Delaware startup Resonate Forward receives $440K from Michael J. Fox Foundation

Vibration therapy has been shown to be effective in treating physical distress. Last year, Delaware startup TheraV, one of our 2019 realLIST rankers, launched its neuropathic pain management product ELIX, a wearable device designed to ease phantom pain in people with amputations.

Now, another University of Delaware-rooted startup, Resonate Forward, is using vibration therapy to help treat people with Parkinson’s who experience a symptom called freezing of gait.

The battery-powered device, which is worn over the foot inside a shoe and called VibeForward, is not yet available to the public, but it may be in the future, thanks to a $440,000 grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF).

UDaily reports that Resonate Forward, which evolved from a project developed at UD’s Parkinson’s Clinic, is one of only eight projects worldwide to receive MJFF grants as part of an initiative to find and test Parkinson’s therapies that treat issues like freezing gait without drugs.

“We’re starting to piece together what is working, or not, and why,” said VibeForward co-developer  Ingrid Pretzer-Aboff in an interview with UDaily. “This new funding is validation that what we’re doing is important for the people we want to serve.”

Read more on UDaily.