Dr. Michael Kilgard

That's not just some virus.

That's not just some bacteria with some polysaccharide you can attack.

That thing is really, really tricky, which is why we don't have an easy cure for this communicable disease, which we totally understand, HIV.

It's just a particularly sneaky one.

But the specificity for...

All kinds of viruses, all kinds of bacteria.

We have an amazing armamentarium for the brain.

We've got a couple.

I would say Parkinson's disease.

We know what causes it.

And the symptom is you don't have enough output from your motor system, and so you can disinhibit the system with a deep brain stimulating nucleus.

And people, everyone's seen the videos.

If you haven't, go YouTube Parkinson's on and off deep brain stimulator, and you'll see people who are golfing and then can barely walk.

Now, you and I know, as many people do, those final neurons will eventually die and there will eventually be a problem.

You're not changing the death that's happening in a person with Parkinson's, but you're giving them years of new life.

That's fantastic for relatively cost-effective tools.

Cochlear implants, same thing.

People are stone deaf.

They're not lip-reading.

They can pick up the phone just like you and I and have a conversation.