Brooklyn lab employees are working on startup, developing a technology, which is implanted through blood vessels and allows people with paralysis to operate technology with their minds.The company is part of the brain-computer interface (BCI) industry, which translates brain signals into commands for external technologies. Synchron’s BCI uses a less invasive approach that builds on existing endovascular techniques, and has been used on three patients in the U.S. and four in Australia. The company is currently conducting an early feasibility trial to show that the technology is safe to put in humans, and has enrolled six patients in the study.
Less Invasive Procedure
Synchron’s Stentrode, a stent fitted with tiny sensors, is inserted through the blood vessels, which the company calls the “natural highways” into the brain. The Stentrode is delivered to the large vein next to the motor cortex and is connected to an antenna under the skin in the chest that collects raw brain data and sends it out of the body to external devices. Unlike many competitors who must implant their BCIs through open-brain surgery, Synchron’s approach is less invasive and builds on decades of existing endovascular techniques. Approximately 2,000 interventionalists can perform the procedure, making it more scalable than open-brain surgery or burr holes, which only neurosurgeons can perform.
Improved Quality of Life for Paralysis Patients
Synchron’s technology can help people with severe paralysis or degenerative diseases such as ALS regain the ability to communicate with friends, family, and the outside world. The technology allows patients to use BCIs to shop online, manage their health and finances, and even access social media. The ability to text message loved ones is particularly significant because losing the ability to do so is incredibly isolating, according to Synchron CEO Thomas Oxley. While Neuralink, another BCI company founded by Elon Musk, is developing a BCI designed to be inserted directly into the brain tissue, Synchron’s technology has been tested in humans, and its long-term safety results were published in a peer-reviewed medical journal. Synchron’s Chief Commercial Officer Kurt Haggstrom said the company’s funding will help accelerate product development and push it toward a pivotal clinical trial that would bring the company closer to commercialization.
