Brothers, Max (14 years old) and Sam (17 years old) Ingersoll, realized they could use the frequency of Parkinson’s tremors to generate brain stimulation for patients to reduce the severity of their tremors. They developed this concept into a prototype while participating in a two-week “Mobile Health”-themed design studio at NuVu Studio, an innovation studio for middle and high school students in Cambridge, MA. The studio was led by Dr. Nir Grossman, a postdoctoral scholar in MIT’s Synthetic Neurobiology Group. Subsequently, working with their advisors, the brothers developed the concept into the “Tremor Suppressor,” a platform for Tremor Research and for mobile/connected health.

The Tremor Suppressor is a device that will help Parkinson’s Disease and Essential Tremor Disease patients mitigate their tremor symptoms. It measures the patient’s tremor and processes the data, generating a frequency, amplitude and phase for the tremor. It then synthesizes a signal which is used to stimulate the brain. The hardware of the device is integrated into a 3D printed package which a patient can wear on their wrist.

In addition to the device itself, Sam and Max created an application that will allow doctors to control the duration and type of stimulation the patient will receive, as well as how long. This application, in its later iterations, will allow for accurate, advanced, and in-depth experiment planning and data analysis.

This upcoming summer, Max and Sam will continue to work with Dr. Nir Grossman and Dr. Michael Fox at Beth Israel Hospital on clinical trials of the device.