Frank Reynolds's story is obviously a complex, multi-year affair that involved years of research, but for the attention-span deprived, a summary: He was partially paralyzed. He researched neuroscience. Underwent intense physical rehabilitation. Walked again. Then he created InVivo.
And today, as you can see, he's readying an IPO for his company, which he hopes will extend the amazing research displayed in this TEDx presentation to the masses, once it's finally approved for human trials.
A video of his 17-minute TEDx talk from August is here. An absolutely incredible moment involving a monkey occurs at about 10:50 (Note: There is some blood and animal testing in this video):
As he says in the video, doctors had told him he'd never walk again. Obviously they were wrong.
Editor's Note: As correctly pointed out by one of our readers, Frank's story, while incredible in its own right, did not include the application of the demonstrated surgical technique. This was developed in tandem with MIT researchers after his recovery (which is still ongoing to this day, as he mentioned in the video). That said, though hard work and extensive neurological and physical therapy, he was able to walk again, and later develop the seemingly miraculous technique that he is currently trying to get into human trials. I have updated this story accordingly and, above all, wish him well! - j.l. [Youtube via Miguel de Icaza's Twitter]