Anderson Cooper: 60 minutes this week, we are doing a story about the ability of people who are struggling to help paralyzed severe spinal cord injury walk again. Not only do you walk again, but you are actually using your own mind to control the movement of your limbs.

Anderson Cooper: French neuroscientist, Gregoire Courtine and Swiss neurosurgeon Dr. Jocelyne Bloch have been working together in a laboratory called Neurorestore in Lausanne, Switzerland. They developed what they called digital bridges.

Dave Marver: So if you get injured, communication between the brain and the spinal cord that controls movement and other functions will be interrupted.

Anderson Cooper: Dave Marver is CEO of Onward Medical, Dr. Bloch and Dr. Gregoire Courtine have set up the company to differentiate the technology from the lab and enter the market

Dave Marver: So, a digital bridge actually bypasses the damage. It sends signals wirelessly from the brain to a complete, healthy part of the other side of the injured to enable the person to move or have other key functions.

Anderson Cooper: I think if you haven't experienced paralysis, you might think you want to walk again, that's the first thing. This is indeed difficult for the paralyzed.

Dave Marver: I think the public opinion walks again, which is the top priority. Listed. They want to go to the bathroom without inserting the catheter. They want sexual function. They want to standardize their blood pressure and body temperature. These are things that affect them for several hours a day. Blood pressure regulation is a big problem. So what happens is that people usually suffer from very low blood pressure after spinal cord injury. This means it's hard for them to sit upright like this, cooking with loved ones and friends without feeling faint. It may also take an hour for them to transition from bed to chair in the morning as they keep feeling drowsy.

Jocelyne Bloch: To regulate blood pressure, you also need the nervous system, which is also passing through the spinal cord.

Gregoire Courtine: With spinal cord stimulation, a very specific area of ​​the spinal cord we can target with stimuli that usually raises blood pressure. Therefore, we adjusted the system to stimulate the area and we were able to alleviate this hypotensive complication due to spinal cord injury. And, we are using the same principles to improve bladder function, which is a big problem for people with spinal cord injuries.

Anderson Cooper: Spinal cord stimulators may show some hope in helping people with Parkinson's disease. This is still a very early clinical trial. But this helps people restore a certain amount of liquidity, which can be a huge problem for people in later stages of Parkinson's disease.

Gregoire Courtine: For patients with Parkinson's disease, the brain sends broken signals, even though the spinal cord is completely intact. So we think: "We can't use the same principle to activate the spinal cord, and this can regulate walking?" This is absolutely incredible. The first observation is like you want to turn on the stimulus because the spinal cord is intact. The stimulated patients walk almost normally.

Anderson Cooper: Is it an implant that is implanted in the brain or is it just a stimulus?

Gregoire Courtine: In this case, there is only spinal cord stimulation.

Anderson Cooper: I just want to make sure people know that there is a long way to go before something like this. But this is undoubtedly the hope of Brock and the court.

Jocelyne Bloch: That would be a success. The possibility of applying therapeutic therapy to many patients is very good.

Gregoire Courtine: The barrier now is mainly to perform clinical trials to show safety and efficacy, get FDA and EU approval, and ensure that the therapy is not too complex so that other centers can apply it to patients.

Jocelyne Bloch: The ideal world is simplicity. Any patient should be easy to use the therapy.

Anderson Cooper: What does it look like in a decade in ideal situation?

Dave Marver: What I want is someone with spinal cord injury, being able to have a conversation or discussion with the doctor and determining the fixation or recovery they want to see. Can have almost a menu. "I want to restore my hand function. I want to get my blood pressure normal. I want to solve my urinary incontinence or sexual function." And our therapy will provide an opportunity to solve all of these problems. That's our vision.

The video above was produced by Brit McCandless Farmer and edited by Scott Rosann.