Matthew P. Ward, PhD

Matthew P. Ward received his B.Sc. degree in Biomedical Engineering and Ph.D. degree in Neural Engineering from Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN). He is currently Research Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN) and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Gastrointestinal Motility and Neurogastroenterology Unit of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Ward has spent the last 13 years developing tools and technologies that use real-time physiological feedback and learning algorithms to derive the mechanism(s)-of-action of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) for numerous medical applications, including bioelectronic treatments for epilepsy, depression, autoimmune inflammatory disorders and gastroparesis. In 2014/2017, he was inducted into the Purdue Innovators Hall of Fame for his work in self-optimizing neural interfaces for implantable and wearable bioelectronics.  In 2020, Dr. Ward was recognized as a Top Faculty Innovator at Purdue.

Key Publications:

(a)   Ward, M.P., Gupta, A., Wo, J.M., Rajwa, B., Furness, J.B., Powley, T.L., and T.V. Nowak. An emerging method to noninvasively measure and identify vagal response markers to enable bioelectronic control of gastroparesis symptoms with gastric electrical stimulation. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 336, 15 Apr 2020.

(b)  M.P. Ward et al., “High-resolution, selective and self-optimizing haptic and electrotactile display and methods of use,” US Patent No.: 10,517,791, Dec. 31, 2019.

(c)   M.P. Ward et al. “Method and apparatus for closed-loop control of nerve activation.” US Patent: 10,335,547, Jul. 1, 2019.

(d)  Ward, M.P., Qing, K., Otto, K.J., John, S.W.M., Worth, R.M. & Irazoqui, P.P. (2015). A flexible platform for biofeedback-driven control and personalization of electrical nerve stimulation therapy. IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 23(3), 475-484.

(e)   Ward, M.P. & Irazoqui, P.P. (2010). Evolving refractory major depressive disorder diagnostic and treatment paradigms: toward closed-loop therapeutics. Frontiers in Neuroengineering, 3(7), 1-15.

(f)   Ward, M.P., Rajdev, P., Ellison, C. & Irazoqui, P.P. (2009). Toward a comparison of microelectrodes for acute and chronic recordings. Brain Research, 1282, 183-200.