Rice team demonstrates miniature brain stimulator in humans

Tiny skull implant places Rice lab at the forefront of neurotech research

RICE UNIVERSITY

 

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RICE UNIVERSITY’S JACOB ROBINSON AND HIS TEAM OF RESEARCHERS HAVE DEVELOPED THE SMALLEST IMPLANTABLE BRAIN STIMULATOR DEMONSTRATED IN A HUMAN PATIENT THAT COULD REVOLUTIONIZE TREATMENT FOR DRUG-RESISTANT DEPRESSION AND OTHER PSYCHIATRIC OR NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS.

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CREDIT: PHOTO BY JEFF FITLOW/RICE UNIVERSITY

HOUSTON – (April 12, 2024) – Rice University engineers have developed the smallest implantable brain stimulator demonstrated in a human patient. Thanks to pioneering magnetoelectric power transfer technology, the pea-sized device developed in the Rice lab of Jacob Robinson in collaboration with Motif Neurotech and clinicians Dr. Sameer Sheth and Dr. Sunil Sheth can be powered wirelessly via an external transmitter and used to stimulate the brain through the dura ⎯ the protective membrane attached to the bottom of the skull.

The device, known as the Digitally programmable Over-brain Therapeutic (DOT), could revolutionize treatment for drug-resistant depression and other psychiatric or neurological disorders by providing a therapeutic alternative that offers greater patient autonomy and accessibility than current neurostimulation-based therapies and is less invasive than other brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).

“In this paper we show that our device, the size of a pea, can activate the motor cortex, which results in the patient moving their hand,” said Robinson, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and of bioengineering at Rice. “In the future, we can place the implant above other parts of the brain, like the prefrontal cortex, where we expect to improve executive functioning in people with depression or other disorders.”

Existing implantable technologies for brain stimulation are powered by relatively large batteries that need to be placed under the skin elsewhere in the body and connected to the stimulating device via long wires. Such design limitations require more surgery and subject the individual to a greater burden of hardware implantation, risks of wire breakage or failure and the need for future battery replacement surgeries.

“We eliminated the need for a battery by wirelessly powering the device using an external transmitter,” explained Joshua Woods, an electrical engineering graduate student in the Robinson lab and lead author on the study published in Science Advances. Amanda Singer, a former graduate student in Rice’s applied physics program who is now at Motif Neurotech, is also a lead author.

The technology relies on a material that converts magnetic fields into electrical pulses. This conversion process is very efficient at small scales and has good misalignment tolerance, meaning it does not require complex or minute maneuvering to activate and control. The device has a width of 9 millimeters and can deliver 14.5 volts of stimulation.

“Our implant gets all of its energy through this magnetoelectric effect,” said Robinson, who is founder and CEO of Motif, a startup formed through the Rice Biotech Launch Pad that is working to bring the device to market."  

Motif is one of several neurotech companies that are probing the potential of BCIs to revolutionize treatments for neurological disorders.

“Neurostimulation is key to enabling therapies in the mental health space where drug side effects and a lack of efficacy leave many people without adequate treatment options,” Robinson said.

The researchers tested the device temporarily in a human patient, using it to stimulate the motor cortex ⎯ the part of the brain responsible for movement ⎯ and generating a hand movement response. They next showed the device interfaces with the brain stably for a 30-day duration in pigs.

“This has not been done before because the quality and strength of the signal needed to stimulate the brain through the dura were previously impossible with wireless power transfer for implants this small,” Woods said.

Robinson envisions the technology being used from the comfort of one’s home. A physician would prescribe the treatment and provide guidelines for using the device, but patients would retain complete control over how the treatment is administered.

“Back home, the patient would put on their hat or wearable to power and communicate with the implant, push ‘go’ on their iPhone or their smartwatch and then the electrical stimulation from that implant would activate a neuronal network inside the brain,” Robinson said.

Implantation would require a minimally invasive 30-minute procedure that would place the device in the bone over the brain. Both the implant and the incision would be virtually invisible, and the patient would go home the same day.

“When you think about a pacemaker, it’s a very routine part of cardiac care,” said Sheth, professor and vice-chair of research, McNair Scholar and Cullen Foundation Endowed Chair of Neurosurgery at the Baylor College of Medicine. “In neurological and psychiatric disorders, the equivalent is deep brain stimulation (DBS), which sounds scary and invasive. DBS is actually quite a safe procedure, but it’s still brain surgery, and its perceived risk will place a very low ceiling on the number of people who are willing to accept it and may benefit from it. Here’s where technologies like this come in. A 30-minute minor procedure that is little more than skin surgery, done in an outpatient surgery center, is much more likely to be tolerated than DBS. So if we can show that it is about as effective as more invasive alternatives, this therapy will likely make a much larger impact on mental health.”

For some conditions, epilepsy for example, the device may need to be on permanently or most of the time, but for disorders such as depression and OCD, a regimen of just a few minutes of stimulation per day could suffice to bring about the desired changes in the functioning of the targeted neuronal network.

In terms of next steps, Robinson said that on the research side he is “really interested in the idea of creating networks of implants and creating implants that can stimulate and record, so that they can provide adaptive personalized therapies based on your own brain signatures.” From the therapeutic development standpoint, Motif Neurotech is in the process of seeking FDA approval for a long-term clinical trial in humans. Patients and caregivers can sign up on the Motif Neurotech website to learn when and where these trials will begin.

The work was supported in part by The Robert and Janice McNair Foundation, the McNair Medical Institute, DARPA and the National Science Foundation.

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Rice University engineers have developed the first miniaturized brain stimulator shown to work in a human patient.

CREDIT

(Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

Peer-reviewed paper:

Miniature battery-free epidural cortical stimulators | Science Advances | DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adn0858

Authors: Joshua Woods, Amanda Singer, Fatima Alrashdan, Wendy Tan, Chufeng Tan, Sunil Sheth, Sameer Sheth and Jacob Robinson

https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adn0858

Video is available at:

https://youtu.be/jhAEpAJGKSE
(Video by Brandon Martin/Rice University)

Image downloads:

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/04/240213_Implant_Fitlow_152-5b1ea18ebb9fdfc8.jpg
CAPTION: Rice University’s Jacob Robinson and his team of researchers have developed the smallest implantable brain stimulator demonstrated in a human patient that could revolutionize treatment for drug-resistant depression and other psychiatric or neurological disorders. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/04/JWF_8628-39b4feadc43c1c91.jpg
CAPTION: Joshua Woods (from left), Jacob Robinson and Fatima Alrashdan (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/04/JWF_8453-a3f45ee916b1ce90.jpg
CAPTION: Rice University engineers have developed the first miniaturized brain stimulator shown to work in a human patient. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Box Link:
https://rice.box.com/s/il8b8lxzkekxxodzb1peqpjwcpv97a3c

Links:

Robinson lab: www.robinsonlab.com

Sheth lab: https://www.bcm.edu/research/faculty-labs/functional-and-cognitive-neurophysiology-laboratory

Motif Neurotech: www.motifneuro.tech

Rice Neuroengineering Initiative: neuroengineering.rice.edu

Rice Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: eceweb.rice.edu

Rice Department of Bioengineering: https://bioengineering.rice.edu/

George R. Brown School of Engineering: engineering.rice.edu

About Rice:

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of architecture, business, continuing studies, engineering, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 4,574 undergraduates and 3,982 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction, No. 2 for best-run colleges and No. 12 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adn0858 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

ARTICLE TITLE

Miniature battery-free epidural cortical stimulators

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Apr-2024

COI STATEMENT

J.T.R., A.L.S., Sunil A. Sheth, Sameer A. Sheth, and J.E.W. receive monetary and/or equity compensation from Motif Neurotech. Sameer A. Sheth has consulting agreements with Zimmer Biomet, Boston Scientific, Koh Young, Neuropace, Varian, and Sensoria Therapeutics. Sunil A. Sheth has consulting agreements with Viz.AI, Penumbra, and Imperative Care as well as grant funding from Viz.AI and NIH. The terms of these arrangements have been reviewed and approved by Rice University, UTHealth, and Baylor college of Medicine in accordance with their policies on conflict of interest in research. J.T.R., F.A., J.E.W., and A.L.S. are coinventors on a provisional patent application filed by William Marsh Rice University (no. 18336787, filed 16 June 2023). The other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

 

First insights into the genetic bottleneck characterizing early sheep husbandry in the Neolithic period

STAATLICHE NATURWISSENSCHAFTLICHE SAMMLUNGEN BAYERNS

 

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EXCAVATION SECTION IN THE SETTLEMENT MOUND OF AŞIKLI HÖYÜK (CENTRAL ANATOLIA, TURKEY). THE NUMEROUS LAYERS THAT FORMED DURING THE MILLENNIA OF SETTLEMENT AT THE SITE ARE CLEARLY VISIBLE.

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CREDIT: NADJA PÖLLATH (SNSB-SPM)

Modern Eurasian sheep predominantly belong to only two so-called genetic matrilineages inherited through the ewes. Previous research thereby assumed that genetic diversity must already have decreased rapidly in the early stages of domestication of wild sheep. Our study of a series of complete mitogenomes from the early domestication site Asıklı Höyük in central Anatolia, which was inhabited between 10,300 and 9,300 years ago, disproves this assumption: despite a millennium of human interference with the keeping and breeding of sheep, mitogenomic diversity remained invariably high, with five matrilineages being evidenced including one previously unknown lineage. The persistently high diversity of matrilineages observed during the 1,000 years of sheep farming was unexpected for the researchers.

"In Aşıklı Höyük, there were both sheep raised in captivity and wild sheep hunted by the inhabitants of the site. We assume that occasionally managed flocks were supplemented by native wild sheep when necessary, e.g. to compensate for losses due to disease or stress in captivity. One should also consider that people exchanged sheep over wider areas. A possible parallel to such practice can be found in the import of cereal crops to Central Anatolia, which are native to Southeast Anatolia," says Prof. Peters, interpreting the results of the study.

The different matrilineages or haplogroups are similar to the branches of a family tree. Individuals belonging to a particular lineage show comparably little variation in their mitochondrial genomes, because descending from a common female ancestor. Today, haplogroup B predominates among sheep in Europe and haplogroup A in East Asia. Consequently, mitogenomic diversity decreased later in the domestication process or at the time when sheep farming spread beyond the original domestication region during the Neolithic, a question that had so far remained unanswered.

To address this question, the international team of researchers led by Prof. Joris Peters, State Collection of Palaeoanatomy Munich (SNSB-SPM), Prof. Ivica Medugorac, Population Genomics of Animals, LMU Munich, and Prof. Dan Bradley, Smurfit Institute for Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, investigated matrilineal affiliation and phylogenetic relationships of 629 modern and ancient sheep across Eurasia.

Comparison of Aşıklı Höyük's results with ancient DNA signatures in archaeological sheep bones from later settlements in Anatolia and surrounding regions as well as in Europe and Middle Asia clearly illustrates that mitogenomic diversity decreased significantly in the ninth millennium before present. One result of this is the aforementioned dominance of matrilineage B in Europe. "We can now assume that this development is due to a so-called "bottleneck" that took place later in the Neolithic period, when sheep farming spread beyond the natural distribution of wild sheep following the early domestication of the species. This bottleneck likely relates to so-called founder effects, in which smaller flocks were consecutively removed from an already greatly reduced sheep population in the course of the spread of small animal husbandry on the way to Europe," Peters continued.

"Particularly fascinating are the insights gained through the integration of genetic and archaeological datasets. Together with the numerous other mosaic pieces that zooarchaeologists, archaeologists and geneticists have collected over decades, an increasingly coherent picture of human cultural adaptations since the last Ice Age now emerges. Studies like these show that animal domestication is not to be understood in terms of a cross-generational plan, but rather as a process of chance and necessity that has significantly shaped our recent cultural history and accompanies us to this day," adds Prof. Ivica Medugorac.

Today's descendants of the first domestic sheep of Central Anatolia. Even today, agriculture in this region is still largely based on large flocks of sheep.

CREDIT

Nadja Pöllath (SNSB-SPM)

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adj0954 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Ancient mitogenomes from Pre-Pottery Neolithic Central Anatolia and the effects of a Late Neo-lithic bottleneck in sheep (Ovis aries).

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Apr-2024

 

University of Houston and Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University forge strategic energy alliance

UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON

 

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THE MOU WAS SIGNED BY PRINCIPAL, VICE-CHANCELLOR AND PROFESSOR OF HWU RICHARD A. WILLIAMS AND UH PRESIDENT RENU KHATOR.

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CREDIT: PLEASE CREDIT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON FOR PHOTO.

HOUSTON, April 10, 2024 - The University of Houston (UH) and Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University (HWU) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) today, marking the beginning of their partnership to foster global collaboration in education, research and innovation in the energy sector and beyond.

At the heart of the MoU lies a commitment to advance research that helps society deliver a just energy transition, with a particular emphasis on hydrogen – a critical element in the transition to sustainable energy solutions.

UH, a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university, boasts several energy-focused research centers. Located in Houston, home to more than 4,500 energy companies and a pivotal international oil and gas hub, UH is uniquely positioned to build on the area’s existing expertise and demonstrate solutions at scale.

Founded in 1821, HWU is a research-led university with active programs in clean energy and next generation energy technologies. It is a global university with campuses in Scotland, the UAE and Malaysia.

By leveraging each other's strengths and resources, UH and HWU aim to create transformative opportunities for students, faculty researchers and industry partners on both sides of the Atlantic.

"I am thrilled to witness the official celebration of our shared commitment to advancing transformative energy solutions,” said Ramanan Krishnamoorti, vice president for energy and innovation at UH. “Through this partnership, we aim to harness our collective expertise to address pressing energy challenges and drive sustainable innovation on a global scale."

Professor Gillian Murray, deputy principal of business and enterprise at HWU, highlighted the significance of the partnership and its potential to propel scientific understanding.

“This agreement represents a pivotal milestone in the international development of our global research institutes, forging a new partnership to address the most pressing societal challenges that lie ahead,” Murray said.

The MOU was signed by UH President Renu Khator and Principal, Vice-Chancellor and Professor of HWU Richard A. Williams.

The signing was followed by a two-day technology workshop with sessions conducted by faculty members from both institutions exploring key areas of collaboration and future projects, including making, transporting and storing hydrogen and molecular modeling. The event also included tours of various UH research labs.

With a shared vision of addressing global challenges and driving innovation, UH and HWU are poised to collaborate on various initiatives spanning interdisciplinary research, student exchange programs, joint degree offerings and industry partnerships. By joining together, the universities seek to amplify their impact and make meaningful contributions for the greater good.

Both institutions are home to a diverse student body, reflecting their commitment to fostering inclusive learning environments that nurture talent from all backgrounds and prepare them to be the leaders of the future. Through this partnership, they aim to further enhance their international reach and provide students with greater opportunities for cross-cultural exchange and experiential learning.

About the University of Houston

The University of Houston is a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university recognized with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter for excellence in undergraduate education. UH serves the globally competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and strategic industry partnerships. Located in the nation's fourth-largest city and one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse regions in the country, UH is a federally designated Hispanic- and Asian-American-Serving institution with enrollment of more than 47,000 students.

About Heriot-Watt University

Heriot-Watt University (HWU) is a global research-led university based in the UK, with five campuses in Edinburgh, the Scottish Borders, Orkney, Dubai and Malaysia. Around 27,000 students from 154 countries are currently studying with us. We have 159,000 alumni in 190 countries. HWU was founded in Edinburgh in 1821 as the world’s first mechanics institute. In 1966, it became a university by Royal Charter. The university is named after 18th century Scottish engineer and inventor James Watt and 16th century Scottish philanthropist and goldsmith George Heriot. 

 

Clear guidelines needed for synthetic data to ensure transparency, accountability and fairness study says

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Clear guidelines should be established for the generation and processing of synthetic data to ensure transparency, accountability and fairness, a new study says.

Synthetic data - generated through machine learning algorithms from original real-world data - is gaining prominence because it may provide privacy-preserving alternatives to traditional data sources. It can be particularly useful in situations where the actual data is too sensitive to share, too scarce, or of too low quality.

Synthetic data differs from real-world data as it is generated by algorithmic models known as synthetic data generators, such as Generative Adversarial Networks or Bayesian networks.

The study warns existing data protection laws that only apply to personal data are not well-equipped to regulate the processing of all types of synthetic data.

Laws such as the GDPR only apply to the processing of personal data. The GDPR's definition of personal data encompasses ‘any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person’. However, not all synthetic datasets are fully artificial – some may contain personal information or present a risk of re-identification. Fully synthetic datasets are, in principle, exempt from GDPR rules, except when there is a possibility of re-identification.

It remains unclear what level of re-identification risk would be sufficient to trigger their application in the context of fully synthetic data processing. That creates legal uncertainty and practical difficulties for the processing of such datasets.

The study, by Professor Ana Beduschi from the University of Exeter, is published in the journal Big Data and Society.

It says there should be clear procedures for calling to account those responsible for the generation and processing of synthetic data. There should be guarantees synthetic data is not generated and used in ways that bring adverse effects on individuals and society, such as perpetuating existing biases or creating new ones.

Professor Beduschi said: “Clear guidelines for all types of synthetic data should be established. They should prioritise transparency, accountability and fairness. Having such guidelines is especially important as generative AI and advanced language models such as DALL-E 3 and GPT-4 - which can both be trained on and generate synthetic data - may facilitate the dissemination of misleading information and have detrimental effects on society. Adhering to these principles could thus help mitigate potential harm and encourage responsible innovation.

“Accordingly, synthetic data should be clearly labelled as such and that information about its generation should be provided to users.”

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JOURNAL

Big Data & Society

DOI

10.1177/20539517241231277 

ARTICLE TITLE

Synthetic data protection: Towards a paradigm change in data regulation?

 

Report finds significant gender and racial inequities in the educational measurement profession

AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION

Washington, April 12, 2024—Gender and racially based employment disparities, differences in perceptions of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and workplace discrimination remain significant issues in the field of educational measurement, according to a new report supported by the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), and Women in Measurement (WIM). Educational measurement professionals who work at universities, thinktanks, and other research organizations are on the cutting-edge of designing methods and techniques used to measure learning and other educational outcomes.

The report was authored by Thao Vo (Washington State University), Susan Lyons (WIM), Felice J. Levine (AERA), Nathan E. Bell (AERA), and Ye Tong (NBME). Among the major findings of the study of 1,312 individuals who are members of AERA’s Division D—Measurement and Research Methodologies, NCME, and WIM:

• There are significant differences in salary and professional rank across gender and racial groups, with White men reporting higher salary ranges and occupying more senior positions compared to their counterparts from other gender and racial groups.
• Professionals from different gender and racial groups are experiencing DEI issues differently, with women of color consistently reporting the lowest perception of organizational DEI effectiveness.
• Nearly 13 percent of respondents reported experiencing discrimination within the last 12 months that hindered their professional growth, with women of color being the most affected group. The overwhelming majority of these instances were reportedly unaddressed.  

“With an increasingly diverse student population, it is important the field of educational measurement is attuned to and reflects that diversity,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “Creating a more just and equitable profession will ensure that what is being measured and how it is being measured fully captures the full range of experiences across groups of students.”

“This important work shines a spotlight on the community of professionals working in educational measurement and the employers who recruit and develop them and benefit from their work,” said NCME President Michael Walker. “Employers and organizations need to take significant steps toward creating more equitable and inclusive workplaces.”

Susan Lyons, co-founder and executive director of Women in Measurement, highlighted the need to take action: “Our findings serve as a call of action for ongoing commitment and tangible change, emphasizing the importance of understanding and addressing the unique challenges faced by underrepresented groups in educational measurement. We urge employers to take proactive steps to further support and advance DEI and antidiscrimination efforts in the educational measurement profession.”

The report provides five actionable recommendations for employers across all institutional and organizational settings to enhance DEI in the workplace.

1. Employers should publicly evaluate, acknowledge, and commit to a plan for increasing diversity representation.
2. Employers should conduct thorough pay equity audits and make necessary corrections so employers can ensure that their employees are compensated fairly regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity.
3. Employers should invest in antibias and antidiscrimination training to foster a work culture where employees understand their conscious, subconscious, and unconscious biases.
4. Employers should focus on transparently communicating how policies are evaluated and enacted, including providing employees with a clear understanding of the decision-making process and the rationale behind policy changes.
5. To effectively gauge the impact of DEI policies and initiatives, employers should invest in gathering regular feedback from employees.

About AERA
The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is the largest national interdisciplinary research association devoted to the scientific study of education and learning. Founded in 1916, AERA advances knowledge about education, encourages scholarly inquiry related to education, and promotes the use of research to improve education and serve the public good.

About NCME
The National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) is a professional organization for individuals involved in assessment, evaluation, testing, and other aspects of educational measurement. Members are involved in the construction and use of standardized tests; new forms of assessment, including performance-based assessment; program design; and program evaluation.

About WIM
Women in Measurement (WIM) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing gender and racial equity in educational measurement leadership. Women in Measurement amplifies the diverse voices of all women and provide structures of support for career advancement through its programs and events. Its services include mentoring, networking, and sponsored research programs.

 

Security vulnerability in browser interface allows computer access via graphics card

Researchers at Graz University of Technology were successful with three different side-channel attacks on graphics cards via the WebGPU browser interface. The attacks were fast enough to succeed during normal surfing behavior

Reports and Proceedings

GRAZ UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

 

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WEBGPU OPENS THE POSSIBILITY FOR SIDE CHANNEL ATTACKS.

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CREDIT: LUNGHAMMER - TU GRAZ

Modern websites place ever greater demands on the computing power of computers. For this reason, web browsers have also had access to the computing capacities of the graphics card (Graphics Processing Unit or GPU) in addition to the CPU of a computer for a number of years. The scripting language JavaScript can utilise the resources of the GPU via programming interfaces such as WebGL and the new WebGPU standard. However, this harbours risks. Using a website with malicious JavaScript, researchers from the Institute of Applied Information Processing and Communications at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) were able to spy on information about data, keystrokes and encryption keys on other people’s computers in three different attacks via WebGPU.

An appeal to the browser manufacturers

WebGPU is currently still under active development, but browsers such as Chrome, Chromium, Microsoft Edge and Firefox Nightly versions already support it. Thanks to its greater flexibility and modernised design compared to WebGL, the interface will be widely used in the coming years. “Our attacks do not require users to interact with a website and they run in a time frame that allows them to be carried out during normal internet surfing. With our work, we want to clearly point out to browser manufacturers that they need to deal with access to the GPU in the same way as with other resources that affect security and privacy,” says Lukas Giner from the Institute of Applied Information Processing and Communications at TU Graz.

The research team carried out its attacks on several systems in which different graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD were installed – the NVIDIA cards used were from the GTX 1000 series and the RTX 2000, 3000 and 4000 series, while the AMD cards used were from the RX 6000 series. For all three types of attack, the researchers used the access to the computer’s cache memory available via WebGPU, which is intended for particularly fast and short-term data access by the CPU and GPU. This side channel provided them with meta-information that allowed them to draw conclusions about security-relevant information.

Changes in the cache as an indicator

The team was able to track changes in the cache by filling it themselves using code in the JavaScript via WebGPU and monitoring when their own data was removed from the cache by input. This made it possible to analyse the keystrokes relatively quickly and accurately. By segmenting the cache more finely, the researchers were also able to use a second attack to set up their own secret communication channel, in which filled and unfilled cache segments served as zeros and ones and thus as the basis for binary code. They used 1024 of these cache segments and achieved transfer speeds of up to 10.9 kilobytes per second, which was fast enough to transfer simple information. Attackers can use this channel to extract data that they were able to attain using other attacks in areas of the computer that are disconnected from the internet.

The third attack targeted AES encryption, which is used to encrypt documents, connections and servers. Here, too, they filled up the cache, but with their own AES encryption. The reaction of the cache enabled them to identify the places in the system that are responsible for encryption and access the keys of the attacked system. “Our AES attack would probably be somewhat more complicated under real-time conditions because many encryptions run in parallel on a GPU,” says Roland Czerny from the Institute of Applied Information Processing and Communications at TU Graz. “Nevertheless, we were able to demonstrate that we can also attack algorithms very precisely. We did of course communicate the findings of our work to the browser manufacturers in advance and we hope that they will take this issue into account in the further development of WebGPU.”

The research work and accompanying paper will be presented at the ACM Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security from 1 to 5 July in Singapore.

This research topic is anchored in the Field of Expertise Information, Communication & Computing, one of the five strategic research foci at TU Graz.

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

UK/Portuguese study strongly suggests antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” are being passed from cats and dogs to their owners

Pet dogs and cats in Portugal and the UK were carrying the same antibiotic-resistant bacteria as their owners

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Finding highlights the importance of including pet-owning households in surveillance programmes for antibiotic resistance

**Note: the release below is a special early release from the ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID, Barcelona, Spain, 27-30 April). Please credit the congress if you use this story**

**ECCMID has now changed name to ESCMID Global, please credit ESCMID Global Congress in all future stories**

Pet dogs and cats play an important role in the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, new research be presented at the ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID) in Barcelona, Spain (27-30 April) suggests.

The study has found evidence of multidrug-resistant bacteria being passed between sick cats and dogs and their healthy owners in Portugal and the UK, raising concerns that pets can act as reservoirs of resistance and so aid in the spread of resistance to vital medicines.

Antibiotic resistance is reaching dangerously high levels around the world. Drug-resistant infections kill more than 1.2 million people a year globally and, with the figure projected to rise to 10 million by 2050 if no action is taken, the World Health Organization (WHO) classes antibiotic resistance as one of the greatest public health threats facing humanity.

“Recent research indicates that the transmission of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) bacteria between humans and animals, including pets, is crucial in maintaining resistance levels, challenging the traditional belief that humans are the main carriers of AMR bacteria in the community,” says lead researcher Juliana Menezes, of the Antibiotic Resistance Lab at the Centre of Interdisciplinary Research in Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon.

“Understanding and addressing the transmission of AMR bacteria from pets to humans is essential for effectively combating antimicrobial resistance in both human and animal populations.”

Ms Menezes and colleagues tested faecal and urine samples and skin swabs from dogs and cats and their owners for Enterobacterales (a large family of bacteria which includes E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae) resistant to common antibiotics.

They focused on bacteria resistant to third generation cephalosporins (used to treat a broad range of conditions, including meningitis, pneumonia and sepsis, they are classed among the most critically important antibiotics for human medicine by the World Health Organisation) and carbapenems (part of the last line of defence when other antibiotics have failed).The prospective longitudinal study involved five cats, 38 dogs and 78 humans from 43 households in Portugal and 22 dogs and 56 humans from 22 households in the UK.

All of the humans were healthy.  All of the pets had skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) or urinary tract infections (UTI).

In Portugal, one dog (1/43 pets, 2.3%) was colonised by an OXA-181-producing multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli strain. OXA-181 is an enzyme that confers resistance to carbapenems.

Three cats and 21 dogs (24/43 pets, 55.8%) and 28 owners (28/78 owners, 35.9%) harboured ESBL/Amp-C producing Enterobacterales.  These are resistant to third generation cephalosporins.

In five households, one home with a cat and four with dogs, both pet and owner were carrying ESBL/AmpC-producing bacteria. Genetic analysis showed the strains to be the same, indicating that the bacteria passed between pet and owner.

In one of these five households, a dog and owner also had the same strain of antibiotic-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae.

In the UK, one dog (1/22 pets,14.3%) was colonised by two strains of multidrug-resistant E. coli producing NDM-5 beta-lactamase. These E. coli were resistant to third generation cephalosporins, carbapenems and several other families of antibiotics.

ESBL/AmpC-producing Enterobacterales were isolated from eight dogs (8/22 pets, 36.4%) and three owners (3/24 owners, 12.5%).

In two households, both dog and owner were carrying the same ESBL/AmpC-producing bacteria.  

It wasn't possible to prove the direction of transmission, however, in three of the homes in Portugal, the timing of the positive tests for the ESBL/AmpC-producing bacteria strongly suggest that, in these cases at least, the bacteria were being passed from pet (two dogs and one cat) to human.

Ms Menezes, a PhD student, says: “Our findings underline the importance of including pet-owning households in national programmes that monitor levels of antibiotic resistance.

“Learning more about the resistance in pets would aid in the development of informed and targeted interventions to safeguard both animal and human health.”

Bacteria can be passed between pets and humans by petting, touching or kissing and through the handling of faeces.  To prevent transmission, the researchers recommend owners practise good hygiene, including washing their hands after petting their dog or cat and after handling their waste.

“When your pet is unwell, consider isolating them in one room to prevent the spread of bacteria throughout the house and clean the other rooms thoroughly,” adds Ms Menezes.

All of the dogs and cats were successfully treated for their infections. The owners did not have infections and so did not need treatment.

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ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Apr-2024

COI STATEMENT

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.