For the first time, a University of Utah participant is taking a nerve-connected bionic arm home. The year-long trial tests whether the technology holds up outside the lab.

Alexander “Avi” Davidson, 33, is spending the next year using a nerve-connected prosthetic arm at home as the first participant in a University of Utah home trial. He is the ninth person enrolled in the research, but the first to take the device outside the lab.

The arm runs on the BIOS Controller, a direct nerve interface developed by the university and licensed to spin-out company Biologic Input Output Systems (BIOS). It lets Davidson control the arm through motor intention rather than surface muscle signals, and returns a sense of touch to the hand. The underlying device is the LUKE Arm, a commercially available robotic prosthesis from DEKA, with the BIOS interface integrated.

The O&P EDGE notes that its report was adapted from materials provided by the University of Utah.

What changed to make home use possible

Every previous participant in the University of Utah’s neuroprosthetics research tested the interface on campus, under clinical and engineering supervision. That is the standard approach for experimental work of this kind: a controlled setting makes it easier to monitor the device, troubleshoot failures, and maintain participant safety. It also means the research generates almost no data on how the device performs across the unpredictable conditions of real daily life.

The current iteration of the software and AI has improved sensation quality, dexterity, and control to the point where the research team believes unsupervised home use is now feasible. The trial will find out whether that assessment is correct.

Davidson fell 35 feet from a telephone pole at age 16, which left him with paraplegia and led to a left transradial amputation. He has used other robotic prosthetics. He said none of them matched the range of movement, fine control, sensory feedback, or ease of use of the Utah device.

How the touch feedback works

The BIOS Controller connects to peripheral nerves in the residual limb. When the prosthetic hand makes contact with something, the interface translates pressure data into signals that Davidson registers as sensation. Within days of first use, he could carry out tasks including writing, playing cards, making a sandwich, and holding his wife’s hand. He described being able to sense how much pressure he was placing on her hand, and feeling hers back.

Leanne Seckinger, OTR, who has been supporting Davidson’s integration of the device into daily activity, said the restored sensation opens up tasks that would not be practical with other prosthetic devices.

The FDA granted the BIOS direct nerve interface Breakthrough Devices Program designation in 2024 and admitted it to its Total Product Lifecycle Advisory Program. Both programs are designed to accelerate promising experimental devices toward regulatory clearance.

The problem this is trying to solve

Despite significant research investment in robotic upper-limb prosthetics over the past two decades, many users with upper-limb differences still prefer body-powered hooks in daily use. The reasons are practical: hooks are durable, mechanically direct, and require no learned muscle-signal control. Robotic arms are heavier, demand more cognitive effort to operate, and have historically offered limited feedback about what the hand is doing. That feedback gap is part of why abandonment rates for advanced upper-limb devices remain higher than most people outside the field expect.

A direct nerve interface that restores real touch feedback changes the calculation on that last point, because it gives the device something body-powered hooks cannot: information flowing back to the user. Whether that changes daily behavior, and whether it persists over a year of home use, is what this trial is positioned to find out.

What this does not mean now

Davidson is enrolled in an Investigational Device Exemption Early Feasibility Study. The device is not cleared for commercial distribution. The trial’s purpose is to generate data on whether the technology functions reliably and is genuinely useful in home conditions. A positive result from this trial would support the next phase of development and, eventually, a regulatory pathway to broader availability.

Jacob A. George, PhD, who has led development of the Utah neuroprosthetics program since 2015, has described a long-term goal of connecting users to other systems including virtual reality and standard computing devices through the same interface. That timeline depends on what this trial and subsequent research actually show.

Davidson is documenting his use of the device on Instagram.

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This article covers technology under active clinical investigation. It describes research findings, not commercially available treatment options. Consult a qualified prosthetist or physician before making any changes to your prosthetic care.