With the help of artificial intelligence, the system adapts the stimulation of the nerves to the individual wearer and external conditions. Thanks to this fine-tuning, the treatment is personalised to the specific needs of each individual patient and alleviates the pain associated with neuropathy. Stimulating specific nerve strands causes the body to release chemical messengers that inhibit pain transmission. The sock has the potential to replace the conventional approach to treatment, which involves strong painkillers. \u201cMany sufferers want an alternative that doesn\u2019t cause side effects or dependency,\u201d says Preatoni.<\/p>\n
History in three plastic boxes <\/p>\n
The Italian scientist and her team have been working on this alternative for five years now. The history of MYNERVA fits into three plastic boxes, which stand inconspicuously on the office shelf. They contain all the prototypes, from the fully wired, stiff overshoe to versions with Velcro, zips or laces, and finally the current sleek design, which looks almost exactly like a normal sock. The team, which has since grown to ten, spared no effort in making the system as simple as possible. The sock is operated via a smartphone app for convenience.<\/p>\n
At the bottom of one box is Leia, the namesake of the smart sock. With its two sewn-in cushions, the early prototype is reminiscent of the Star Wars princess\u2019s hairstyle. \u201cIt\u2019s a fun fact that keeps our team together,\u201d says Preatoni, chuckling. The office is full of energy and a little bit hectic, says the entrepreneur. She loves her team and lives for the start-up. Her commitment is paying off: in 2023, not only did she receive the ETH Medal for her doctoral thesis, but she also made it onto Forbes\u2019 30 Under 30 Science & Healthcare.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The home straight <\/p>\n
Since 2023, MYNERVA has also been part of Wyss Zurich. The funding programme, run by philanthropist Hansj\u00f6rg Wyss, supports start-ups in making the leap from scientific discovery to applied therapy. MYNERVA is already on the home straight: last June, the team won the Grand Prize at the Venture Award, covering the costs of patents and approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). If everything goes smoothly, the soft launch in the USA is scheduled for 2027. After that, the team hopes to conquer the markets in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the help of artificial intelligence, the system adapts the stimulation of the nerves to the individual wearer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5807,5809,1202,5808,51],"class_list":{"0":"post-7332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-zurich","8":"tag-d-hest","9":"tag-gesundheitswissenschaften-und-technologie-mob","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-spin-offs-and-patents","12":"tag-zurich"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}