A 48-year-old patient in NYC unable to move or speak due to severe ALS paralysis, became the first to receive a permanent brain implant that could allow him to communicate telepathically — a milestone for Synchron, the startup behind the technology that beat Elon Musk‘s Neuralink to beat with his progress.
The procedure took place on July 6 at Mount Sinai West Medical Center in Manhattan, where a 1.5-inch long implant — a brain-computer interface (BCI) stentrode — made up of wires and electrodes is implanted without need into the patient’s brain was cutting into her skull or damaging tissue.
“The first human implantation of an endovascular BCI in the United States is an important clinical milestone that opens up new possibilities for patients with paralysis,” said Dr. Tom Oxley, CEO and founder of Synchron, in a statement.
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“The first human implantation of an endovascular BCI in the United States is an important clinical milestone that opens up new possibilities for patients with paralysis,” said Dr. Tom Oxley, CEO and founder of Synchron, in a statement. The picture shows where the operation took place
“Our technology is for the millions of people who have lost the ability to control digital devices with their hands. We are excited to bring to market a scalable BCI solution that has the potential to transform so many lives.’
The procedure was part of Synchron’s COMMAND study, which is being conducted in the US under the first investigational device exemption (IDE) granted by the FDA to a company testing a permanently implantable brain-computer interface.
Synchron has previously reported that the technology is safe at 12 months in four patients participating in a study in Australia.
The Australian patients had no side effects and were able to complete tasks such as online shopping and WhatsApp using the implant.
“The implantation procedure went very well and the patient was able to go home 48 hours after the operation.” Pictured is a close-up of the tiny cylinder-like device in the patient’s vessel in his brain
“This is an incredibly exciting milestone for the field because of its implications and tremendous potential,” said Shahram Majidi, MD, the neurointerventional surgeon who performed the procedure and an assistant professor of neurosurgery, neurology and radiology at the Icahn School of Medicine in Mount Sinai said in a statement.
“The implantation procedure went very well and the patient was able to go home 48 hours after the operation.”
“This is an incredibly exciting milestone for the field because of its implications and tremendous potential,” said Shahram Majidi, MD, the neurointerventional surgeon who performed the procedure, in a statement. Pictured is a small device from Synchron
With this performance, it is ahead of Neuralink: As of January 2022, Musk’s company has so far proven success with chips implanted in a pig and a monkey, and posted a job seeking a clinical trials director in the US.
Neuralink has been working on a much more powerful, extremely small implant that can be placed in the brain through robotic surgery.
“We’re hoping to have this in our first people next year — which will be people who have severe spinal cord injuries, such as quadriplegics or quadriplegics — pending FDA approval,” Musk said during a live-streamed interview with the CEO Wall Street Journal Council Summit.
The news about its competitor comes as Paul Merolla, who helped launch Neuralink in 2016 and worked on its chip design program, has left the company, two sources said Reuters.
During the procedure, a doctor made an incision in the patient’s neck and inserted the stentrode via a catheter through the jugular vein into a blood vessel located in the motor cortex — which is part of the brain’s frontal lobe.
When the catheter was removed, the stentrode — a small, hollow wire mesh shaped like a cylinder — opened up and began to fuse to the outer edges of the blood vessel.
Thanks to Synchron’s proprietary digital voice, it can then recognize engine intent and transmit it wirelessly – this enables it severely paralyzed patients to control personal devices with hands-free point-and-click.
According to Synchron, the stentrode uses 16 electrodes to monitor brain activity and record the firing of neurons when a person thinks.
A second method connects the stentrode via a wire to a computing device implanted in the patient’s chest.
To do this, the surgeon must create a tunnel for the wire and a pocket for the device under the patient’s skin, similar to how a pacemaker is placed.
The stentrode reads the signals when neurons in the brain fire, and the computing device amplifies those signals and sends them to a computer or smartphone via Bluetooth.
The study will assess the impact of everyday tasks such as texting, email, online shopping and accessing telehealth services, and the ability to live independently.
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in New York City, Synchron bills itself as a “leader in implantable neural interface technology.”
It says other applications for its technology could include treating and diagnosing diseases such as Parkinson’s, epilepsy, depression and hypertension.
