Dr. Michael Kilgard is one of the leading researchers in the area of directing neural plasticity for the treatment of serious neurological and psychiatric disorders. He invented precisely timed vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and has showed the therapy can enhance plasticity and rehabilitation in multiple animal models and in patients with stroke, tinnitus, spinal cord injury, and PTSD. In 2021, VNS was FDA approved as the first neurotechnology proven to improve function after stroke. Dr. Kilgard has more than 30 patents and has published over 150 papers in top journals, including Nature, Science, Nature Neuroscience, Stroke, and Neuron. He is the recipient of the University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award. Dr. Kilgard is the Margaret Fonde Jonsson Professor of Neuroscience and the director of the Texas Biomedical Device Center (txbdc.com). He has received more than $30 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, and private foundations.
Dr. Kilgard trained in biochemistry and genetics at the University of California at Berkeley and in neuroscience at the University of California at San Francisco.