University of Minnesota awarded $21M to lead research revealing effects of vagus nerve stimulation in humans
October 26, 2022 — University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers — which includes Professor Hubert Lim as one of the PIs — are leading a comprehensive global clinical study that seeks to reveal the functional effects of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) across the human body.
The Research Evaluating Vagal Excitation and Anatomical Links (REVEAL) project is a $21 million National Institutes of Health-funded project that will take place over three years.
REVEAL aims to study the anatomical connections and functional effects of vagus nerve stimulation, or VNS, which is an FDA-approved treatment for epilepsy and depression.
REVEAL incorporates a large-scale clinical study with up to 144 VNS patients along with three ancillary studies. Together, these studies will assess autonomic, cardiovascular, metabolic, immune, and gastrointestinal function in response to a broad range of VNS parameters. Researchers hope to generate one of the largest publicly available datasets on VNS function in humans.
Collaborators at the Department of Biomedical Engineering include Matthew Johnson, Tay Netoff, and Alena Talkachova.