
The Barrow Neurological Institute, located in Phoenix, Arizona, was the first location.
According to a news release yesterday, the early feasibility study’s patient implants will be conducted by neurosurgeons, neuroscientists and biomedical engineers at the medical school’s Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and Department of Neurological Surgery. They will assess the safety and functionality of Neuralink’s N1 intracortical brain-computer interface implant.
The goal is to help people with paralysis achieve some autonomy by controlling external devices with their thoughts without the need for wires or physical movement.
The study will also evaluate Neuralink’s R1 Robot, a surgical robot to precisely and rapidly place the N1 Implant’s ultra-fine electrode threads within microns of targeted neurons.
“We are very excited about working with the Neuralink team. This announcement is a testament to our multidisciplinary approach for advancing the latest research in neural interfaces and neurorehabilitation,” said W. Dalton Dietrich, PhD, scientific director of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and co-director of the University of Miami Institute for Neural Engineering and professor of neurological surgery at the Miller School.
DJ Seo, co-founder, president and COO at Neuralink. said: “The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and the University of Miami are renowned for their pioneering research in neural interfaces for the treatment of debilitating neurological conditions such as spinal cord injury and ALS. We look forward to partnering with them as a site for our Prmie study.”
Brain-computer interfaces are a hot space. Morgan Stanley analysts estimated last fall that the total addressable BCI market could be worth around $400 billion in the U.S. alone. Neuralink is an attention-getter, but the analysts suggested that Synchron’s BCI system, which is uniquely delivered through an endovascular approach to tap into blood vessels to capture signals from the brain, could be the leader.