LSMU joins NeurotechEU with New Opportunities for Neuroscience Education and Research
LSMU brings substantial expertise in neuroscience, well-developed infrastructure and extensive clinical experience. The Neuroscience Institute conducts fundamental and applied research at national and international level. LSMU Hospital Kauno Klinikos has the Department of Neurology, which provides highly specialised health services, and the Department of Neurosurgery.
The University is also equipped with advanced diagnostic facilities, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Gamma Knife radiosurgery and positron emission tomography combined with computed tomography (PET/CT). The radiopharmaceuticals required for PET/CT scans are produced using the cyclotron at the Nuclear Medicine Research Centre.
"By combining these capabilities with the technological expertise within the alliance, LSMU hopes to take a more focused approach to ensuring that brain research findings contribute to scientific progress and are translated into diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitation solutions that benefit patients. This collaboration also presents an opportunity to train specialists capable of working at the intersection of medicine, data science and technology,” says LSMU Rector Professor Rimantas Benetis.
Professor José Sanders, Rector Magnificus of Radboud University in the Netherlands, and Chair of the Board of Rectors of NeurotechEU agrees: “NeurotechEU has the vast ambition to play a leading role in building Europe’s neurotechnology ecosystem for a healthy, competitive and sovereign Europe. This is something we can only do in collaboration. Working with LSMU, the foremost medical hospital in the Baltics with a particular strength in neuroscience, perfectly fits that ambition. We are therefore delighted to welcome LSMU to NeurotechEU - because by strengthening our network, we are strengthening Europe.”
From research discoveries to clinical practice
Clinical neurotechnology is one of the alliance’s research areas that particularly interests LSMU. Researchers at partner universities are studying how data on brain activity, artificial intelligence and new technologies can help detect diseases earlier, select treatments more precisely and restore impaired functions.
The partners’ research includes the use of brain–computer interfaces in stroke rehabilitation, the analysis of movements during sleep to identify early indicators of Parkinson’s disease risk, and the potential of personalised neuromodulation. This work provides practical connection between fundamental research on the nervous system and specific clinical aspects.
LSMU plans to strengthen links between its researchers and clinical departments and research groups across the alliance. The collaboration will help them develop joint projects, share expertise in research methods and explore how to make greater use of their partners’ research infrastructure.
“We are delighted to welcome LSMU. Its strong clinical research offers excellent opportunities to bring brain research and technology closer to patients. With this Lithuanian partner, we are also broadening the knowledge and perspectives within NeurotechEU as a European alliance for Brain and Technology,” says Richard van Wezel, NeurotechEU Coordinator.
The NeurotechEU alliance
Alongside LSMU, the alliance comprises Radboud University (the Netherlands), which coordinates NeurotechEU, Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), the University of Bonn (Germany), the University of Lille (France), the Medical University of Innsbruck (Austria), Miguel Hernández University of Elche (Spain), Reykjavík University (Iceland), Boğaziçi University (Türkiye) and Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca (Romania).