Dr. Romero-Ortega is Professor and Department Head of Biomedical Engineering, and adjunct professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Arizona. He obtained his BS degree from Univ. of Guadalajara Mexico, a PhD in Neuroscience from Tulane Univ., and postdoctoral fellowships in nerve regeneration and dev. Neuroscience at Univ. of Texas Southwestern Med Ctr (UTSW). He directed the Regenerative Neurobiology Research Laboratory at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital and joined the Neurology and Plastic Surgery Departments at UTSW as Assistant Professor. In 2008, he joined the Univ. Texas Arlington Bioengineering department as Associate Professor, and in 2014 joined the BME faculty at the Univ. Texas at Dallas and Surgery Department at UTSW. In 2019, he joined the Univ. Houston as Cullen endowed Professor of Biomedical Engineering with dual appointments in Engineering and Medicine, serving as Director for the Undergraduate BME program. His work focuses on peripheral nerve gap repair, regenerative neural interfaces, and bioelectronics medicine applications, and his work has been published in 192 abstracts and manuscripts. He is a member of the editorial board of Open J. in Med. and Biology, J. Bioelectronic Med, and Associate Editor of Frontiers in Neurology and Neurotechnology. He is the Technical Program Co-Chair of IEEE NER 2025 conference and has served as reviewer for 32 Scientific Journals and as member of review panels for the VA, DoD, NIH, and several international institutions. His work has been funded by NSF, NINDS, NIDDK, NIBIB, DARPA, American Heart Association, and others. He has been awarded the Engineering Excellence in Research Award and the Tech Titans Award in Technology Innovation. He has received 8 awarded patents, and is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of RBI Medical Inc (as Juniper Biomedical), and Pioneer Neurotech Inc.
Abstract: Advanced neural interfacing technology aims to improve intuitive control of robotic limb prosthetics, and to provide sensation to amputee users. We recently developed Y-shaped Regenerative Ultrathin Microelectrode Arrays with 30-channels designed to improve discrimination of motor activity decoding and selectivity in sensory axon activation. Data from end-to-end motor-sensory nerve interfacing during locomotion and postural changes will be presented and compared to those in which distal ends are capped as a model of amputation. We also developed a wireless NeuroClip with a novel slide-and-lock mechanism for small nerves target for somatic neuromodulation. Data supporting the application of this technology for the treatment of hypertension and stress urinary incontinence animal models will be presented. We also developed a platinized graphene fiber electrode that has proven effective in interfacing neural activity in neurovascular plexus, enabling the discovery of differential neural activity in separate branches of the splenic nerve, with potential applications in modulation of overactive immune responses. Recent efforts have been placed in the development of machine learning algorithms that can be used for unsupervised axon detection from electronmicroscopy nerve pictures and that can be combined with computer models of nerve activation. Efforts in translating these devices from the lab to the patient will be presented.