Chet Moritz
American neural engineer
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Moritz's research is focused on neurotechnology including stimulation to restore function after brain and spinal cord injury. His work also includes brain-computer interfaces to control muscle and spinal stimulation. His discoveries have been featured in Nature, MSNBC national news, Wired, Popular Mechanics and local TV news and community outreach videos. He has also been quoted in the New York Times, Newsweek, Scientific American, Forbes, and Science News, and in a news story by Nature.
Education
Moritz graduated with a bachelor's degree in Zoology from the University of Washington in 1998. He then enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, and earned his Doctoral Degree in Integrative Biology in 2003. From 2003 till 2004, he served as a Postdoctoral Fellow of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado, and subsequently rejoined the University of Washington as a Senior Fellow.
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Career
Following his Postdoctoral fellowship, Moritz joined the faculty at the University of Washington as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics in 2009, and was promoted to Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine in 2010. Along with this appointment, he held secondary appointments as assistant professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2014, and later joined the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering in 2018. Since 2010, he has been a member of the Graduate Faculty, and a mentor for the Neuroscience Graduate Program.
Research
Moritz has worked in the area of neurotechnology, neuromodulation, brain-computer interfaces, and home rehabilitation physical therapy.
Brain computer interfaces
Moritz conducted a study in 2008 demonstrating that a brain-computer interface can be used to control stimulation of paralyzed muscles and restore movement. This has spawned several successful human trials of this concept in people with spinal cord injury. With Alik Widge, Moritz also demonstrated that cognitive areas of the pre-frontal cortex could be used to limbic stimulation paving the way for psychiatric neuroprostheses and an allowed patent. With David Bjanes, Moritz demonstrated a new way to provide sensory feedback directly to the brain.
Neurotechnology
Moritz's team demonstrated that stimulation of the spinal cord could lead to lasting improvements in hand and arm function that persisted beyond stimulation. This demonstration of 'engineered neuroplasticity' paved the way for human trials of spinal cord stimulation. He and Fatma Inanici's recent studies regarding transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation indicate that non-invasive transcutaneous electrical stimulation of the spinal networks is very effective in restoring movement and function of the hands and arm for people with both complete paralysis and long-term spinal cord injury. This work lead directly to a multi-site clinical trial with ONWARD medical, for which Moritz serves as one of two co-PIs for the study. Parallel work is also exploring optogenetic stimulation of the spinal cord with collaborators Polina Anikeeva and Sarah Mondello.
Motor unit physiology and biomechanics
In his studies of motor unit physiology, Moritz focused on experimentally measured force variability across a wide range of forces to improve the ability of a motor unit model to predict steadiness in the hand. He also published a paper in 2004 demonstrating the contributions of feed-forward anticipation and neuro-mechanical reaction when humans encounter surprise, expected, and random changes from a soft elastic surface to a hard surface underfoot. Furthermore, he studied implications regarding muscle pre-stretch and elastic energy storage in locomotion.
Home rehabilitation
Moritz and colleagues demonstrated that surface electromyography (sEMG) can be used to control a therapy video game using activation of weak or spastic muscles. Termed NeuroGame Therapy (NGT), the team showed improve wrist control in children with cerebral palsy (CP) and tested the approach in older adults following stroke.