Neural interface technologies that record, modulate, or stimulate neural activity; novel biomaterials for repair and neural interface devices; bioengineering applied to the nervous system (including development of hardware, software, and computational techniques)
Additional keywords: Brain computer interfaces (BCI), neural and nerve interfaces; electrode development; microelectrode array; closed-loop deep brain stimulation (DBS); electrochemical sensors; brain implants; neural probe; nanotechnology; peripheral nerve injury
Dr. Doe Kumsa is a Program Director in the Repair and Plasticity Cluster in the Division of Neuroscience. She oversees research on neural interface technologies that record, modulate, or stimulate neural activity; novel biomaterials for repair, bioengineering applied to the nervous system (including hardware, software, and computational techniques), and peripheral nerve injury. Prior to coming to the NIH in 2024, Doe Kumsa was a Senior Lead Reviewer in the Division of Neuromodulation and Rehabilitation Devices at the Food and Drug Administration. She led regulatory reviews responsible for end-to-end medical device review activities which entailed forming and leading multi-disciplinary review teams that have led to the clearance of several neuromodulation medical devices for marketing.
Previously, Doe Kumsa trained as a Post doctoral fellow in Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) where she focused on the safety of neurostimulation by leveraging the tools of electrochemistry to understand the reactions at the electrode-tissue interface. She also did an interdisciplinary research fellowship at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) bridging fundamental research to real world engineering problems dealing with medical device development to extend stimulation paradigms while maintaining safety.
Doe Kumsa received a Ph.D. at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Chemical Engineering where she developed computational current distribution models from first principles that allows for mapping electric field, obtain metal dissolution profiles, and also obtain diffusion profiles of solution species.