Neuralink Blog

Last month, the second participant in our PRIME Study received his Neuralink implant (Link). With the Link, he has been improving his ability to play video games and began learning how to use computer-aided design (CAD) software to design 3D objects. In this blog post, we provide an update on our second participant’s experience with the Link.

People with quadriplegia often find that their needs to engage seamlessly with the digital world go unmet, leading to decreased independence, isolation, and financial challenges. Our goal is to provide a high-performance interface that will enhance the control of digital devices for people with quadriplegia, unlocking their personal and professional potential.

In January, we conducted the first human implantation of our brain-computer interface (BCI). We were able to detect the participant’s neural signals shortly after the implantation surgery, and since then, he has used our end-to-end BCI system for various applications, like playing online chess and Sid Meier's Civilization VI*. 

This marks a significant milestone towards making BCI technology available to potentially restore autonomy to millions of people with unmet medical needs. We’ve prepared this blog post to share a high-level snapshot of where we are as a company: the mission that guides us, the technology we have built, the study we are currently conducting, and the work we have yet to do.

Our Patient Registry is now accepting applications from Canadian residents! 

This international expansion allows us to assess preliminary eligibility of participants for future Neuralink clinical trials in Canada.

Become acquainted with the Preclinical Team, which is responsible for the design, conduct, documentation, analysis, and reporting of preclinical studies. It is their responsibility to provide a means for ensuring the implantation of Neuralink devices into animals, and ultimately people, is safe, effective, and robust.

We are happy to announce that we’ve received approval from the reviewing independent institutional review board and our first hospital site to begin recruitment for our first-in-human clinical trial.

Our 3 R’s blog series continues, this time highlighting the importance of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and its role in promoting Refinement, Reduction, and Replacement at a research facility. All animal research must be conducted in an ethical and humane manner. An institution's IACUC provides oversight that is critical in achieving this requirement. In this blog article, we explore the role and functions of Neuralink’s IACUC.

Environmental enrichment is used to maximize animal agency and joy, the top goals of Neuralink’s animal care program. In our second blog on refinement, we highlight our methodology to ensure that we are providing an enriching environment and experience to animals within our care.

Over the last few years, we have worked with patient advocacy groups and a consumer advisory board consisting of individuals with spinal cord injury and their caregivers to guide product development and community engagement.

As an expansion of these efforts, we’ve launched a Patient Registry to learn more about individuals who want to contribute to this initiative and who may be interested in enrolling in future Neuralink clinical trials, when they become available.

The first episode of our Refinement Series will look at how we evaluate the well-being of an animal as it pertains to housing, food, and water - the key elements of husbandry. We share examples of how we identify gaps in our program and how we tackle those with the help and support of our engineers and animal care teams.

At Neuralink, we are committed to championing the “3 Rs” of research:

• Refinement
• Reduction
• Replacement

In this blog post, we describe the 3 Rs and introduce our upcoming multi-part series highlighting the challenges we encounter in animal medical research. We discuss how we think about solutions to these problems using the framework of the 3 Rs. We hope you will take this opportunity to learn alongside us as we dive into the complex world of ensuring animal well-being in a research setting.

Animals at Neuralink are respected and honored by our team. Without proper context, information from medical records and study data can be misleading. In this blog post, we want to provide an accurate statement of Neuralink’s commitment to animal welfare.

Neuralink Corp is pleased to announce our Series C funding round of $205 million, led by Vy Capital, with participation from Google Ventures, DFJ Growth, Valor Equity Partners, Craft Ventures, Founders Fund, and Gigafund.

Neuralink is developing a fully-implanted, wireless, high-channel count, brain-computer interface (BCI) with the goal of enabling people with paralysis to directly use their neural activity to operate computers and mobile devices with speed and ease.