Entrepreneur and alumna Rikky Muller named a top Innovator under 35
Today, August 18, 2015, MIT Technology Review reveals its annual list of Global Innovators Under 35. For over a decade, the global media company has recognized a list of exceptionally talented technologists whose work has great potential to transform the world. For her work in the field of Engineering and Medicine, UC Berkeley alumnus Dr. Rikky Muller, co-founder of Cortera Neurotechnologies, Inc., has been recognized as an Honoree on the list.
Cortera is a medical device start-up, founded in 2013, that leverages over a decade of research and development in medical devices and neuroscientific products to study and treat intractable neurological disorders. Located in Berkeley, CA, the company has received grants and awards from DARPA (as part of the Obama BRAIN initiative), the NIH, UC Berkeley, The University of Melbourne and the State of Victoria in Australia.
Dr. Muller and her colleagues are focused on developing innovative medical devices to study and treat neurological disorders. Under Dr. Muller’s leadership, Cortera is a key contributor to a DARPA program (as part of the Obama BRAIN initiative) aimed at developing neurotechnology as a therapy to treat neuropsychiatric disorders such as major depressive disorder, and post traumatic stress disorder. The World Health Organization estimates that such disorders account for up to 31 percent of the global burden of disease. Additionally, Cortera has developed a catalog of unique and commercially available products for neuroscientific research and discovery.
According to Dr. Muller, “I am delighted to receive this award and be included in this global community of innovators advancing technology for human benefit. My work involves developing devices that, among other things, lower surgical complexity and expand the patient population that can be treated for neurological disorders, thus improving and transforming their quality of life.”
“Over the years, we’ve had success in choosing young innovators whose work has been profoundly influential on the direction of human affairs,” says editor in chief and publisher Jason Pontin. “Previous winners include Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the cofounders of Google; Mark Zuckerberg, the cofounder of Facebook; and Jonathan Ive, the chief designer of Apple. We’re proud of our selections and the variety of achievements they celebrate, and we’re proud to add Rikky Muller to this prestigious list.”
This year’s honorees will be featured online at www.technologyreview.com starting today, and in the September/October print magazine, which hits newsstands worldwide on September 1. They will appear in person at the upcoming EmTech MIT conference November 2–4 in Cambridge, Massachusetts (www.EmTechMIT.com).