The Swiss Research That Made a Paralyzed Man Walk Again (A Conversation with Jocelyne Bloch and Grégoire Courtine)

Together, they co-direct .NeuroRestore, a joint research center in Lausanne where scientists and surgeons work side by side to develop technologies that restore lost neurological function. Their collaboration combines Courtine’s engineering approach to reactivating the nervous system with Bloch’s surgical expertise in implanting the technologies that make it work in real human patients.

The conversation covers the full arc of their journey: from animal models and regulatory hurdles to David, their first patient, who walked along the lake in Lausanne in 2017. They also discuss the spin-off company Onward, the challenge of funding deep-tech medtech in Switzerland, and their vision of combining electrical stimulation with gene therapy to one day cure paralysis altogether.

Their work is also a case study in what Switzerland makes possible: world-class research institutions, surgical expertise, and entrepreneurial ambition all within a few hundred meters of each other in Lausanne.

This episode is available on YouTube and Spotify.