The purpose of this award is to recognize and encourage teamwork or multidisciplinary efforts by faculty in the College of Engineering. Teams receiving this award have produced an extraordinary and significant outcome as the result of a current or recent collaborative effort, generated new knowledge, improved the learning environment, and/or developed an effective new engagement program.

The nine-member team is a College of Engineering Preeminent Team led by Pedro Irazoqui, professor of biomedical engineering and electrical and computer engineering.

"In 2015, Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA), Glaxo-Smith Kline (GSK), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released three coordinated funding opportunities in 'electroceuticals,'  the use of implantable devices capable of delivering electrical stimulation as a proxy for previously used pharmaceutical therapies," said Kinam Park, Showalter Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering, professor of pharmaceutics, and the team's nominator. "Prof. Irazoqui’s team is the only university in the world to have been selected for funding in all three of these three electroceutical opportunities...making Purdue the best place in the world to train as a graduate student in electroceutical devices."

The team is focused on developing an understanding of the brain’s control of peripheral circuits and the accompanying devices required for therapeutic innovation. Some initiatives include:

• Develop a closed-loop device to understand the brain’s control of the inflammatory reflex, and downregulate cytokine levels in the blood as a treatment for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
• Understand the brain’s control of the micturition circuit, and control urinary incontinence with an implanted device.
• Understand the brain’s control of gastric motility, with important clinical implications for gastroparesis.

Members of the Implantable Networks of Wireless Nanoelectronic Nodes team are:

• Muhammad Ashraful Alam
  Jai N. Gupta Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
   
• Pedro P. Irazoqui
  Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering
   
• Mark S. Lundstrom
  Don and Carol Scifres Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
   
• Chi Hwan Lee
  Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering
   
• Hyowon Lee
  Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering
   
• Zhongming Liu
  Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering
   
• Ramses V. Martinez
  Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Industrial Engineering
   
• Terry L. Powley
  Ben J. Winer Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences
   
• Jenna L. Rickus
  Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering and Biomedical Engineering
   
• J. Paul Robinson
  SVM Professor of Cytomics and Professor of Immunopharmacology and Biomedical Engineering