Jonathan Muheim and Massimo Munzi © TNE/EPFL
The human determinants of research are key for making progress, as championed by amputee Massimo Munzi who is helping improve prosthetics, as well as EPFL's neuroprosthetic researcher Jonathan Muheim.
"From the moment I woke up at the hospital after my accident, I could still feel my missing hand," says Massimo Munzi. "I've been working on controlling my phantom hand with my mind ever since, contracting the muscles of my missing hands and fingers, mentally training just in case."
…just in case the right bionic technology becomes available. Convinced that commercial prosthetics can be improved, Munzi is invested in ongoing projects to develop bionic technology in a collaboration between EPFL and INAIL Hospital in Italy.
If a research project owes its success to objective factors - excellence, financial resources, the working environment, etc. - it also owes it to an important element that cannot be controlled: the human one. An idea, a desire, a coincidence, or an encounter is sometimes all it takes to make progress, as demonstrated by Munzi, a hand amputee, and Jonathan Muheim, a doctoral student at EPFL. Their personal motivations came together, driving neuroprosthetics research forwards.
From accident to being a part of a research community
In 1990, Munzi was working in the agriculture industry. On the terrain, his hand got caught in the gears of a laboring tractor as he was trying to free a large piece of fabric that got stuck there. His hand was amputated soon afterwards. He currently works in a supermarket, responsible for the cashiers and inventory.
"I've always wanted to improve prosthetics and get involved in a research project," explains Munzi. "I'd like to help improve control, towards imitating a healthy hand, that's why I never stopped training my phantom hand, my body and my mind, to be the best possible candidate for developing new technology, to help other amputees and myself one day."
In 2020, his idea became reality when during one of his usual check-ups for his prosthetic hand at INAIL center, in Bologna, Massimo encountered a research team from EPFL. Munzi volunteered for a first experiment, then started to work with Jonathan Muheim, an EPFL robotics Master's student at the time, and Francesco Iberite a PhD student from Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, who were investigating phantom temperature sensations supervised by Solaiman Shokur and Silvestro Micera of the Translational Neural Engineering Lab at EPFL's Neuro-X.
The team co-authored a study published in Science in 2023 that restores feelings of warmth and cold in the phantom hand of amputees, the basis for Muheim's Master's thesis for which he received the SSBE Student Award (Swiss Society for Biomedical Engineering). Muheim recently received the enable grant from EPFL's Tech Transfer Office to further develop the device, and a start-up in Italy will be integrating the technology into commercial prosthetics for amputees.
"Some of our tests are long and boring, and volunteers like Munzi stay committed and focused," says Muheim who is now a doctoral student developing some of the first socially-oriented bionic technology. "Massimo can feel his phantom hand, sadly this is not the case for all amputees, which is why it is so precious to work with him."
The amputee regularly participates in experiments with non-invasive prosthetic technology, ranging from temperature feedback to exploratory experiments about other sensory feedback, sometimes coming to Geneva at Campus Biotech days at a time.
"Massimo takes holiday time to come to Geneva for the experiments. He doesn't speak the language. He's full of determination. He's a devoted grandfather, yet leaves everything behind to help out. It's really a gift to work with Massimo," says Muheim.
Prosthetic technology that improves social interactions
"There's a very big bias in the field of robotic prosthetic hands towards motor function, like more degrees of freedom or improved controllability, but this is only part of the problem that will, for example, not help in social interactions," says Muheim. "If you want to build a prosthetic hand that truly replaces your missing limb, you have to be able to feel, to touch and feel warmth. As Rochelle Ackerley from Marseille says, 'Touch without temperature is like vision without color.'"
Muheim investigates questions about sensory feedback in prosthetics, like ways to discriminate what you're touching, psychological and social aspects of warmth, and exploring what Muheim calls "the whole experience of having a limb." The researcher, who holds a Master's in robotics with a minor in neuroprosthetics, got involved in biotechnology one step at a time: "I never thought of myself as a scientist. I'm more of an engineer who fell in love with a project that involves doing scientific research. I'm motivated by solving patients' problems and making helpful devices."
"My first research experience was for a semester project with Stéphanie P. Lacour, head of the Laboratory for Soft Bioelectronic Interfaces at EPFL. There were so many cool projects, I was immersed in an environment of researchers who love what they do," says Muheim. He got hooked on developing socially-oriented technology when, for EPFL's MAKE Assistive Technology Challenge that aims to help someone with a disability, he and team members developed a device to facilitate communication of a 9 year old boy living with a severe motor impairment. "After leaving the device at home with him, his mother called us to say that she heard a computerized voice call 'Mom'. She told us that it was the first time she had ever heard her son call for her. It's amazing that you can develop something with your hands that can have a positive impact on someone's life," beams Muheim. "On the social aspect of technology, Solaiman Shokur's TED talk was an inspiration for me. I knew then that I had to do a project with Solaiman. That's how I ended up doing my master's thesis on bionic temperature feedback."
Community of scientists working together for social biotechnology
Muheim is part of a growing community of researchers and patients involved in projects that marry social considerations with biotechnology. He has worked with as many as thirty patients for his research, including Munzi, most of them from Italy, bringing people of different walks across Europe for a common goal. "We develop ties with these people. They welcome us into their homes, participate in our experiments, provide valuable feedback. These periods are super intense for all of us, but it's our common passion for the projects that brings us together and creates bonds. It's motivational to see their level of commitment," says Muheim.
