The technology was developed at the Wyss Center under the leadership of John Donoghue, a founding pioneer in the world of BCI, for about eight years. This year, Ability Neurotech spun out from the Swiss nonprofit research organization with a total investment of $50 million.
Now, the company looks to challenge the growing BCI landscape, for which analysts have suggested a potential $400 billion market opportunity. Big names are backing some of the biggest competitors, who all hope to be the first to bring the first implantable BCIs to market.
Speaking to MassDevice recently, Ability Neurotech CEO Rotem Kopel and Chief Business Officer Craig Cook outlined how the Wyss Center development shaped the company and what is in store for its BCI platform as it looks ahead to first-in-human studies.
Spinning out from Wyss
Bringing nearly a decade of development and experience, Ability Neurotech is unlike most startups, Kopel says.
“We didn’t start like a company in a garage,” she said. “We are sitting on an organization that has a reputation that is exceptional in the field and we’re still very much connected to it.”
That relationship allows the company to operate in a standalone fashion while still leaning on support from Wyss and the expertise that the center has. Kopel describes it as having supportive fathers and mothers to ensure the company thrives going forward.
With what the company describes as mature technology, it’s now ready to take the next steps.
“Once we spun out, we were a company with a very mature technology developed with a context of really thinking without borders of BCI, without limitation, without constraints, because of the unique setup that we had within the Wyss Center,” Kopel said. “It’s a privilege to take something from that unique setup. I think that when you spin out from a nonprofit, it comes with a very specific set of values that we as a company have all the intention of keeping up.”
“We have the electrodes, we have the implant, we have the wearable, we have the system. That maturity is quite unique on the BCI landscape today. There are many BCI companies, but not a lot of mature BCI companies.”
About the Ability technology
Ability Neurotech’s implantable Ability device features electrodes, the implant itself and a wearable external device. It offers a highly advanced capability to record, transmit, analyze, and stimulate the brain. The company seeks to restore fundamental functions and improve the quality of life for patients.
Initial access takes place through a small borehole, with electrodes sitting on the cortex (the surface of the brain). The invisible, battery-free implant is placed on the skill with the skin closed over the skull, because the form factor is “so thin,” says Cook. Ability’s wearable device docks by magnets to keep it in place and the data transfers through a laser-based system.
The technology extracts the raw data of a brain recording, with the laser working with the external device to send a large capacity of high-speed data over multiple parameters.
“This allows us to not compromise,” Kopel explained. “If we would have limited ourselves to a communication system that exists today in the market, it would mean we would have to choose one parameter.”
Ability captures the complete spectrum of brain activity in real-time through its optical data link technology. Unlike traditional systems limited by Bluetooth or radiofrequency transmission, it collects and processes the full bandwidth of neural signals. This comprehensive data approach enables superior applications that continuously improve, the company says.
For Ability, the maturity of the technology is what makes it unique, Kopel says, as the system “is really ready.” The company is currently in the late stages of validation with two main concepts at play: patient safety and durability as well as an understanding of the complexities of the brain.
“Today, in the brain, we understand a lot, but we understand that it’s really the tip of the iceberg of the real activity of the brain,” Kopel said. “We have to be very modest when we are trying to analyze the brain itself. The technology itself is really a pipeline … to better understand the brain and better understand the disease.”
What’s next for Ability Neurotech
The likes of Neuralink and Synchron notably have already implanted their BCIs in patients as they and many more aim to be the first to bring a BCI implant to market. Funding continues to come into the space, too, with OpenAI recently backing a new BCI venture called Merge Labs.
In order to establish itself alongside those leaders in the space, Ability Neurotech says it has to bring its BCI to the people.
“When we look at what we do next, we have to start clinical work with patients,” Kopel said. “The clinical work we’re aiming for is really the main population of BCI. We understand that they could benefit, because they don’t have other solutions, and they can take the risk with BCI. It’s not just us. All the companies, we are acting on the same space.”
Ability targets spinal cord injury, stroke and ALS as the initial population, which it addressed in feasibility studies. The company aims to get the implant into first-in-human studies in early 2026 in Europe.
“It feels good to to come out of the gates so fast and make a splash,” Cook said. “Up until this point, effectively, we’ve been in stealth. … Now that it’s our breakout year, it feels good that we we have all that clout behind us, and we’ve got this maturity that’ll get us to No. 3 [to first-in-human trials] behind Neuralink and Synchron.”
