is unique in that it has both a pre-clinical and clinical side, which helps us move our discoveries from lab to the clinic much faster,” he says. 

But Yang’s curiosity about the brain is far from satiated. 

He hopes to continue his academic career in neuroscience and expand his studies to include neurological diseases such as ALS. 

Regardless of where Yang’s career takes him, his motivation remains the same.  

“I would like to help people,” he says.