{"id":38342,"date":"2026-03-31T08:28:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/?p=38342"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:31:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:31:54","slug":"the-swiss-research-that-made-a-paralyzed-man-walk-again-a-conversation-with-jocelyne-bloch-and-gregoire-courtine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-swiss-research-that-made-a-paralyzed-man-walk-again-a-conversation-with-jocelyne-bloch-and-gregoire-courtine\/","title":{"rendered":"The Swiss Research That Made a Paralyzed Man Walk Again (A Conversation with Jocelyne Bloch and Gr\u00e9goire Courtine)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>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&#8217;s engineering approach to reactivating the nervous system with Bloch&#8217;s surgical expertise in implanting the technologies that make it work in real human patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This episode is available on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8rBEeFnRX5o\">YouTube<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/3oEHA4iaJSBZ5Qu7saxrqC\">Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Swiss Research That Made a Paralyzed Man Walk Again (with Jocelyne Bloch and Gr\u00e9goire Courtine)\" width=\"500\" 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again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":38343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1262],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-getting-serious"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Getting Serious with Jocelyne Bloch and Gr\u00e9goire Courtine | GGBa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Woody sits down with Gr\u00e9goire Courtine, neuroscientist and bioengineer at EPFL, and Jocelyne Bloch, neurosurgeon at the CHUV.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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