Paradromics Inc., a neurotechnology company developing a brain-computer interface platform, successfully completed its first human procedure after nearly three years of preclinical studies.
The insertion of the company’s Connexus Brain-Computer Interface was led by the University of Michigan’s Dr. Matthew Willsey alongside Dr. Oren Sagher and a multidisciplinary team of clinicians and engineers. A Brain-Computer Interface is described as a system that comprises a direct communication pathway between the brain and an external device.
The device was implanted during epilepsy resection surgery, when the area of the brain causing seizures is disconnected or removed, in order to understand how epilepsy influences brain signaling. The success of the surgery highlighted how the device can record electrical brain signals, and be removed intact in less than 20 minutes.
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The successful surgery marks the beginning of clinical efforts for Paradromics and is the latest development in its race against companies such as Elon Musk’s Neuralink, Synchron and Precision Neuroscience to dominate the brain-computer interface space.
As of April, three patients have received Neuralink’s brain implant.
Paradromics CEO Matt Angle founded the company in 2015 on the belief that a high data rate, high-reliability brain-computer interface (BCI) could transform the scope and scale of brain-health applications.
The company’s Connexus device is designed to restore communication for people with severe motor impairments caused by conditions like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), brainstem stroke and spinal cord injury. The company’s platform leverages artificial intelligence to translate brain signals into actionable outputs. The company’s website says that it developed the first high data rate BCI designed to deliver high performance for the user, offering communication at natural speeds and the ability to replicate complex mouse and keyboard hand actions.
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The company said it is planning to launch a clinical trial later this year to study the long-term use and safety of the Connexus BCI, pending regulatory approval.
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