Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions: Recent Episodes
Ladan Jiracek
This podcast's purpose is to bring together the field of neuroprosthetics / brain machine interfaces / brain implants in an understandable conversation about the current topics and breakthroughs. We hope to complement scientific papers on new neural research in an easy, digestable way. Innovators and professionals can share thoughts or ideas to facilitate 'idea sex' to make the field of brain implants a smaller and more personal space.
In this special on-location episode recorded in Leuven, Belgium, we sit down with the co-founders and technical leaders of ReVision Implant—Frederik Ceyssens (CEO), Maarten Schelles (CTO), and Laurens Goyvaerts (CSO). The team shares their journey developing a high-density, intracortical visual prosthesis aimed at restoring vision for the blind. From developing reliable insertion technology to achieving long-term biocompatibility in nonhuman primate models, ReVision Implant is at the forefront of neurotech innovation. Tune in to hear about their challenges, breakthroughs, and what’s next in the race to cure blindness through brain stimulation.
This episode is sponsored by Black Swan IP – patent strategy and legal support for neurotech innovators. Learn more at www.blackswan-ip.com/
Top 3 Takeaways:
- Future users of ReVision's visual prosthesis express diverse goals—from navigating unfamiliar cities independently to recognizing familiar faces—highlighting the need for customizable solutions with both wide fields of view and high resolution.
- The team is exploring adaptive algorithms that could allow users to toggle between broad, low-resolution views and focused, high-resolution modes—such as reading letters or recognizing faces—offering personalized visual strategies even if only a few thousand stimulation points are achievable.
- Restoring vision is one of the most challenging neurotech applications—far beyond simply upgrading existing DBS systems—but taking that bold leap sets ReVision Implant apart in a space where few dare to innovate at this scale.
1:00 Do you want to introduce yourselves and your company?
6:30 What is the device and how is it different than other companies?
11:15 How many pixels or phosphenes are you expecting to get?
16:00 How much processing will be required to handle that many channels?
17:00 What is the form factor of the device?
18:15 How long is the battery expected to last?
23:30 What kind of acceleration would you expect from investment?
26:00 How does your fabrication process look?
31:30 Sponsorship by blackswan-ip
32:15 Are you also looking at vision augmentation?
35:00 There's a large graveyard in this visual neuroprosthetics space, why do you think you will survive where others have died?
40:30 Did some of the other companies have technical issues that caused them to die?
45:30 Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?
In this episode, we speak with Julio Martinez-Clark, CEO and co-founder of Bioaccess, a contract research organization helping Medtech and Biopharma startups slash months off their clinical timelines. With a focus on Latin America, Bioaccess enables early feasibility and first-in-human trials to be conducted faster, more affordably, and with high-quality data suitable for FDA and EU submissions. Julio shares how their global site network—built over 20 years—helps startups navigate regulatory hurdles, reduce costs, and de-risk innovation, all while improving patient lives in emerging markets.
This episode is sponsored by Black Swan IP
Top 3 Takeaways:
- “The sites and IRBs in Latin America follow international ICH-GCP guidelines—Good Clinical Practice standards set by the World Health Organization. If you're a professional in clinical research, these are the standards you adhere to. As a sponsor, it's your responsibility to ensure that the sites you select, after rounds of interviews and vetting, comply with ICH-GCP. There's also a new development in the region: the Global Clinical Site Certification, an organization based in London that accredits clinical research sites internationally. They're expanding across the Americas, and countries like Colombia and Panama have been especially receptive. For example, we’re currently working on certifying CVAC, a site network in Panama.”
- For FDA market clearance, sponsors typically need a large, U.S.-based pivotal study. But the FDA may accept up to 30% of that data from international sites—if it follows ICH-GCP standards. First-in-human trials in places like Colombia or Panama can help demonstrate safety and efficacy, supporting an FDA IDE application for a pivotal U.S. study.
- Many FDA-approved therapies never reach Latin America, simply because manufacturers focus on larger markets like the U.S., Europe, or Japan. Clinical trials provide patients in Latin America with early access to innovative treatments they might otherwise never receive.
0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?
1:30 Why is Latin America better for clinical trials
4:15 How does the speed and cost compare to the US?
6:30 What standard of cleanliness, ethics, and quality can we expect in a country like Panama?
8:45 What kind of capabilities are in these countries?
10:15 Axsoft and Paul LeFloch, previous Neural Implant Podcast guests, utilized your services, can you talk more about their study?
14:15 What was the timeline of that study selection all the way to the end of the study?
15:30 What kind of Institutional Review Boards look over the ethics? Are they internationally recognized?
16:15 Sponsorship by Black Swan IP
20:15 Could you also use this for FDA approval?
22:45 Do you want to talk about the willingness of the patients in Latin America to take part in these trials?
29:45 When should medical device developers reach out to you?
33:30 Is there anything else that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?
In this episode of the Neural Implant Podcast, we’re joined by Nathan Piland, CEO of Nunex, a consulting firm that specializes in helping MedTech companies navigate the complex journey from concept to commercialization. With over two decades of experience across regulatory strategy, product development, and market access, Nathan shares invaluable insights into the critical steps for MedTech startups and established companies looking to succeed in today’s competitive landscape. Tune in as we discuss the unique challenges of the neurotech industry, strategic consulting for MedTech ventures, and how Nunex is helping companies grow and scale through a holistic, tailored approach.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Some people are saying that the brain is becoming the new heart, referring to the decades-long focus on cardiovascular research and devices, from mitral valve replacements to aortic repairs. However, advancements in heart treatments are becoming incremental, while the brain remains a vast unknown. In fact, we may know less about neuroscience than we do about the heart. This is exciting, though, as it means we have fewer biases about how to solve problems in the brain. There’s a lot of activity in areas like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, with ongoing efforts to improve patients’ lives."
- "The reason we formed the company was to partner with founders and leaders in the MedTech industry. Like many listeners of this podcast, I’ve been on the other side, constantly receiving sales pitches. We believe we can add the most value by highlighting key insights and trends within the industry."
- "If I were the CEO of a startup, I would consider doing most of the work in another geography for a fraction of the cost, while still obtaining high-quality data. Then, I would come to the US for a follow-up study. Even if you needed to do a 50-patient study to confirm results with a US-based population to satisfy the FDA, it would be much cheaper, faster, and more cost-effective than conducting a large-scale trial here in the US with all the associated costs and challenges."
0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?
1:30 How did you get into medtech consulting?
5:15 Why did you decide to work with startups?
7:15 What are the 7 dimensions and what are the order of these?
12:45 What does a typical workflow look like with a company?
19:30 Is neurotech different or unique compared to other types of medtech?
23:45 Do you want to talk about your newsletter and conference also?
30:00 And you'll have another conference this year too?
32:00 Malaysia sounds great but are there any drawbacks to working there?
36:45 With the new administration what is your prognosis on funding and medtech development?
41:15 Anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?
In this episode, we welcome Prof. Dr.-Ing. Maurits Ortmanns, a leading expert in ASIC design and professor at the University of Ulm, Germany. With a distinguished career in microelectronics, Dr. Ortmanns has contributed extensively to the development of integrated circuits for biomedical applications. He shares insights into the critical role of ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) design in advancing neurotech implants, focusing on low-power, high-speed circuits that are essential for optimizing the performance and reliability of these devices. Dr. Ortmanns also discusses the challenges and future of circuit integration in neurotechnology.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Each ASIC is very low in cost because the development cost is spread across millions of units. The actual production cost is minimal; the primary expense lies in the development time until the first chips are produced and ready for manufacturing."
- "For an inexperienced engineer, it typically takes about six months to a year to design the blueprint for the chip. Then, depending on the manufacturer, it takes an additional four to six months for the actual fabrication of the ASIC. Finally, you would need another one to two months for testing, so the total turnaround time for a small chip is approximately one and a half years."
- "Let's take the example of a neuromodulator. You need recordings or data from neurons and stimulation data going to the neurons, so you essentially have these two components. Then, you encounter challenges like stimulation artifacts. One person might focus on eliminating the stimulation artifact in the recording channel. That requires additional algorithms or hardware, and the data needs to be digitized, which is another task. You may also have someone working on a compression algorithm and building digital circuitry to compress the raw input data. Then, there’s the data interface, power management, and wireless energy delivery. Each person works on their specific innovation, and if everything is well-planned and lucky, all these pieces can come together to create a complete system. However, sometimes you simply don’t have a breakthrough idea for power management or communication."
0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?
3:15 What is integrated circuit design?
7:30 What are ASIC's? How are they used in neurotech?
10:15 How does the million dollar fab cost get split into each chip?
11:30 What are typical functions of ASICs?
14:30 Why does the development time take so long?
18:15 So most of the libraries you use are your own and you don't use external ones?
19:45 To what extent is this modular?
22:15 What is the timeline of each of the sections of development?
27:45 How does it work managing IP from your company and your University?
30:45 Are there any Open Source initiatives in Europe for ASICs?
33:00 How many people in the world do this kind of work?
35:45 What is a good pathway for those looking to get into this kind of work?
38:45 How early should companies start talking about designs?
40:15 If you 10x the money could you make it go faster?
41:30 If people want to reach out how do they do so?
42:15 Anything else that you wanted to mention?
In this episode of the Neural Implant Podcast, we welcome Dr. Eugene Daneshvar, founder of Black Swan Intellectual Property (BSIP), a boutique law firm specializing in intellectual property for neurotech and medtech innovations. With a background in biomedical engineering and law, Eugene has a unique perspective on protecting the cutting-edge ideas that drive the future of healthcare technology. After years of working at a larger firm, Eugene founded BSIP to provide more accessible, fair, and transparent pricing for IP services, moving away from the traditional hourly billing model. In addition to his work in intellectual property, Eugene also offers strategic counsel for fundraising and business development, helping startups navigate the complexities of commercialization in the medtech and neurotech space.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "It’s difficult to change large organizations. I had tried to build a neurotech-focused practice, but my previous firm wasn’t on board. The firm was primarily focused on pharma, with much deeper pockets than neurotech, and they controlled my hourly rate, which reached $1200 an hour. It was too steep for my clients in medical devices, so I decided to create a firm that would be more accessible and help those startups – I became an entrepreneur myself."
- "The most exciting part is that I switched to flat-fee billing, so no more billable hours. Everyone dislikes billable hours, and this approach creates a win-win situation for both myself and my clients. It provides predictability in costs, and it saves me time since I no longer have to track every minute of my work."
- "I offer deferrals based on what clients need—whether it's 30 or 90 days, or until they secure funding. Sometimes, I even take shares instead of cash, depending on the opportunity. As an angel investor with Life Science Angels, I help life science startups raise capital, typically between $200,000 and $1 million, by ensuring they are prepared for investment.
0:30 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?
3:15 What are you specializing in?
4:15 Why do you think you're competent in this field?
9:30 What is a typical price for your services?
12:45 What are some other services that a neurotech company might need?
FogartyInnovation.org
16:30 How does being a small law firm affect reputation?
22:45 What is missing most? Or what is something that you wish people would know?
27:45 Is using AI an issue more for generating the patent claim or writing the claim?
31:00 So you feel confident that your job is safe from AI?
In this episode of the Neural Implant Podcast, host Ladan Jiracek engages in an insightful dialogue with Andreas Forsland, founder and CEO of Cognixion. The discussion covers Cognixion's pioneering augmented reality headset with EEG sensing, designed to enhance communication for individuals with speech and motor challenges. Andreas describes the journey from creating a speech augmentation device to developing a versatile platform, the Axon-R, which is now being utilized by health systems and researchers for various clinical applications. They explore the platform's form factor, capabilities, and its role in empowering others to create specialized applications. Top 3 Takeaways: * "We aimed to make it easy for both non-technical and technical users to build simple research applications as well as complex, immersive commercial applications. Initially, it was an internal product we developed for rapid prototyping and exploring neurophysiology. But we realized many others wanted the same capabilities to build their own apps." * "Go ahead and integrate with Apple Vision Pro or a Meta Quest device, but be aware that you're going to face a lot of problems. The clinical trial process is expensive and time-consuming, and what we've found is that some people who’ve tried this route end up with only 10 to 15 percent usable data. Wasting 80 to 85 percent of your data because of poor technology or failure to meet IRB standards for medical safety and efficacy is a huge waste. If you're pursuing anything in healthcare, you need to build on a reliable platform like Cognixion." * "You could invest in 10 software-as-a-medical-device (SMD) applications, which are subscription-based or software-based apps that deliver clinically valid outcomes. Building and validating such an application might cost anywhere from $3 to $10 million to bring it to commercialization. In contrast, building a traditional medical device could cost anywhere from $25 to $200 million, usually for just one indication. The key cost savings here is that you don’t need to invest in bespoke hardware—we've already invested over $25 million in developing the validated hardware and platform."
00:45 "Do you want to explain your product and introduce yourself better than I just did?" 04:45 "So the platform, what does it look like? What's the form factor? 10:00 "Where would where would they likely use it?" 14:45 "How does it compare to implantable technologies like Synchron or Neuralink? Obviously, with a wearable-only technology, the fidelity must be lower, correct?" 25:15 "What kind of savings does this represent? How much does it help others who want to develop this type of technology? 28:45 "So how would you prevent other companies from doing something like this?" 33:45 "What role does AI play in your guys company?" 39:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
In this episode of the Neural Implant Podcast, host Ladan speaks with David McMillan, the Director of Education Outreach for the Miami Project and a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami. They discuss the Miami Project's work, particularly in spinal cord injury research and neuroprosthetics. Topics include clinical trials, combining therapies, regulatory challenges, and the importance of rehabilitation in conjunction with therapeutic technologies.
00:00 Introduction to the Neural Implant Podcast 00:16 Meet David McMillan: Director of Education Outreach 01:07 The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis 03:36 Clinical Trials and Patient Recruitment 08:01 Innovative Neurostimulation Projects 20:54 Challenges and Future of Neuromodulation 24:17 Role of Director of Education and Outreach 28:21 Final Thoughts and Conclusion
I n this episode of the Neural Implant Podcast, host Ladan welcomes Javier Schandy and Nicolas Barabino from Focus, an engineering services company based in Uruguay. They discuss their work in firmware, hardware, and software development for medical devices, emphasizing their specialization in wireless communications and test automation.
They also explain the benefits of contract engineering, the challenges they face, and highlight an exciting project involving an injectable neurostimulator. The conversation covers the history of neurotechnology development in Uruguay, the process and dynamics of working with clients, and the adaptability and innovative spirit of their company.
00:00 Introduction to the Neural Implant Podcast 00:18 Meet the Guests: Javier Shandy and Nicholas Barabino 01:05 Focus: Engineering Services in Medical Devices 02:58 Project Onboarding and Development Process 06:06 Specialties and Expertise in Neurotechnology 09:38 The Journey into Medical Devices 13:41 Uruguay's Legacy in Medical Devices 20:37 Challenges and Advice for Startups 23:05 Flexible Project Management and Cost Considerations 27:51 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Today's guest is Stephen Ho from Blackrock Microsystems. While we've featured Blackrock guests before, Stephen's appearance today is driven by his podcast, Neurratives, where neurotech-inspired movies are reviewed and discussed.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Our goal for the podcast isn't necessarily to be overly technical, requiring a neuroscience degree to understand. We're often deep in the subject matter and may get a bit jargony, but broadly, we aim to be accessible without pretending to be accomplished neuroscience researchers."
- “Due to the subject's nature, movies dealing with neuroscience themes often lean heavily towards science fiction. So, I make a conscious effort to seek out romantic comedies, medical dramas, or family dramas as a palate cleanser between sci-fi films.”
- “I tend to be relaxed regarding accuracy in science and technology in movies, though I do point out inaccuracies when I notice them. However, I don't always see this as detrimental to the movie itself. Some tropes bother me, like percutaneous connectors seen in "The Matrix" and "Ghost in the Shell." They seem impractical and unsanitary.”
2:00 Let’s hear about the Neurratives podcast
4:14 What does a normal podcast episode look like?
7:30 What are some notable movies?
10:30 What are your qualifications to talk about neurotech movies?
12:15 Did you ever feel imposter syndrome?
14:00 Will you ever run out of movies?
16:00 Would listening to Neurratives be better before or after watching the movie?
16:45 What should movie directors either start or stop doing for neurotech movies?
21:15 Anything else that we didn’t talk about that you wanted to mention?
Eugene Daneshvar is a University of Michigan PhD graduate working on thin film neural implants but has since transitioned into the legal side of things having passed his bar exam and working with Wilson Sonsini as a patent attorney. This interview took almost 2 years to get done but we're glad we were able to do it!
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "I think the main thing I'll say is you don't undermine your valuation by not having an informed and intentional patent strategy, and you don't have to go cheap. You know, I feel that you have to bootstrap, but if you work with certain law firms that are very entrepreneurial friendly, and my firm is not the only one, but I think that is a general statement, which is, you know, work with somebody who understands your business model. But then, secondly, work with somebody who understands your technology as well."
- "I want my clients to understand that I'm building something valuable for them. Let's ensure all that value is captured in the application. If not, it risks not just their business, but also their motivations for it. They aim to translate this information and idea to help a certain subset of the patient population."
- "Some people cut corners without considering the broader strategy implications. I suggest working with individuals who are willing to learn about the process. We're all part of the same community, and if you're listening to this podcast, you're part of mine. I want the best for you, so don't hesitate to reach out."
0:45 Can you introduce yourself better than I just did?
5:15 Was it your idea from the beginning to do both a PhD and law school?
7:15 Why are patents important in the neurotech field?
11:30 What are some big mistakes you’ve seen in the neurotech entrepreneur field?
17:30 Is it better to have a strong lawyer or one that knows your field?
21:00 What is the process for a student wanting to spinoff a technology?
28:00 Have you seen deals go badly because of legal issues?
32:45 Is there anything that we didn’t cover that you wanted to mention?
"Welcome to today's episode! Our guest, Paul Le Floch, co-founder and CEO of Axoft, brings innovation to neural implants. With roots in France and a Harvard PhD, he's leading groundbreaking work. Welcome, Paul!"
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "It's a good time to ask the question: What if we could develop solutions tailored for this problem instead of borrowing from the semiconductor industry? That's what Axsoft is about. We emphasize developing soft materials that offer better long-term biocompatibility. Additionally, these materials are suitable for micro and nano fabrication and remain stable inside the brain."
- "The advantage is that when we identify something that doesn't work well, we can modify it because we designed the materials. The key is that we've developed an innovation that functions effectively, but we also acknowledge that it's not the final version of the system. The difference is that we can revisit it at the polymer chemistry level and alter the material's composition, structure, or introduce additives to enhance stability or mechanical properties."
- "At early stage, there is iteration. There is improvement over time. And at some point you need to take this leap of faith that your technology actually has a good edge, that you have enough, you will have enough resources to make it competitive. And I think we were confident enough about that and about our approach."
0:30 Can you introduce yourself better than I just did?
1:00 Is Axoft a spinoff?
5:00 How do you know your material is better?
9:00 Why did you go the startup route vs the academia route with this technology?
12:30 How do you let investors know that this is a long term startup?
14:00 Why did you choose the dilutive vs nondilutive route?
15:30 What indication is the material best for?
17:00 Where are you guys in terms of the lifecycle?
19:45 How big is the team and what are current challenges?
22:30 Where do you see neurotech in 10 years?
23:45 Anything that we didn’t talk about that you wanted to mention?
Today’s guest is Christine Schmidt who is a University of Florida faculty member and former department share who works in regenerative neural tissue engineering.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "We're trying to create scaffolds that can be templates for the body to repair itself, to grow around, and ultimately become natural tissue, seamlessly integrating with the body's own."
- "Other faculty were discouraging. This is because academia tends to prioritize scholarly pursuits such as papers and grants, often undervaluing applied work and its real-world applications."
- "Our clinical collaborator actively participated in the lab alongside Sarah. Together, they would work on batches, with Sarah creating formulations and providing immediate feedback based on the tactile experience. The collaborator would discern whether a material was suitable for surgical use, offering invaluable insights into the practicalities surgeons face."
0:45 Can you introduce yourself better than I just did?
1:15 What is tissue engineering?
5:00 How did you get into this?
8:30 By focusing on entrepreneurial endeavors you were at risk of not getting tenure, how did you still get it?
14:15 Which was more useful for your career, entrepreneurial or academic?
16:45 How was your technology licensed?
22:15 Do you want to talk about your other startup, Alafare?
32:30 You then moved to Florida and then eventually became department chair, why did you do that?
36:45 How did you do the department chair and research at the same time?
37:45 Is there anything else that we didn’t talk about that you wanted to mention?
Welcome to the Neural Implant Podcast! In this episode, the podcast team presents a live panel recording from the Bio L Conference at the International Winter School on Bioelectronics in Austria in March 2024. Hosted by Ladan, the panel discusses various types of neural implants with esteemed guests: Drs . Jonathan Viventi (LCP neural implants), Tracy Cui (PEDOT electrode coatings), Ellis Meng (parylene neural implants), and Ivan Minev (PDMS neural implants). Tune in as they explore the fascinating world of soft implantable electrodes and brain-nervous system interfaces.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- “In the next five or 10 years, I anticipate that advancements in human neural implants will resemble those we've observed previously. I don't foresee any radical changes in materials or physical attributes. The neurosurgeons I collaborate with prefer implants that aren't excessively flexible or thin to avoid tearing during surgery.”
- “The first time we delivered an implant to a clinician, these devices were carefully handled by my students. No one dared touch them; they were like sacred objects entrusted to the grad students. When the surgeons got hold of them, they were shocked – bending them in ways we never imagined. Handling these inconsistencies is a crucial aspect to consider, bridging the gap between expectation and reality.”
- "Everything new is something old that is well forgotten"
3:15 Do all of you want to introduce yourselves? 10:30 What’s a good way for trainees to stay on top of everything there is to learn? 13:45 What is the ideal neural implant and what is the 5-10 year plan for developing these? 20:00 Each of you has a different favorite material for neural implants, do you want to talk about that? 29:45 What motivates you in this field? 35:30 How do you take clinical translation into account in your research? 40:15 What challenges or embarrassing moments have you had in your career? Audience Questions 43:30 What is your experience and challenges in patenting your electrodes and research? 46:00 What’s the point in doing research if other companies are able to raise significantly more money than we can? 49:00 How do you address the scalability of manufacturing electrodes? 51:15 How groundbreaking do your ideas need to be to be successful? 54:30 How do you deal with paper submission processes that have gone badly? 58:00 How do you deal with a double blind review? 59:00 What’s the most difficult aspect of supervising graduate students? 1:02:00 When can we expect neural implants that interface with all of the neurons in our brain? 1:06:15 How do you deal with materials that aren’t certified for clinical translation? 1:07:45 If you had a magic wand / unlimited funding, what would you do?
In today's episode, we're joined by Carles Garcia-Vitoria, a seasoned pain physician with a unique approach to his work. With extensive experience in regional anesthesia and pain management, Carles shares insights gained from his years of practical experience as he pursues his PhD in Spain.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "We believe we have the opportunity to target the site of action more effectively. That's why we've founded Spinally, the startup we're currently leading. Our goal is to pioneer intrathecal spinal cord stimulation."
- "The Dura Mater is highly elastic, closing approximately 80-90% within the first 30 seconds after trauma. Additionally, with improved intrathecal access and emission capabilities, we can utilize thinner implants—reducing implant thickness from 1.3 to 0.5 millimeters. This minimizes trauma to the meningeal sac even further."
- "We can leverage new fabrication capabilities to minimize implants and achieve highly effective pain relief. Our models, along with others, indicate that we can stimulate deeper layers of the spinal cord with intrathecal electrode positioning, enhancing our ability to listen to deeper neuronal tracts. This advancement is poised to make significant waves in the pain management field within a year."
0:45 Can you introduce yourself better than I just did?
1:15 What advantages of neurotechnology do you see in the pain market?
3:15 What does the pain treatment process using neuromodulation look like?
6:45 How is closed loop stimulation changing your work?
8:30 You’re involved in a startup to better listen to the spinal cord, can you talk about that?
11:30 Why hasn’t this been done before?
14:00 Where in the startup process are you?
15:30 Where are you getting the leads from?
16:30 You guys are raising money, can you talk about that?
18:30 Crowdfunding for medical devices is new, have you seen these before?
21:00 Is there anything that we didn’t cover that you wanted to mention?
Steve Goetz is now the Chief Technology Officer at Motif Neurotech which is developing a minimally invasive neural implant for the treatment of depression and mental health issues. Steve was at Medtronic for 26 years before moving over to the startup landscape.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Starting a big program that you don't know how to finish is a very expensive endeavor, and so you want to really shake out all the science risk, all the technology risk, be pretty sure you can execute a thing before you turn on that big engine because it's expensive once you go"
- "We know stimulation of the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex is very efficacious in treatment-resistant depression. Our question is, can we develop a cranial stimulator that can do that in the comfort of a patient's home on demand and with a dosing profile that is matched to that patient's acuity and severity that both treats depression and at some point in the future turns into a maintenance therapy that prevents relapse altogether. And what that looks like to us is a pea-sized stimulator that fits in a minimally invasive burr hole that sits on top of the dura, so not brain penetrating, that delivers this therapy powered externally from a wearable, like a hat or a headband."
- "For deep brain stimulation, there's a subspecialty of neurosurgery called functional stereotactic neurosurgery with on the order of hundreds of surgeons in the US. There are more that have the specialization to make a burr hole. You go from a few 100 to several 1000 people in the US who can do a burr hole. Over 200,000 burr holes are made in a given year in the US"
1:00 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?
3:00 What was that smaller group within Medtronic?
8:30 What does the organizational structure look like at a place like Medtronic?
11:30 What do those teams look like?
16:00 Is each team working on a project?
18:15 CEITEC Nano Ad Sponsorship
18:45 What is Motif all about?
24:15 What is the success rate of TMS and what do you hope to achieve?
25:15 This isn't brain surgery but it is close to it, what's involved in this?
29:15 Could this surgery be done by a lower-skilled person than a neurosurgeon?
31:00 How does insurance reimbursement look like for Motif?
36:15 Why is this technology possible now?
41:30 Your technology seems bikini-ready
42:45 What is the progress of your company?
45:00 What's the small company vs large company life like?
47:30 How long do big decisions take in a big company?
48:45 How is the pace in a small vs small company?
51:00 What is the perfect recipe for working in a meaningful company vs learning in another company?
53:45 Anything else you wanted to mention?
Dr Eric Daniel Glowacki is a research group leader at the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) located in Brno, Czech Republic. There he studies neural implant fabrication and materials specializing in silicon, parylene, and polyimide devices. He has also started to designs and fabricate devices on a contract basis for other research groups and companies.
And, his institute is the one that has been recently sponsoring the podcast!
This podcast is sponsored by CEITEC Nano, check out their Neurotech Device Manufacturing Capabilities here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "You can just buy stuff on the internet very simple red LED arrays. So you don't have to bother with aiming because you just put this this light source roughly over the area of interest and, and you can hit the target without having to try very hard."
- "Most of the time we're pretty fast. If someone sends us a design we can print photo masks in a day or two. That's the slowest step."
- "And it turns out that the beat frequency can actually stimulate neurons. So you can use these high frequency carrier waves to get in. And then use this constructive interference to actually stimulate to stimulate excitable tissue."
1:15 "Mr. Sponsor, do you want to, do you want to talk about you yourself? What your institute does?"
3:00 "Photovoltaic, transcutaneous neurostimulation. What are the details of that? "
5:15 "How does this compare to other wireless ultrasonics, magnetics, anything else?"
8:15 "What kind of light density would you need?"
9:15 What was your career arc?
12:00 Do you want to talk about Polyimide, Paryle and these other materials?
16:15 CEITEC Nano Ad Sponsorship
17:00 "Talk about your services a little bit"
19:15 What does the contracting process look like if someone wants you to make them devices?
21:45 "Can you talk about the price differences?"
23:30 "Have you thought about opening it up to neurotech companies?"
25:30 Do you want to talk about your success despite you having moved around to many institutes?
28:00 "What do you see as the future of neurotech?"
32:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Dr. Gene Fridman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery and also has appointments with the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research is in the areas of bioinstrumentation and neural engineering.
In this episode we talk about his freeform nerual stimulator which allows for DC and any other waveforms without any electrolytic effects on the electrodes. This opens up many possibilities for neural stimulation. We also talk about his startup Aidar which is like a 'tricorder' all-in-one medical diagnostic tool.
This podcast is sponsored by CEITEC Nano, check out their Neurotech Device Manufacturing Capabilities here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "The reason why they have to use pulses at the metal electrodes is that if you deliver electrical current for too long to a metal electrode that is implanted in the body, what you're going to get is you're going to get electrochemistry, the first thing that will happen is you're going to start forming bubbles because you're going to split water. It's electrolysis. So you clearly don't want to do that in the body. They have to use pulses charge balanced by phasic pulses otherwise, you're going to have these electrons jump across and cause chemical reactions"
- "By introducing hyperpolarizing current to the peripheral nerve what we're seeing is it's affecting the small caliber neurons much more so, which carry pain much more so than the larger neurons that carry other information. And so we're able to block pain at the peripheral nerve. We didn't know about this. It was a surprise to us."
0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?"
3:00 Do you want to talk about your device able to talk to both ions and electrons in neurotech?
7:00 Was a DC bridge rectifier the inspiration for this?
9:15 What is possible with these new waveforms?
15:15 "How big is it? And why does it need to be that size?"
21:45 CEITEC Nano Ad Sponsorship
22:15 Do you want to talk about your startup company, Aidar?
24:30 Are you doing any nerve stuff with the 'tricorder?'
26:30 How are you able to manage the time with the startup?
27:45 How did you get the project's initial data?
Kurt Haggestrom comes on to talk about the latest new from Synchron, which has developed the Stentrode as well as the new Synchron Switch. Kurt talks about his new role as Chief Commercial Officer and where the company is heading.
This podcast is sponsored by CEITEC Nano, check out their Neurotech Device Manufacturing Capabilities here
Top three takeaways: 1. "The beauty of this approach is that the blood vessels are an amazing place. To be able to put implants and we've, we're leveraging really decades of science and medical devices in say, the coronary space and the heart space. We know that these types of materials heal very well within the vasculature. It's a very novel approach and really scalable because there's a lot of physicians that can do this type of procedure."
- "Syncron is developing we're calling it the Synch Switch. So it is an endovascular brain-computer interface system. This system will allow patients who are suffering from paralysis to connect into the digital world, whether it's banking, communication by using a smartphone or computer. 3. "A key part of, I think these types of novel technologies is to think about "how do people afford this when it does get to market?" And with the patients that we're focused on today, many of them use Medicare to be able to afford these technologies. It's critical that we think about our partnership and in working with CMOs to make reimbursement possible for these type of technologies.
[1:15] "Do you want to give a refresher on what Synchron does?"
[3:00] "What are some exciting news that comes out of Synchron?"
[4:15] "So what is Chief Commercialization Officer and why is it necessary, especially for a company like Syncron which isn't commercial yet?"
[5:45] CEITEC Nano ad sponsorship
[6:15] "What's your story arc?"
[8:30] How are you navigating reimbursement?
[9:30] What is your timeline for commercialization?
[10:45] "What are some security protocols, that you're putting into place?"
[12:30] "What are some of your biggest challenges nowadays?"
[16:15] How many patients were in your study?
[16:30] How large is the target market?
[18:15] Does this have other application potentials outside of locked in patients?
[19:15] "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Narrative Salchow and Sayenko
Dual interview episode: Christina Salchow-Hommen from Charité Universitätsmedizin in Berlin, Germany. Her presentation at RehabWeek2019 was titled “Characterization Of Optimal Electrode Configurations For Transcutaneous Spinal Cord Stimulation.” The talk presented her findings from a small trial which included 5 participants living with spinal cord injuries. In the trial, they were trying to find the optimal placements and size of surface stimulation electrodes to elicit a response rectus femoris and the tibialis anterior muscles. The study found variability in electrode placement but some commonalities at the T11 level spinal circuit level. Let’s catch up with her in our interview.
Dimitry Sayenko from the Center for Neurogeneration at Houston Methodist Research Institute gave a talk about Neuromodulation of Spinal Networks to Recover Motor Function: Underlying Mechanisms and Clinical Translations.” His talk discussed the differences in the epidural spinal stimulation clinical trials being conducted at the University of Louisville, UCLA and at EPFL in Geneva Switzerland. There were differences among the labs but he found the key is enabling versus inducing movement with stimulation and argued that the intense exercise regimes from some of these studies is not necessary. Let’s listen in on his interview.
Takeaways: Electrode placement, along with stimulation parameters plays an important part in the responses to transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode with an interview by Jen French of Neurotech Reports with Christina Salchow-Hommen at RehabWeek 2019. [1:10] Salchow-Hommen introduces herself and her affilitation with technology for people with impairments for restoration of mobility. [1:38} Discussion of the importance of electrode placement, adjustment of stimulation parameters between the 5 volunteers and patient reported preferences for transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation for people with paralysis. [3:35] Salchow-Hommen discusses the need to better monitor the brain during stimulation and better measurement tools to quantify reported feedback. [4:44] Ladan introduces the episode with an interview by Jen French of Neurotech Reports with Dimitry Sayenko at RehabWeek 2019. [5:17] Sayenko introduces himself and addresses his perspective of how the brain reacts to spinal cord stimulation for the restoration of motor response after paralysis due to SCI. Nearly 80% of spinal cord injuries result in some form of residual function. [6:41] Involvement of the brain with restoration of movement along with neuroplasticity for connections in the brain. [8:28] Coupling traditional therapy with spinal cord stimulation. He finds that the intense rehab is not necessary but the first few sessions are critical. Still the technology has an accumulative effect. [9:45} Discussion of the introduction of electrical stimulation following a spinal cord injury. When to introduce it in therapy. [10:50] Restoration of gait and the timing of stimulation. His lab found timing was not critical. [11:50] The introduction of machine learning into this therapy would be helpful. Sayenko expresses his excitement at RehabWeek.
Tom LeBlanc is the Marketing Manager at Bioness, a neuroprosthetics and neural rehabilitation technology company born out of the Alfred E. Mann Foundation. Let’s listen in on his interview. He has several years of experience in marketing and communications within Bioness. Prior to joining them he was in the entertainment industry with the likes of Disney and Warner Bros. He holds an MBA from Pepperdine University. Let’s listen to our conversation with him.
Takeaway: Functional electrical stimulation can be used as a neuroprosthetic for everyday tasks or as a rehabilitation device to gain voluntary movement.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode with an interview accompanied by Jen French of Neurotech Reports with Tom LeBlanc from Bioness on the exhibitor floor at RehabWeek 2019. [0:58] Tom introduces himself and his role in Bioness. [1:08] LeBlanc discusses the legacy Bioness device, the H200, for upper extremity functional electrical stimulation and the target populations. The device has various programs. [3:05] We move our discussion to the lower extremity device, the L300. LeBlanc describes the devices and the product extensions. It uses functional electrical stimulation with imbedded sensors and smart algorithms.
Ursula Costa is the Head of Clinical Affairs at Hocoma AG, an established neural rehabilitation company based in Zurich, Switzerland. She is a licensed physical therapist who has recovered herself from a spinal cord injury as a young girl and then nurtured her passion for neurorehabilitation. She holds a PhD from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in Physical Therapy and has held a professorship at the same university.
Takeaway: Rehabilitation technology is a tool to help the patient gain maximum potential not a tool to do the motion passively. Technology coupled with rehabilitation aids in the achievement of neuroplasticity and physical recovery.
[0:00] Jen French of Neurotech Reports introduces Ursula Costa from Hocoma at RehabWeek 2019. [0:37] Hocoma AG was the initiator of the RehabWeek concept. Costa explains what the event means to them and connecting with clinicians. [1:27] Through the lens of a physical therapist, Costa talks about her personal story of recovery from a spinal cord tumor and how that motivated her to study physical therapy. [2:37] The line of Hocoma products focus on neural rehabilitation. They have introduced robotics into the field as well. Costa walks us through some of the technology and the challenge of clinical adoption. [3:45] Costa discusses the principle of neuroplasticity and intensity in rehabilitation and how technology can help assist in the rehabilitation process. [4:51] Costa talks about the excitement for the future of rehabilitation and the mindset change about efficiencies of technology and personalization of rehabilitation.
Vivian Mushahwar is a professor at the University of Alberta in the Department of Medicine, and she is in the division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. She has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a PhD in bioengineering, and has completed two postdoc positions in rehab medicine and neuroscience. In this episode, she discusses some of the technologies she is researching and developing with regards to nerve stimulation and walking/standing.
Top three takeaways:
- Neural stimulation below levels of injury can greatly improve standing and walking performance in patients with spinal cord injury.
- A good understanding of neuroscience/neurophysiology combined with knowing how to stimulate to best treat spinal cord injury will lead to the best outcome for treatment.
- Collaboration between researchers and product users can lead to simpler products and solutions.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest Vivian Mushahwar, who gives an overview of her background and research interests
[3:30] Spinal cord spasticity consists of uncontrolled contractions which pose a problem for patient mobility. Plasticity can be induced in nerves through electrical stimulation, and this is used to treat spasticity.
[6:30] Vivian’s project involves putting fine implants in spinal cord, stimulate networks below level of injury, to help with standing and walking
[9:15] Tissue is being deformed whenever it is stretched/strained, particularly muscle, and people shift posture/position constantly to prevent muscle deformation
[11:30] The SmartyPants technology is designed to contract muscle periodically to prevent deformation which could lead to pressure ulcers
[15:00] The SmartyPants technology has been stalled due to intellectual property disputes, and this is upsetting those who invested in the original technology
[18:00] Deep vein thrombosis is a condition that could lead to deadly blood clots, and is caused by insufficient movement. Similar to SmartyPants, Vivian is working to develop a sock to prevent the formation of DVT
[19:50] Simultaneous arm/leg cycling in exercise after spinal cord injury can double the improvement in walking
[21:30] Engaging in communication and collaboration between different departments and the product users can lead to simpler solutions
In this episode, Ladan recaps his experience at the Toronto rehabweek and discusses what he did and who he spoke with.
Top three takeaways:
- Rehabweek brought together various fields such as engineering and rehabilitation science, as well as clinicians
- The aim of the event was to bring together different disciplines working toward the same goal and to find similar key points between them
- One can learn a lot from talking to people from different fields and gaining a better understanding of the progress occurring with neural implants
[0:00] Ladan opens the episode discussing the experience at rehabweek
[2:00] Ladan’s guest Jen describes what the conference was about and who it was targeted for, as well as some people that were interviewed
[4:30] Ladan discusses the benefits of running his podcast and getting the opportunity to interview big names in the field of neural implants
Bimal Lakhani is the Vice President of Product Development at HealthTech Connex and NeuroCatch, a recent startup targeting the analytics of brain disorder diagnosis and improvements. He is also Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He holds a PhD in Rehabilitation Science. This conversation talks about the company, science behind it and where it is going in the future.
Takeaways: We currently do not have a quick mechanism to check out brain health. Clinical interfaces need to intuitive and easy to use for the clinician. How is your brain today? Can we bring people to check their brain health like they check their smartphone?
[0:00] Jen French from Neurotech Reports kicks off the introductions on the RehabWeek exhibit floor. [0:33] Bimal Lakhani describes the new venture of NeuroCatch to meet the need to get a comprehensive matrix of the brain in the clinical setting, in otherwords the “vital signs” of the brain. [2:33] Lakhani talks about the NeuroCatch platform technology as a neurodiagnostic tool and their strategy for hardware industry partnerships. [3:33] Description of the target areas for NeuroCatch and the gap in clinical need and the focus of their current research including concussion and other brain injuries. [5:04] How is your brain doing today? Lakhani also describes the device and what it does. [7:08] The walk-through of the software tool interface for an EEG evaluation and the keep it simple approach. [11:19] The NeuroCatch device is approved for clinical use in Canada. Lakhani describes the other markets on their radar. [11:53] Discussion of data collection and cybersecurity along with their relationship with clinical partners. [1:26] What is the target market for the MyndTec neural re-education device? Plymale also talks about their pursuit for clinical partners, their strategic focus and the economics of the medical device as an early stage venture. [12:36] Description of HeuroCanada partnership and clinical adoption in rehabilitation setting. He also talks about the parent company, HealthTech Connex, and their relationship with Helius Medical. [14:25] Lakhani discusses the next steps for NeuroCatch and their future focus for people to be conscious of their brain health.
RehabWeek Exclusive interview the Kim Skinner Kim Skinner is the Director of Physical Therapy at Helius Medical Technologies where she is instrumental in the introduction of the PoNS rehabilitation program. Prior to this she was the Physical Therapy Director and Researcher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison working with sensory processing and neurological disorders. She holds a PhD in Physical Therapy and Health Sciences and maintains her license in physical therapy. We met up with Kim at RehabWeek and had a conversation about the company, the rehabilitation science of the PoNS device and where it is going in the future. Takeaways: Harnessing neuroplasticity in rehabilitation stimulation must be paired with an activity. Clinical interfaces need to intuitive and easy to use for the clinician. How is your brain today? Can we bring people to check their brain health like they check their smartphone?
[0:00] Introduction and Jen French from Neurotech Reports kicks off the conversation RehabWeek exhibit floor at Helius Medical. [0:25] Kim Skinner introduces herself and Helius Medical and new PoNS device. She worked in the initial research for the device. [1:12] Description of the PoNS device components, how it works and the target indications and clinical application of mild to moderate brain injury with chronic balance deficits. They designed a 14-week rehabilitation program harnessing neuroplasticity. [4:10] Further discussion about application of the technology to other indications that have balance issues. Their initial focus is on the brain injury population, but more research needs to be done on how this can benefit other populations. [5:18] Discussion of the design of their clinical trials and some of the challenges associated with that both in the clinical and at home. They have a training template that can be individualized for each patient. [6:39] Skinner further describes the training protocols and when to stimulation to maximize outcomes couples with balance training and movement exercises to prime the brain. [8:26] The stimulating device goes onto the tongue rather than skin. How does that feel or taste? She also talks about the stimulation pattern and parameters as well as [9:53] Discussion of the 143 electrode array design and how they mapped the tongue to figure out the stimulating rate. [12:19] The visual substitution device was the predecessor of this device and how it evolved out of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. [13:16] Skinner talks about where the PoNS device is currently available with a prescription and how they are working on availability in the US, Europe and Australia. It is currently approved in Canada through the HeuroCanada clinics.
Steven Plymale is the CEO of MyndTec. He joined the firm in late 2017 and has more than 25 years of experience in the medical device industry. Previously, he was CEO of Profound Medical, bringing the company from a small six-person team to going public in 2015 in an IPO that raised $60 million. Plymale was also with Xltek, now a division of Natus Medical, and Claron Technologies.
Milos Popovic is the Director of the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (KITE) and professor in the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. He is also the co-founder and director of the MyndTec. Popovic’s decade of research and randomized clinical trials with stroke and spinal cord injury populations led to the development of the MyndMove device. Takeaways: Multidisciplinary teams help to build a successful rehabilitation institute. Translation of rehabilitation technology is not easy but it can be fun. It is important to harness neuroplasticity in the body and the brain to achieve successful long-lasting outcomes in rehabilitation.
[0:00] Steven Plymale and Milos Popovic introduced themselves to kick off the conversation with Jen French from Neurotech Reports and Ladan. [0:35] Milos Popovic describes how RehabWeek 2019 ended up being hosted in Toronto, the first time the event was held in North America, and the plan his team put together [1:32] Popovic describes his career journey from a nuclear engineer to director of an innovative rehabilitation research center and entrepreneur. [3:33] Discussion of the building of the rehabilitation institute in Toronto Health Network with a team of 90 people and the importance of working directly with patients. [4:58] Popovic describes the translation of technology from lab to the marketplace particularly in functional electrical stimulation and human clinical trials to a start-up company. [6:24] Steven Plymale describes how he was introduced to MyndTec and his initiation into a small, struggling start-up company. Hear how he was convinced that electrical stimulation is not voodoo science [7:50] Plymale and Popovic describe the MyndMove device.. Discussion ensues about the impact on upper extremity rehabilitation and the involvement of the brain, the melody of the neural activity, and how this therapy capitalizes on the neuroplasticity in the brain. [12:02] Plymale discusses the current stage of MyndMove in the project development spectrum including regulatory approvals, raising capital investment, and pricing model. [15:26] What is the target market for the MyndTec neural re-education device? Plymale also talks about their pursuit for clinical partners, their strategic focus and the economics of the medical device as an early stage venture. [18:06] Steven Plymale talks about his career journey in the medical device industry and how he enjoys start-up ventures. [19:25] Popovic concludes talking about what excites him at RehabWeek and the potential relationships building from this meeting.
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich’s Robert Reiner was one of the key figures to initiate the Cybathlon in 2016. The Cybathlon is a unique event in the development of every- day assistive devices in which people living with various disabilities compete while using the latest developments. There are six disciplines from advanced wheelchairs to FES cycling. Florian Haufe, a PhD candidate in Dr. Reiner’s lab, fills us in a little more about this premiere event and what the expect in the 2020 competition.
Takeaways: 1. Showcase of technology for people with disabilities in the spirit of competitive sport. 2. Competitive challenges center around tasks for people with physical impairments in every-day life and the use of assistive technology.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and joins the conversation with Florian Haufe and Jen French at RehabWeek 2019. [1:16] Haufe tells about how he became involved in the Cybathlon and what the event is about. [2:09} Discussion of the different competitive disciplines at the event and the tasks in the competition highlighted the exoskeleton discipline. [3:31] Haufe explains the scoring technique for the disciplines. [3:51] Haufe further describes the initial event that took place in Zurich in 2016 with competitors from academia and industry. There were 6 disciplines and over 5000 attendees. [5:40] What makes up the team is the pilot or end user/athlete along with a technical team that can range from students to licensed engineers to hobbyists. [7:10] Haufe describes the overall goal of the event. Giving people with impairments a platform for the use of assistive devices in the spirit of competition, allow technology developers to show what their latest inventions can do and increase public awareness are the goals of the event. [9:24} Here are the details about the 2020 event and how to get involved. Go to https://cybathlon.ethz.ch/cybathlon-2020.html
Debbie Backus is with the Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation hospital located in Atlanta, and is also the president of ACRM, a multidisciplinary organization whose mission is to help improve the lives of people with disabilities, particularly brain and spinal cord injuries. In this episode, she discusses the current technologies used to help patients with movement disabilities, how far the technologies have come, the cost-effectiveness of such technologies, and how those technologies may continue to grow in the future.
Top three takeaways:
- Organizations such as the Shepherd Center and ACRM serve to help and rehabilitate patients who have suffered injuries resulting in movement disabilities, and research technologies and novel interventions to restore mobility in these patients.
- Technologies such as FES and exoskeletons that are used by patients with movement disabilities are in their early stages, and are expensive to manufacture.
- If medical technologies can be shown to present a benefit to patients and their well-being, they may be further developed to improve cost-effectiveness, functionality, and ease of use.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and IFESS, the sponsor
[0:28] Debbie Backus is introduced
[0:44] Debbie talks about the mission of the Shepherd Center, and about the types of patients that the organization cares for
[1:36] Debbie discusses ACRM, the services it offers, and how the organization started
[2:52] Debbie talks about the technology involved in rehab medicine, and how it has grown over the years
[4:11] Debbie talks about the way technology solves problems, and how when designing technologies to solve clinical problems, the problems are not always solved in the best way initially.
[4:52] Debbie discusses certain challenges with technology, such as cost effectiveness. She discusses her own research into the effectiveness of FES cycles, and how certain components may be too expensive for patients to afford.
[5:22] Debbie discusses how if it can be shown how such technology presents a clear benefit to patients, then perhaps more cost-effective options can be developed.
[6:11] Exoskeletons designed for patient mobility are discussed, and they are likened to old-fashioned computers which would take up a whole room. It is discussed how as the technology improves, it will become more practical and economically feasible.
[7:28] Debbie discusses FES bikes, and how once a patient is evaluated and is deemed fit to ride one, they should be able to go to a gym and use one
[7:49] Real bikes are discussed for these patients, rather than stationary ones
[9:38] Debbie discusses her impression with ACRM being involved with rehab week for the first time
Thierry Keller is a researcher in Tecnalia, a research institute in Spain. In this episode, he discusses some of the neuroprosthetic technologies for upper and lower extremity stimulation and recording that he is working to develop in his institute.
Top three takeaways:
- Multiple stimulation channels, such as on the transcutaneous array, can provide better resolution of functions
- There needs to be open communication and sharing of knowledge between technology developers, clinicians, and end users in order to maximize the positive impact of an implanted device
- The point of research is not just to discover new things, but to be able to obtain conclusive results through repetition and testing
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and Thierry Keller, who gives an overview of his background and research experience
[3:30] When a product does not meet the needs of its end user, then it will fail. However, other needs, such as industry and stakeholder needs, must be taken into account.
[5:20] Research is not just about finding, but to be able to repeat and obtain conclusive results.
[8:00] Keller explains the transcutaneous array technology with multiple stimulation channels that Tecnalia is developing
[11:50] It is possible to learn how a patient perceives stimulation using this device, such as whether there is a tingling or touch effect, by changing stimulation frequency
[14:30] In addition to stimulation, the device also has the ability to record an electromyogram to allow the patient to command an upper extremity
[17:30] Keller discusses an electrode similar to a MUX sense for lower extremity sensing and stimulation
[20:30] Keller mentions that a similar type of electrode for upper extremities, with 32 channels that provide better resolution of functions, which can allow for wrist activation for lifting the hand and finger flexion
[22:00] Keller discusses what IFESS is, its history and its missions
[25:00] We need to spread knowledge about electrical stimulation to young researchers as well as therapists/clinicians and end users
[28:00] Networking between technology developers and end users is very important
Paul Meadows is one of the founding members of IFESS and a veteran in the neurotech industry. He is currently the Chief Technology Officer at Imthera in the development of neurostimulation device for obstructive sleep apnea. The company was recently acquired by LivaNova. Previous Meadows was involved with neurotech development at Advanced Bionics as well as the Alfred E. Mann Foundation.
Takeaways: 1. Current technology transfer developments are influenced by peer-reviewed published research. 2. Learn from the past so we don’t repeat in the future, applies to neurotech applications. 3. We still have technology challenges in such areas as cybersecurity and battery technology as well as systemic in clinical technology adoption.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and joins the conversation with Paul Meadows and Jen French. [1:02] Paul Meadows describes his involvement and various positions with IFESS since the inception of the organization. [1:46] Discussion of his view of the evolution of IFESS over the years. [2:35] Meadows describes the importance of peer-reviewed publications and the need to review past research. [3:43] There are obstacles for technology adoption such as clinical physical therapist curriculum. [3:58] Meadow’s outlook for exciting developments in the next 5 years in miniaturization, packaging and user-friendly interfaces. This is accompanied by identified risks such as cybersecurity. [5:52] Identifying that there is some basic science that is limiting technology advancements such as battery technology.
David Pitino is a health technology researcher who started the Abilities Research Center in Mount Sinai. In this episode, he discusses innovation in the health tech industry, and how such technology and the industry overall can be improved.
Top three takeaways:
- Communicating with your end user is critically important in solving challenges with medical technologies.
- One major improvement in most medical technologies is the increase in affordability of these technologies for patients.
- Improving the industry and technology is more important than monetary gain.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and David Pitino
[0:45] Summary of opportunities and barriers in the technological and innovation space
[3:30] It is important for developers to speak with the user of their technology
[4:45] Pitino discusses his partnership with Not Impossible Labs and how they “solve absurdities”, gives example of person who cannot afford eye-tracker technology
[7:30] Impact is not measured in monetary value but in how industries are improved and how technology is made more affordable for patients
Pawel Soluch is a returning guest who goes over his work at Neuro Device, then his consulting at NeurotechX Services, and now finally he talks about the Medtech Coaching program that he is launching with me!
This is a sponsorship for Medtech Coach
Top 3 Takeaways:
- Pawel and I (Ladan) are launching the Medtech Coaching program which will be aimed at helping medical device executives gain success in their businesses
- Coaching is different from consulting in that we do not generate anything for you but instead help you to become the best medtech executive you can possibly be
- In addition to group coaching we will also be offering individual coaching and also a retreat in January 2024
0:45 Do you want to reintroduce yourself
2:45 Do you want to talk about Neuro Device?
5:15 Do you want to talk about your work as a consultant?
7:15 Do you want to talk about your experience in my original group coaching?
9:15 What's the difference between coaching and consulting?
12:00 "Who is this for and who is it not for?"
15:00 What was the return on investment for the group coaching that you attended?
19:15 What does the individual coaching look like?
23:00 What does the retreat look like?
24:30 What's the role of trust in the meetings?
https://medtechcoach.com/
Dr Mounya Elhilali did the keynote talk at the NER Neural Engineering conference in Baltimore in 2023. I was able to sit down with her and talk to learn more about her auditory processing selectivity research.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- Nurses especially can get used to beeping and alarms which can be dangerous for patients.
- "Under anesthesia, you see some basic responses, but they are different than when you engage the, let's say, an animal in an awake state, and then when they are awake and actually behaving and engaging with the system"
- Audio recordings can be tuned to remove ambient noise but they need to be perfectly calibrated to distances between microphones.
0:45 "Do you want to describe your work a little bit?"
3:00 Can you talk about the Cocktail Party Problem?
4:30 How are alarms and beeping override our attention
8:30 How do you gather your data, what kinds of devices?
10:00 What is the role of awake vs non-awake states in auditory processing?
11:15 How did you get into this?
13:00 How are you involved in the translation of the science?
16:15 Why are recordings harder to hear than in real life?
17:15 Is there anything we didn't talk about?
Suraj Mudichintala is a Senior Associate at Action Potential Capital which is GSK's bioelectronic medicine venture fund.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Our fund is different in that we invest actually directly off of GSK's balance sheet. So we're what's called an evergreen fund where we don't actually have a fund size"
- "The way that I think about it is that a VC is really paid to allocate capital but really is really paid to think. You really have to think about what is the next space or the next technology that could disrupt a space? And because of that, it's a much you often have to take a much more longitudinal view. And it takes a lot of patience and tracking a space oftentimes for years"
- "When you reach out to a VC having a pitch, first of all, sending a non-confidential pitch deck is mandatory, I think. And that deck is essentially where we're making the first decision as to whether or not to do a call with you"
0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?
1:15 "Do you wanna talk about Action Potential, what it is, who it was formed by, and the investment thesis?"
2:30 Do you want to talk about the expansion of the AP investment thesis?
4:30 What does traditional Venture Capital look like and how is it different in that you are funded by GSK?
6:15 What do the positions within a VC firm look like?
7:45 How has it been for you going from Analyst to Associate?
8:45 What does your due diligence look like?
11:45 "A lot of VCs have a target size range, be it seed or angel or, maybe larger institutional stuff. But it sounds like you guys don't really have that?"
12:45 "How did you get into this space?"
14:45 "So how does consulting compare to the VC life?"
18:45 "What would you suggest is the best way to get your attention?"
24:00 What are some tips and tricks to reaching out to you?
27:00 What was the worst pitch deck you ever saw?
28:30 " Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Balint Varkuti is the CEO of CereGate which unlocks new capabilities for existing neuromodulation technologies using software.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "the brain is naturally wired for pattern perception for learning, and that's really what we do. We send signals that the brain very quickly can pick up."
- "You do not need to exclusively be focused mentally, consciously on interpreting these signals. Rather it becomes second nature. Our favourite analogy is saying it is like braille for the brain."
- "With hardware, you sometimes have simply the disadvantage that you are married to the time point when you started. So if you started a long time ago, you started with that technology and you have a whole regulatory documentation that's building on that. So fundamentally pivoting in hardware down the road almost becomes impossible."
0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself?
3:00 What is special about the software that hasn't already been done?
11:30 The brain is plastic and the software is changing so how does it work with these two systems fighting?
13:303 How can this approach be used to treat Parkinson symptoms such as Freezing of Gait ?"
14:15 Can you read braille?
15:30 "How fast does a patient learn to use this?"
19:00 " How can a company work with you?"
21:15 You guys have been in stealth mode for 4 years, why did it take 4 years and do you have any success stories so far?
23:45 "Do you wanna talk about the regulatory pathway and how it was how to do a software versus a hardware solution?"
27:00 How did your background in behavioral sciences shape your outlook to the company?
30:15 You didn't mention coding in your background, can you talk about starting a software company without much coding experience?
31:30 You have 25 people involved in the company but doesn't seem that you have raised much money, why such a big team?
35:15 "What does the next four years look like? What's on your horizon?"
37:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Kevin Tracey returns to the podcast to give an update about his work at the Feinstein Institutes and the work at SetPoint Medical.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Two years we discovered that a drug called Famotidine, which is sold as a generic drug Pepcid AC is actually a pharmacological or a drug-based vagus nerve stimulator. And we proved first in mice that famotidine placed directly in very small amounts placed directly in the brains of mice activates the vagus nerve. And this in turn turned off cytokine storm, which of course is a big problem in Covid 19"
- "A company that I've co-founded, Setpoint Medical, is currently deep into clinical trials in the United States called ResetRA, which is on clinical trials.gov or on the SetPoint website for rheumatoid arthritis patients. And that trial is enrolling many patients up to, I think 250 patients will be studied according to the websites and we're hoping that goes very well. And we're hoping, I'm hoping that leads to FDA approval for vagus nerve stimulation in the US in the coming days or coming in the coming months"
- "I think we're very close now to vagus nerve stimulation becoming a reality for millions of patients. And I, I hope, and I see a time when patients have the. Of choosing vagus nerve stimulation as a simple, safe therapy instead of dangerous, expensive drugs with black box warnings that are minimally effective."
0;30 "Do you wanna introduce yourself and talk about some of your work, especially as neuromodulation pertains to the immune system?"
2:45 "So the last time when we talked it was 2020. So pandemic, everything was upside down. But then you were telling me before we started recording that it was also especially busy for you at that time. So what were you up to around then?"
6:00 What were the quantitative takeaways of the Famotidine Covid trials?
8:15 "Why didn't it become standard practice?"
11:00 "You're saying the famotidine has this effect on the vagus nerve. Does this mean we no longer need vagus nerve stimulators? Can we just take Pepcid, AC?"
15:00 Do you want to talk about the Bioelectronic Medicine Summit?
17:30 What were some of the highlights of the Summit?
19:30 "You mentioned some interesting results. Is that something you can share now or is that something that we should be on the lookout for?"
21:30 "You were also featured recently in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, what was that like and what were the articles about?"
23:15 "So what's exciting you now for 2023 and what's on the horizon for you for the next few years?"
27:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Israel Gasperin is the founder and CEO of Zentrela which uses wearable EEG caps to quantitatively measure cannabis experiences.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "The reason why the government funded us was to use this for safety and law enforcement"
- "The combination of features that AI is finding is something that we haven't really focused on studying and trying to understand. It's a black box today that, is accurately and objectively characterizing the psychoactive effects, but we don't exactly know what they mean."
- "Based on this neuroscience-driven research proving the onset time of the beverage, within two weeks [the company] increased their sales by 7% and they achieved record volume cells after. So what we did, or they did, was to educate the retailers to speak about their product based on this scientific publication, rather than, providing their subjective opinion"
0:45 Do you want to describe yourself better than I just did?
1:00 "We're talking about marijuana, we're talking about getting high. What are you measuring or what's the reasoning behind this?"
11:00 " You're saying that you can tell if people are high or not. What kind of confidence do you have and, what shows up in high people's brains?"
14:15 Do you want to talk about one of your success stories working with a company?
22:45 "How many people have you had come through your labs and run through your system?"
24:00 "Of the 20,000 sessions, how many are yours?"
27:45 "You've been working on this for six years. What do the next six years look like?"
32:15 "What are some challenges?"
35:45 "Is there anything that we didn't cover that you wanted to mention?"
https://www.linkedin.com/in/israelgasperin/?locale=en_US
Colin Kealey is the President and CEO of NeuroSigma which is commercializing the Monarch eTNS System, the first non-drug treatment for pediatric ADHD cleared by the FDA.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- NeuroSigma is commercializing the Monarch eTNS system, a wearable medical device that stimulates the trigeminal nerve on the forehead, as a treatment for neurologic and neuropsychiatric indications.
- The Monarch eTNS System is FDA cleared as a treatment for pediatric ADHD, ages 7 – 12. Clinical trials in this population show a response rate of 50% with a only mild side effects observed in clinical trials to date.
- NeuroSigma is also developing its eTNS technology for other indications including epilepsy and depression and is currently running two large double-blind randomized controlled trials in ADHD to expand the label into adolescents, and for using the device as adjunctive therapy.
0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?"
7:15 What is the efficacy of your device?
8:45 "What are some typical side effects of pharmaceutical ADHD treatments and what are some typical side effects of your guys' treatment?"
16:45 That was the pharmaceutical side effects, how about the neurostimulator side effects?
20:00 How does it work sleeping with a wired system?
21:45 "Were you guys able to cross-reference with any other sleep metrics to see if the quality of sleep diminished or maybe even increased?"
24:30 What's the protocol for using this device?
26:30 Could adults use this also?
28:30 Will college students use this as a study aid?
29:30 "What does your funding look like?"
35:15 How will you prevent Chinese knockoffs?
38:30 " Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Craig Mermel is the President and Chief Product Officer at Precision Neuroscience which is a company looking to commercialize Brain-Computer Interfaces using a minimally implantation method and a soft electrode device.
This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here
Top 3 Takeaways
- "The combination of both the nature of our thin film and the surgical innovations that we bring enables us to bring cortical surface neurotechnology to patients in a minimally invasive fashion."
- "Having 10 times the amount of money at an early stage before you actually solve some of the key problems can be a problem because it pushes off some of the hard questions you have to ask yourself."
- "We're thinking ahead to the future where you have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of interfaces. The amount of damage you do will become a limiting factor at some point."
0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?
1:30 Why did you leave Apple and Google?
2:30 What is Precision and why is it special?
6:00 What's the funding look like?
8:00 "Why hasn't this been done before?"
10:00 Are you thinking about licensing out the technology?
11:15 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
12:00 What's your role now in Precision?"
12:45 "What are some of your biggest challenges?"
15:30 You guys raised $12M, why specifically this number?
19:00 "What are some, best practices or traps to avoid?"
21:45 Let's do a deeper dive into your work at Google and Apple
27:30 How would you compare working at Google and Apple vs being in a startup?
29:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Lothar Krinke is the CEO and Board Member of Newronika which is an adaptive Deep Brain Stimulator company looking to improve patient outcomes in things like Parkinson's and Essential Tremor.
This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "the one thing we do need to address is really the cost. The cost driver of Deep Brain Stimulation isn't the manufacturing of the system. Now, that's not cheap either it's certainly less than $10,000. How expensive is brain surgery, particularly functional brain surgery? How expensive is it to have all the pre-operation preparation? So I think the field needs to think about how we can lower the cost of Deep Brain Stimulation to make it available to not hundreds of thousands of patients, but literally millions of patients."
- "I don't think AI or even machine learning has been sufficiently applied in our space. People do it and they talk about it, but if you look at other fields, even EEG, use of AI or machine learning are much more penetrated."
- "In my mind it is almost unconscionable that only 15% of patients that could benefit from Parkinsons, from DBS do. So somehow we need to have a battle cry. We need to have the responsibility to make this therapy available to more people. And the way to do that is less invasive more automation and lower cost"
0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?
2:15 "Why is Deep Brain Simulation so exciting for you?"
3:15 "Can explain what Deep Brain Stimulation is and what it's a treatment for?"
5:30 "How did you get into the field?"
6:30 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
7:15 You thought earlier that DBS was too invasive but now changed your mind, why?
8:15 What are the biggest impediments to DBS?
12:15 Why is the Newronika DBS better than the alternatives?
14:30 Why is adaptive DBS better?
16:30 "What are some of the biggest challenges right now at Newronika?"
20:30 You are in Minneapolis, West Virginia, and Milan, how are you able to travel so much?
21:30 "Why aren't you in Gainesville? I was surprised how big the DBS field is here."
22:15 "For people starting out in the field, do you have any advice?"
25:30 " What's a big mistake or wrong direction that you see researchers or people on your field going down?"
27:45 "Could you explain the beta and gamma waves?"
32:45 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Damiano Giuseppe Barone is a neurosurgery clinical lecturer at the University of Cambridge and fellow at The Walton Centre in Liverpool, UK. He is interested in tackling basic and translational challenges for the development of the next generation of neural bioelectronics.
This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "My favorite procedure is the procedure that works and you see the patient after that is is a changed patient."
- "You come out from medical school like age 23 or 24. Then you get to a general medical program which in the United Kingdom lasts 2 years in and then you get to the residency, which is 8 years. And then 10 years after you are age 34 practicing the neurosurgeon. I personally took what is called an 'out of programme for research/. So basically I halted my neurosurgery residency. I stepped out and I stepped in a PhD program while still covering what is called the on-call rota, which is basically doing emergency work in neurosurgery just to keep my clinical skills going." This added a few more years of training to the list.
- "Quality of life procedures, to be offered to the patients, will have to have a 70 to 80% improvement to justify the risks the patient will have to go through."
0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?
2:45 You spent 20 years in training for this, did you know this at the outset?
4:00 "What's it like to get only a few hours of sleep for years?"
5:00 Why did you choose to go the PhD route as well?
7:45 What's it like to be digging around in the body?
9:45 Sponsorship by Ripple Neuro
10:00 "What's your favorite procedures and what's your least favorite procedures?"
12:15 "What percentage of patients see improvements?"
14:30 "What are some, risks other than it not working, what are maybe some damage or maybe even death is that a possibility?"
16:45 "It's much more dangerous to have, a large device versus a small device. Is that kinda what you've seen?"
18:45 "Have you been involved in electrode design or device design?"
19:45 "What are you working on now?"
25:00 "What are the next steps?"
28:00 "What would you recommend or what kind of advice do you have for people considering this?"
Jon Sakai is the Head of Commercialization at Cionic, a wearable neurostimulator sleeve for those with neuromuscular disease
This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "There isn't any individualized training that needs to happen. What needs to happen is the identification of which muscle groups need support and have those turned on and programmed in intensity appropriately."
- "We were able to improve door sub selection and inversion in more than 90% of our participants."
- "There's nothing like getting an appreciation for a problem like the acuity of a problem when you just watch someone for five minutes struggle with something that's probably unimaginable if it's a condition that you're not familiar with."
0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?"
2:45 "There are algorithms that go behind it and it can actually predict how you're walking. How does that work?"
3:45 "Is there a learning process for the algorithms?"
5:00 "Do you guys use hydrogels as well? And how do you have gels inside of your leggings?"
5:45 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
6:30 "What kind of improvement is there?"
8:30 How can your algorithm predict the end of a walking cycle before it has started?
9:15 What was it like getting FDA approval?
9:45 What are the next steps for the company after raising your next round of funding?
10:30 How is this going to be sold? In clinics, prescriptions, or normal retail?
11:45 What is Head of Commercialization and how does one get that role?
14:45 "You guys have been around for four years. What do the next four years look like?"
16:30 "What are some big challenges that are facing?"
17:30 "If you had unlimited funding, what would you do?"
18:30 What is some career advice you have?
22:45 " Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Hannah Claridge is the Head of Technology at TTP which is a consultancy that helps neurotech companies create the next generation of medical devices.
This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "I think consulting is really fantastic for the variety that it offers you. Not just in terms of seeing problems, but also working with different types of companies, different types of technologies, and having different day-to-day activities as well"
- "There have been cases where we've worked with very small companies where the company is composed of two or three founders whose sole role is the concept of the idea and the thinking behind what's the business case, and then gathering in the funding and passing that funding through for us to carry out the product development work. Now that's pretty unusual in most cases."
- "You need to be able to balance the efficacy of treatment with the side effects that are usually created. And if you go too far in one direction or the other, then that treatment stops being helpful. So if you stimulate too strongly, and the effect might be really effective but if the side effects are too strong, then patients aren't going to tolerate that."
0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?
1:45 "Let's talk about clinical translation, what does that entail?"
4:45 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
5:45 "What's a typical contract length and what does it look like from beginning to end?"
9:00 "It really sounds like you guys do everything. You could just take an idea and then bring it almost all the way to market"
10:15 "Do you wanna share the neurotech projects you've worked on?"
11:15 "What's a common problem that you see?"
17:15 "How does a company recover, like from having so much help to not having any help? Is that typical too?"
19:45 "What does your day-to-day look like? What are you usually doing?"
22:30 What's a typical pathway into the career of consulting?
25:15 "If you had unlimited funding or if a company had unlimited funding, what would you do?"
28:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Hannah Claridge is the Head of Technology at TTP which is a consultancy that helps neurotech companies create the next generation of medical devices.
This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "I think consulting is really fantastic for the variety that it offers you. Not just in terms of seeing problems, but also working with different types of companies, different types of technologies, and having different day-to-day activities as well"
- "There have been cases where we've worked with very small companies where the company is composed of two or three founders whose sole role is the concept of the idea and the thinking behind what's the business case, and then gathering in the funding and passing that funding through for us to carry out the product development work. Now that's pretty unusual in most cases."
- "You need to be able to balance the efficacy of treatment with the side effects that are usually created. And if you go too far in one direction or the other, then that treatment stops being helpful. So if you stimulate too strongly, and the effect might be really effective but if the side effects are too strong, then patients aren't going to tolerate that."
0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?
1:45 "Let's talk about clinical translation, what does that entail?"
4:45 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
5:45 "What's a typical contract length and what does it look like from beginning to end?"
9:00 "It really sounds like you guys do everything. You could just take an idea and then bring it almost all the way to market"
10:15 "Do you wanna share the neurotech projects you've worked on?"
11:15 "What's a common problem that you see?"
17:15 "How does a company recover, like from having so much help to not having any help? Is that typical too?"
19:45 "What does your day-to-day look like? What are you usually doing?"
22:30 What's a typical pathway into the career of consulting?
25:15 "If you had unlimited funding or if a company had unlimited funding, what would you do?"
28:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Lindsey Jardine is a clinical project manager at Boston Scientific which had acquired Farapulse, a cardiac ablation medical device company she was working in. She runs clinical trials for medtech companies and had done so for neurotech companies as well.
This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "One of the most difficult things that I've found while you're actually running the study, is making sure those devices are getting to the sites, which is depending on where your manufacturer is"
- Hiring a Contract Research Organization (CRO) or hiring clinical trial specialists in-house depends on what the plan for the company is, whether it will be acquired or do an IPO
- "My biggest problem with startups is wanting to do too much. Because if you're trying to develop eight things at once, you're not gonna get there and you're gonna run outta money. And that's how I see a lot of startups fail"
0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?
1:15 "What is a clinical trial?"
2:45 "How do medical devices maybe neurotechnology, compare to pharmaceuticals?"
4:15 "What's a timeline?"
6:00 "Where does the time get used up and then where does the money get used up?"
8:45 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
9:15 "Let's talk about budgets and how they vary, why they vary"
11:30 "What does your day-to-day look like?"
17:45 "How did you get into it?"
21:45 What would be the formal path to get into clinical trials?
26:15 "What's a common mistake for startups?"
29:30 "Do the big guys have a speed advantage?"
31:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that, that you wanted to mention?"
Dan Brounstein is Chief Strategy Officer at Saluda Medical where he is using his 15 years of Spinal Chord Stimulator experience to help deliver closed-loop pain relief directly to the spinal cord.
This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "We're stimulating with milliamps and we're trying to measure in microvolts, and we always use the analogy trying to listen to a pin drop next to a shotgun shot"
- "There's a lot of literature on loss of efficacy? It's just a therapy issue. When you deliver open-loop therapies blind across a neural target, you're ultimately going to create, over-stimulation in a lot of times under stimulation. On top of that, over time things change"
- "Patients come in between four and five times a year on average in perpetuity with open loop systems"
0:45 " Do you want to introduce yourself and the company better than I just did?"
6:00 "Your guys' device reprograms on its own? And then what signals does it take in and how does it change the stimulation patterns based on that?"
9:00 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
9:45 "What is your input and output for your guys' device?"
11:45 "In February of 2023, you guys got FDA approval for this. Do you wanna talk a little bit about this?"
14:15 "Is it like 5% better than open loop or is that something that's gonna be coming out published later?"
17:00 "Is there another indication?"
18:15 "The last I guess seven years for you has been very exciting. Is there anything on the horizon for the next seven years?"
20:15 "You guys have 300 people and have raised 200 million. What's it like working in such a big company"
22:45 "Is it getting too big for you?"
23:45 "What advice do you have for people in your situation?"
26:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Dr Angelique Johnson is the founder and CEO of MEMStim which is a leading global medical device outsource manufacturer (MDO) serving the neurostimulation market, based in Louisville, KY.
This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Our true competitors are actually not microfab but actually hand assembly, manual assembly"
- "I'm an accidental entrepreneur- the more I pitched, the more I thought about the business idea, the more I talked to actual customers the more I realized like, Hey, there's actually a need and we actually have a pretty good revenue model for meeting that need."
- "Kentucky actually matches investment and grant dollars depending on where your grants come from."
0:45 "Do you wanna introduce yourself better than I did?"
2:45 How did you make 3D cochlear device out of 2D microfabrication?
4:40 "Tell me about the founding of MEMStim"
8:00 Are you guys moving away from MEMS and towards 3D printing only?
9:00 Is the future 3D printed soft materials?
10:15 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
11:00 "Who are your customers right now?"
13:45 "What does the design process look like?"
16:15 "Have you helped companies get through ISO certifications and FDA approvals?"
18:30 "Do you guys do the implantable pulse generator or do you just do the electrodes?"
21:00 "Are you guys also prepared to ramp that up into actual production?"
22:45 "Do you have any advice for how you've survived for so long?
29:45 "What are the last five years that looked like and what are the next five years look like?"
31:00 "You're based in Kentucky, Louisville. Is there any reason for that?"
33:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Dr John Seymour is an Associate Professor at UT Health in Neurosurgery and at Rice University where his lab works on electrophysiology studies, biophysics modeling, and applying machine learning models to decoding of neural activity. A major project in our lab is focused on developing a long-term brain-machine interface for the treatment of aphasia or locked-in syndrome.
This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Your job as the engineer is to create a high resolution map of a crowd's vocalization during some live event, the rules are, you only get the place, say 10 or 20 devices throughout the stadium but only on these devices. At some point you realize more and more microphones on these poles are going to generate redundant information and they won't help us in our challenge to map the vocalization of this massive stadium. People have a very good intuition for sounds and we all understand sound is directional. Neural signals act the same way."
- "A rough rule of thumb is if the substrate diameter is on the order of magnitude of the source size, then there is good directionality in that situation."
- One day neural devices will be based on the patient's anatomy and will be printed on-demand to match the patient
0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?"
2:45 "Geographically, how close are Rice and UT health?"
3:15 "You're saying the future of neural implants is additive depth electrodes. What does that mean?"
13:45 Sponsorship by Ripple Neuro
14:15 "What's the solution, to try to make them directional?"
16:30 "So you basically need your collector to be as small as possible?"
18:30 "So by finding the right size of the electrode and the substrate diameter you're able to have directional electrodes?"
22:45 "What's the advantage of your technology? What does it change?"
28:00 " If you had unlimited funding, what would you be able to do with it?"
33:00 What kind of differences of electrode design would you expect patient to patient?
34:45 "These few years ago, you said you were at Rice before, exclusively, and then now moved to both UT Health and Rice. What's that been like?"
42:00"Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Dr John Seymour is an Associate Professor at UT Health in Neurosurgery and at Rice University where his lab works on electrophysiology studies, biophysics modeling, and applying machine learning models to decoding of neural activity. A major project in our lab is focused on developing a long-term brain-machine interface for the treatment of aphasia or locked-in syndrome.
This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Your job as the engineer is to create a high resolution map of a crowd's vocalization during some live event, the rules are, you only get the place, say 10 or 20 devices throughout the stadium but only on these devices. At some point you realize more and more microphones on these poles are going to generate redundant information and they won't help us in our challenge to map the vocalization of this massive stadium. People have a very good intuition for sounds and we all understand sound is directional. Neural signals act the same way."
- "A rough rule of thumb is if the substrate diameter is on the order of magnitude of the source size, then there is good directionality in that situation."
- One day neural devices will be based on the patient's anatomy and will be printed on-demand to match the patient
0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?"
2:45 "Geographically, how close are Rice and UT health?"
3:15 "You're saying the future of neural implants is additive depth electrodes. What does that mean?"
13:45 Sponsorship by Ripple Neuro
14:15 "What's the solution, to try to make them directional?"
16:30 "So you basically need your collector to be as small as possible?"
18:30 "So by finding the right size of the electrode and the substrate diameter you're able to have directional electrodes?"
22:45 "What's the advantage of your technology? What does it change?"
28:00 " If you had unlimited funding, what would you be able to do with it?"
33:00 What kind of differences of electrode design would you expect patient to patient?
34:45 "These few years ago, you said you were at Rice before, exclusively, and then now moved to both UT Health and Rice. What's that been like?"
42:00"Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Andre Mercanzini is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Aleva Neurotherapeutics which has worked in directional Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) device leads for Parkinson's and other diseases.
This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "We realized during that time that the intervention that could benefit the most from the miniaturization technologies was by far and away, deep brain stimulation."
- "MEMS allowed us to align every single electrode into its position, have it almost prewired and decrease the amount of touch time that an operator would have to spend on the device as they're manufacturing it, which, which gives us a price advantage as well."
- "My advice to PhD students postdocs, physician inventors, and professors working on neuro technologies is that you have to work on something that will make a major change in patient outcomes. It cannot just be incremental. If it has any signs of only being incremental, it will be very difficult to get funded. It will be very difficult to get your early adopters to sign up and use or test your device. It's always a difficult metric to determine what that means. Is it a 20% improvement in symptoms? Is it a 40% improvement in symptoms? Is it treating a disease that is not treatable today? That is really the major choice you have to make as an entrepreneur in your own technology is whether your work will make a significant change in patient outcomes."
0:30 "Do you want to explain what Aleva does a little bit and a little bit of your background?"
3:30 "What would you say that is a special thing in Lausanne that maybe other places could copy or are not able to copy?"
5:00 "Let's talk about Aleva"
6:45 "Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship"
7:15 "What's DBS and how did Aleva get started? You were saying this spun out of your PhD work. What did that look like then? And maybe how has it changed now?"
13:15 "Why is having directional leads was such a design problem?"
16:45 "What has the evolution been in the last decade, and then maybe what's future directions?"
20:30 You raised $70 million to get through the regulatory pathway, this seems like alot, couldn't you do it with 5 or 10 million?
23:30 Surgeons often like to stick with what they know, do you know if there would be a demand for what you are making?
25:45 Do you want to talk about wearables and how this fits in with your company?
29:00 "What advice do you have for people who want to follow in your footsteps and want to, create, raise $70 million and do you have to be in Switzerland to do this?"
31:45 "You've raised a lot of money and so is that good or bad and aren't you worried about being diluted too much?"
34:00 " Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Andre Mercanzini is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Aleva Neurotherapeutics which has worked in directional Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) device leads for Parkinson's and other diseases.
This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "We realized during that time that the intervention that could benefit the most from the miniaturization technologies was by far and away, deep brain stimulation."
- "MEMS allowed us to align every single electrode into its position, have it almost prewired and decrease the amount of touch time that an operator would have to spend on the device as they're manufacturing it, which, which gives us a price advantage as well."
- "My advice to PhD students postdocs, physician inventors, and professors working on neuro technologies is that you have to work on something that will make a major change in patient outcomes. It cannot just be incremental. If it has any signs of only being incremental, it will be very difficult to get funded. It will be very difficult to get your early adopters to sign up and use or test your device. It's always a difficult metric to determine what that means. Is it a 20% improvement in symptoms? Is it a 40% improvement in symptoms? Is it treating a disease that is not treatable today? That is really the major choice you have to make as an entrepreneur in your own technology is whether your work will make a significant change in patient outcomes."
0:30 "Do you want to explain what Aleva does a little bit and a little bit of your background?"
3:30 "What would you say that is a special thing in Lausanne that maybe other places could copy or are not able to copy?"
5:00 "Let's talk about Aleva"
6:45 "Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship"
7:15 "What's DBS and how did Aleva get started? You were saying this spun out of your PhD work. What did that look like then? And maybe how has it changed now?"
13:15 "Why is having directional leads was such a design problem?"
16:45 "What has the evolution been in the last decade, and then maybe what's future directions?"
20:30 You raised $70 million to get through the regulatory pathway, this seems like alot, couldn't you do it with 5 or 10 million?
23:30 Surgeons often like to stick with what they know, do you know if there would be a demand for what you are making?
25:45 Do you want to talk about wearables and how this fits in with your company?
29:00 "What advice do you have for people who want to follow in your footsteps and want to, create, raise $70 million and do you have to be in Switzerland to do this?"
31:45 "You've raised a lot of money and so is that good or bad and aren't you worried about being diluted too much?"
34:00 " Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Vailiki Giagka is an Assistant Professor at TU Delft and Research Group Leader at Fraunhofer IZM in Berlin where she conducts research on the design and fabrication of active neural interfaces.
This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Water vapor is not dangerous for neural devices, it will not cause your metals to corrode, as long as it remains in the form of vapor. The moment it condenses into liquid water and you have ions in there, is when corrosion can start, and that is the beginning of the end"
- Conformal polymer coatings have been implanted in bodies for decades but we lack means to prove upfront the amount of time a certain coated device would last in the body
- "Our aim is not to create startup ourselves, but it is really to help this ecosystem by supporting companies working on this"
0:30 "How do you work in Berlin and the Hague in the Netherlands at the same time?
2:30 "Why especially neural device packaging?"
5:15 "What's the size of your guys' device or packing?"
7:15 "Do you want to, do you wanna describe the neural implant network mesh a little bit more and how does it work and why is it necessary?"
9:15 Sponsorship by Ripple Neuro
9:45 "So let's talk about maybe conformal coatings. What is it, how does it work? Why is it necessary?"
19:00 "So what are some rough numbers, is one method better than the other, and then how many years of simulated life can one survive versus the other?"
21:45 "So how do we test it? How do we do the accelerated testing to be able to simulate a human lifespan?"
25:00 "So now you also work on the wireless power delivery, wireless transmission. How is this, how does this work? Why is this important?"
31:00 "Neurons fire with electrical signals and you're using ultrasound. So how does that work? Why is it able to work?"
32:00 "How does the power usage compare with electrical or ultrasound cuffs?"
33:30 "Let's talk about your graphene work."
37:30 "These three areas that you're working on, these all seem like very good candidates for, a spinoff company or some kind of, patents. Have you thought about this?"
42:00 "If you had unlimited funding, what would you do?"
43:45 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Vailiki Giagka is an Assistant Professor at TU Delft and Research Group Leader at Fraunhofer IZM in Berlin where she conducts research on the design and fabrication of active neural interfaces.
This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Water vapor is not dangerous for neural devices, it will not cause your metals to corrode, as long as it remains in the form of vapor. The moment it condenses into liquid water and you have ions in there, is when corrosion can start, and that is the beginning of the end"
- Conformal polymer coatings have been implanted in bodies for decades but we lack means to prove upfront the amount of time a certain coated device would last in the body
- "Our aim is not to create startup ourselves, but it is really to help this ecosystem by supporting companies working on this"
0:30 "How do you work in Berlin and the Hague in the Netherlands at the same time?
2:30 "Why especially neural device packaging?"
5:15 "What's the size of your guys' device or packing?"
7:15 "Do you want to, do you wanna describe the neural implant network mesh a little bit more and how does it work and why is it necessary?"
9:15 Sponsorship by Ripple Neuro
9:45 "So let's talk about maybe conformal coatings. What is it, how does it work? Why is it necessary?"
19:00 "So what are some rough numbers, is one method better than the other, and then how many years of simulated life can one survive versus the other?"
21:45 "So how do we test it? How do we do the accelerated testing to be able to simulate a human lifespan?"
25:00 "So now you also work on the wireless power delivery, wireless transmission. How is this, how does this work? Why is this important?"
31:00 "Neurons fire with electrical signals and you're using ultrasound. So how does that work? Why is it able to work?"
32:00 "How does the power usage compare with electrical or ultrasound cuffs?"
33:30 "Let's talk about your graphene work."
37:30 "These three areas that you're working on, these all seem like very good candidates for, a spinoff company or some kind of, patents. Have you thought about this?"
42:00 "If you had unlimited funding, what would you do?"
43:45 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Dr Jacob George is an assistant professor at the University of Utah where his NeuroRobotics lab seeks to augment biological neural networks with artificial neural networks and bionic devices to treat neurological disorders and to further our understanding of neural processing.
This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "I'm 28 years old. So very young still getting stuff set up and really kickstarting it. The average age that NIH states for someone to get an R01 is somewhere around 47 years old and they really wanna change that. They wanna get people into science earlier. And so that's the mechanism that I went through and so very fortunate to have that funding to kick start stuff."
- "The idea is, you had a stroke, you wake up in a hospital, you get the fitted with this bionic arm that helps you move immediately. So it's like nothing happened. And as you're doing these things in your real world life, all of a sudden. You don't need the exoskeleton anymore because your hand's back to use because you have rehabilitated yourself."
- "A one-off grant is great, that's luck, if you get one thing that's luck, but repeatedly, being successful in funding starts to show a pattern of success that is more and more unlikely that it was just luck."
0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself?"
2:30 "You're also a pretty new professor. How old are you also?"
4:30 "How did you get into this field?"
6:15 Sponsorship by Ripple Neuro
7:00 "Do you want to go in a little bit more in-depth about the different aspects of your research and maybe we could start with the Luke arm."
13:45 "So what does the training look like for the patients?"
17:00 "That calibration sounds tedious. How long is it?"
19:45"Is glial scarring also a problem in the peripheral nervous system or is it worse, better? How does it compare to the central nervous system?"
21:00 "Do you wanna talk a little bit about exoskeletons?"
25:45 "Which one do you love more, invasive or noninvasive?"
30:30 "What's especially motivating you to deal with this specific patient population?"
33:00 "Do you have any tips for people who might want to fall in your footsteps of being a young professor?"
36:45 "How similar is your training between, what you're doing at the PhD, working at the bench versus, being a professor and, needing to find those dollar bills?"
39:45 What specific exercises would you recommend for finding funding?
44:45 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Dr Jacob George is an assistant professor at the University of Utah where his NeuroRobotics lab seeks to augment biological neural networks with artificial neural networks and bionic devices to treat neurological disorders and to further our understanding of neural processing.
This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "I'm 28 years old. So very young still getting stuff set up and really kickstarting it. The average age that NIH states for someone to get an R01 is somewhere around 47 years old and they really wanna change that. They wanna get people into science earlier. And so that's the mechanism that I went through and so very fortunate to have that funding to kick start stuff."
- "The idea is, you had a stroke, you wake up in a hospital, you get the fitted with this bionic arm that helps you move immediately. So it's like nothing happened. And as you're doing these things in your real world life, all of a sudden. You don't need the exoskeleton anymore because your hand's back to use because you have rehabilitated yourself."
- "A one-off grant is great, that's luck, if you get one thing that's luck, but repeatedly, being successful in funding starts to show a pattern of success that is more and more unlikely that it was just luck."
0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself?"
2:30 "You're also a pretty new professor. How old are you also?"
4:30 "How did you get into this field?"
6:15 Sponsorship by Ripple Neuro
7:00 "Do you want to go in a little bit more in-depth about the different aspects of your research and maybe we could start with the Luke arm."
13:45 "So what does the training look like for the patients?"
17:00 "That calibration sounds tedious. How long is it?"
19:45"Is glial scarring also a problem in the peripheral nervous system or is it worse, better? How does it compare to the central nervous system?"
21:00 "Do you wanna talk a little bit about exoskeletons?"
25:45 "Which one do you love more, invasive or noninvasive?"
30:30 "What's especially motivating you to deal with this specific patient population?"
33:00 "Do you have any tips for people who might want to fall in your footsteps of being a young professor?"
36:45 "How similar is your training between, what you're doing at the PhD, working at the bench versus, being a professor and, needing to find those dollar bills?"
39:45 What specific exercises would you recommend for finding funding?
44:45 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Ana Maria Porras is an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida working on human-microorganism interactions and science communication especially in different languages.
This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Sometimes we see science communication as a way to convince more people to work in STEM but I think it's important beyond that. It's important that you understand the basis of how we do science and why we do science"
- "We think of science communication as what's happening when people go viral. But you can do a ton of great science communication in your immediate community. With your family, with your friends, with people in your community around wherever it is that you live."
- "Sometimes you learn a ton of stuff and then you realize it was all the wrong stuff. I think science communication is like any other scientific discipline. There are scholars, there are best practices. There are people who have been doing the research." So just like in any other scientific discipline, it's like important to acknowledge that there's like a whole ton of work that other people have done so that we don't always have to go and reinvent the wheel."
0:45 "Do you wanna introduce yourself better than I just did?"
1:30 "What exactly do you study and why is it important?"
4:45 Sponsorship by Ripple Neuro
5:00 "Let's talk a little bit about your experience with science communication. Why is it important?"
10:30 "Let's talk about the science communication and different languages"
13:15 "What's the reception been like?"
15:45 "For people who want to learn a little bit more about science communication, what do you recommend?"
19:00 "Are the science communication groups helpful or how much of what percentage of what you've learned has come from that versus just doing it?"
21:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Giacomo Valle is a post-doc researcher at ETH Zurich working in the Neuroengineering Lab to find tools for neurologically disabled amputees and diabetic persons. They look at how to decode from devices and what that would look like for the development of new devices.
This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "We're working on the sensory feedback restoration in people where there is a sensory loss due to neuropathy. The limbs are there there is sensory loss due to the degeneration and neuropathic degeneration. And then with electrical simulation is possible to provide sensation back,"
- The secret to having an H-index of 17 as a Post-Doc is to have a passion for what you do an to work long hours with great people
- Simulations can take a long time to set up and one bad variable can mess up a week's worth of work but gives you flexibility to work anywhere; Animal work means you can't take vacations but you can do more experiments; Patient work is rewarding because you develop bonds with them but sometimes are limited by experiments
0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself?"
3:30 "How does your work work?"
6:15 "What kind of devices do you use and what kind of bandwidth is involved?"
9:00 Sponsorship by Ripple Neuro
9:30 "You do seem to have a lot about computation and modeling. What role does this play in your research?"
13:00 "How good are the simulation predictions?"
19:30 "5 or 10 years down the line, what would your research lead to?"
22:45 "You have an H index of 17, which is crazy for a post-doc. What's your secret?"
25:45 "You've worked with patients, computational work, and animal work. You have these three perspectives of research, which is the easiest, which is the hardest, what are the advantages and disadvantages of all of those?"
30:30 "What do you think will be some future breakthroughs in this work and what does the future look like?"
33:15 "How much longer before you get implanted?"
34:45 "If you had unlimited funding, what would you spend it on?"
37:30 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Giacomo Valle is a post-doc researcher at ETH Zurich working in the Neuroengineering Lab to find tools for neurologically disabled amputees and diabetic persons. They look at how to decode from devices and what that would look like for the development of new devices.
This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "We're working on the sensory feedback restoration in people where there is a sensory loss due to neuropathy. The limbs are there there is sensory loss due to the degeneration and neuropathic degeneration. And then with electrical simulation is possible to provide sensation back,"
- The secret to having an H-index of 17 as a Post-Doc is to have a passion for what you do an to work long hours with great people
- Simulations can take a long time to set up and one bad variable can mess up a week's worth of work but gives you flexibility to work anywhere; Animal work means you can't take vacations but you can do more experiments; Patient work is rewarding because you develop bonds with them but sometimes are limited by experiments
0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself?"
3:30 "How does your work work?"
6:15 "What kind of devices do you use and what kind of bandwidth is involved?"
9:00 Sponsorship by Ripple Neuro
9:30 "You do seem to have a lot about computation and modeling. What role does this play in your research?"
13:00 "How good are the simulation predictions?"
19:30 "5 or 10 years down the line, what would your research lead to?"
22:45 "You have an H index of 17, which is crazy for a post-doc. What's your secret?"
25:45 "You've worked with patients, computational work, and animal work. You have these three perspectives of research, which is the easiest, which is the hardest, what are the advantages and disadvantages of all of those?"
30:30 "What do you think will be some future breakthroughs in this work and what does the future look like?"
33:15 "How much longer before you get implanted?"
34:45 "If you had unlimited funding, what would you spend it on?"
37:30 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Jotthe Kannappan is an associate at Intuitive Ventures which is all about converging robotic systems, digital tools, and clinical needs in search of new ways to understand, diagnose, treat and manage disease.
This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "It's not about rejection. It's about enabling the best possible fit between an entrepreneur and an investor who is able to who's able to really do what the company needs for them"
- "The typical things that stand out are really well clearly articulated message again about an unmet medical needs is something that comes across really strongly in a first interaction with a VC"
- "It's a common pitfall to be a technology that's searching for a need as opposed to a need-driven technology."
1:00 "Do you want to talk about the thesis of Intuitive Ventures?"
2:30 "How long has Intuitive Surgical, the parents company been around? And do you want to talk about some of your investments so far?"
4:15 "What's your guys' thoughts on neurotechnology and brain-computer interfaces? What's attractive about neuro technology or maybe not attractive?"
6:00 "When a company might want to come to you and is looking for funding, what what are you looking for?"
8:45 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
9:30 "It sounds like the companies you invest in are a little bit further stage, or do you invest in early stage as well?"
10:15 "What's exciting for you guys at the moment?"
12:30 What percentage of people do you reject?
15:15 "What other tips or tricks are there to and you get your attention and maybe get a successful interaction out of it?"
17:15 "What are some of your biggest challenges?"
18:45 "If you had unlimited funding, what would you do with it?"
23:15 How do world political issues like the Covid pandemic and Ukraine-Russia war affect the investment landscape?
26:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Benjamin Stecher runs a blog called the Tomorrow Edition where he talks about his battle with Parkinson's disease. He has been implanted with a Deep Brain Stimulator an is also on the patient advisory board of Rune Labs where he gives them a perspective from the patient's point of view.
This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "It got to the point where the Livadopa medication on-off fluctuations were so impairing to my daily life that I had maybe like an hour where I felt normal per day"
- "But to compare it to the medication now, it's night and day. It brought my baseline to the point where I felt more or less normal. Now I'm still not completely normal, things need to be optimized, but it's night and day compared to what it was before. It's very easy now for me to have these moments where I even forget that I have this disease at all "
- "There's nothing in my brain that anybody can point to and say, okay, this is what Parkinson's disease is. I don't believe that Parkinson's Disease exists"
1:00 Do you want to talk about your background?
2:45 "You were pretty young when you were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Do you want to talk about that?"
3:30 "What was the timeline of the disease?"
6:15 "You decided to crack your skull open and then put something in there. What was that kind of decision like? And then what were the results of that as well?"
7:30 Sponsorship by Ripple Neuro
7:45 "What's it been like and maybe how does it compare to the medication and was the results immediate?"
9:15 "You have an adaptive DBS implanted. Do you want to explain what this is?"
14:15 "Let's talk about your blog Tomorrow Edition"
15:30 "Let's talk about your work at Rune labs"
17:30 "Let's talk about your book to Brain Fables"
23:00 "If you had a magic wand, what would you be doing and what kind of improvements would you want to do?"
27:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
benjaminstecher@gmail.com
Dr Melanie Ecker is a professor at the University of North Texas focusing on smart polymers for biomedical applications. She has worked on conformal and biocompatible neural devices to study the electrophysiology of the enteric nervous system.
This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- The neurons in the gut-brain axis have not been investigated much by neural probes because of the softness of the intestines
- "The beauty about the intestines is in comparison to the brain, our probes, the electrodes don't need to be that tiny"
- The key to recruiting lots of good student volunteers is to bring donuts to group meetings!
1:00 Do you want to introduce yourself and talk about your work?
2:30 "What are shape memory polymers and how does it relate to neurotechnology?"
4:30 What were you working on in the Voit lab and what are you working on now?
9:30 Sponsorship by Ripple Neuro
10:30 Are traditional neural probes too stiff for the intestines?
17:15 What are the conductive components of the flexible interfaces?
19:15 Do these conductive polymers last long in the body or are they dissolved quickly?
20:45 "If you had unlimited funding, what would you do?"
23:15 Do you have any tips on how to recruit so many students?
24:30 "Is there anything that we didn't cover that you wanted to mention?"
Dima Gazda is the CEO and founder of Esper Bionics which is a company that makes a prosthetic arm that gains abilities overtime with you. They plan to use this 'simple' neurotech solution to springboard them solve other larger neurotech problems.
This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- We are building an ecosystem and will be building more products in addition to the robotic arm. Next will be a better user control system and then a robotic leg
- A physician can only add about 3000 patient-years of life but an engineer and entrepreneur can add millions because their inventions can impact more people
- Neurotechnology will be as big of a change for humanity as cars and computers were
0:30 Do you want to introduce yourself?
4:45 "So what is more difficult than a prosthetic arm that has many degrees of freedom?"
7:15 "Do you want to describe the device?"
8:30 "Does that improvement of control work only for a single user?"
10:30 How has the Russia-Ukraine conflict affected you as you are from Ukraine?
12:15 "Have you had any agreements with any governments like the Ukrainian government to recover injured soldiers?"
13:30 "What are some what are some of your biggest challenges?"
14:45 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
15:30 "Do you have any timelines?"
17:15 Do you want to talk about the number of lives improved by being an engineer versus being a physician?
22:00 What's the technology that would add a billion patient lives in the next 10 years?
29:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Contact
dg@esperbionics.com
Lindsay Hartland partners with Neuromodulation Device company Owners, Leaders, and Investors across the US & Europe to source the talent they need in order to succeed with Hanison Green Ltd.
This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- Sometimes it's better to not hire somebody but rather have a part-time position or even have them work for free in exchange for shares or honor
- "The main challenge any company will find when looking to grow their business is the best people tend to be working in jobs that they quite like. There's a talent shortage. There's not enough people to go around."
- "I used to assume that when you've got to get somebody more money, it's not. Most person's main driver is job fulfillment. They want to get up each morning and feel good about what they're going to work for and what the company's striving toward. Are they being developed, is there growth within that company? Money is important to all of us, but it's not the main driver."
0:30 Do you want to describe yourself?
3:00 "Why is this important for any startup to recruit?"
5:00 "How do you know who's a good person?"
7:15 Do you help early stage companies figure themselves out too?
9:45 "What's your opinion on that, hire a consultant versus hiring an employee?"
12:30 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
13:15 "Let's say hypothetically, I want to earn 250k how would I do that?"
15:45 "What's the mechanics of all this, of this poaching business that you're in?"
21:15 Do you sometimes find these leaders of companies in academia or in other fields or is the switch hard to make?
24:15 "How do you make money?"
30:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about?"
Anuj Bhardwaj is the CEO of SecondWave Systems which is a wearable ultrasound noninvasive therapy especially for suppressing chronic inflammation and pain signals.
This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "We're going to use a disposable coupling component that a patient uses to adhere this and couple it to the body for 18 minutes while they remain in a reasonably sedentary condition. They would do that once a day."
- "The cost of the healthcare system is often between one to $200,000 per year for patients that take biologics like Enbrel. So that's a huge burden on the system"
- "My advice to other companies like us would be to look at the SBIR program. We're very strong advocates of it. It's really been the main engine that launched us. I'd advise looking at NIH, BARDA, and others too. Then consider if they fit within the mission of what a company is doing and apply."
0:30 "Do you want to describe yourself and your technology?"
2:30 "Let's talk about the technology, who's it for?"
9:15 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
10:15 "You're not using electricity, but you're using ultrasound, which is something that's a little bit more rarely used. Why are you using this and how does it work?"
12:15 "What kind of treatments would you guys be able to provide?"
15:30 "So what fraction of the $100,000-$200,000 / year Rheumatoid Arthritis costs would you guys represent?"
16:30 Do you want to talk about the FDA approval process for a wearable?
18:15 Do you want to talk about your sources of funding so far?
22:30 "What is one of the biggest challenges in this work?"
25:00 "Are you looking for people to join or are you looking for anything in particular?"
Giovanni Lauricella is the cofounder and managing partner at Lifeblood Capital where they find people, money and insight for MedTech startup companies. Giovanni comes on a second time to talk about how to find investment for neurotech startups
This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "If you take bad money it could really ruin a company. Good money simplistically saying is- You find an investor who really knows how to add value to your company beyond simply writing you a check."
- "An investible story from the eyes of an investor is number one. And number two, when you finally do click send make sure that you're doing the due diligence on the investors with that who ultimately you're reaching out to. That they make sense."
- "Everything else after that can be shared throughout the diligence process, which typically takes 2, 3, 4, 5 months. You have ample time to share a lot of information with them once they're already interested."
1:00 "Do you want to introduce yourself again?"
4:30 "How do you raise money in a med tech startup?"
9:45 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
10:15 "What is an example of bad money and how bad can bad get?"
18:15 "What are some tips for companies as they're raising money?"
22:00 "How do you get in contact with these people?"
28:15 "What's a wrong direction that a lot of people go down that could be easily fixed?"
35:15 "What percentage of that slide deck should be about the people in the company versus the technology? And then where can people find you?"
Contact
giovanni@lifebloodcapital.com
Talya Miron-Schatz is an author, researcher, and speaker who is the author of "Your Life Depends on It: What you can do to make better choices about your health" which is a book about medical decision making. She talks about the data generated from neuro devices and what patients can do with it.
This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- There is an opportunity to turn data generated by neuro medical devices into insights that are easy to digest
- "free, the data, free the data! And I was thinking - to whom? And what are they going to do with it? It's like someone delivering boxes upon boxes of papers to your front door. And you're like I don't know what to do with it. Free the data is great, but to help me make sense of it is even greater."
- "If you want to design for better usage and for better outcomes, you need to think psychology as well as technology"
0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself?"
3:45 "How does your work fit into neuro technology?"
5:15 Sponsorship by Ripple Neuro
6:15 "What's your kind of solution forward with this?"
9:30 "The trend of medical devices and neurotechnology generating more data to have to sift through, is that helping the problem or is that worsening the problem"
11:15 Is app and user experience design of these new devices going to be one of the most important factors?
13:45 "So what's the solution for this? Is it just hiring more designers and psychologists?"
20:30 "What point in the development cycle of a medical device or neuro technology, should people start thinking about this?"
22:45 Is this different if the technology is implantable?
25:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
https://talyamironshatz.com/
Dr Josh Siegle is a senior scientist working at the Allen Institute working on large-scale electrophysiology using tools like the Neuropixels probe. He is also heavily involved in the design and distribution of Open Ephys which is an open-source electrophysiology tool.
This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools here
Top three takeaways:
- "The dark matter problem is where the number of cells that we record is almost always less than the number of cells that we actually know to be in the tissue around the electrodes. This could be because there are neurons near the electrodes that just don't fire action potentials, their action potentials look very similar to other nearby neurons, or maybe the listening radius of our electrodes is not quite as large as we would expect it to be."
- "A big advantage of working at the Allen Institute is that we have very generous internal funding from Paul Allen. And so although we do apply for grants when it makes sense, for most people at the Allen Institute, getting grant funding is not an existential threat to their research."
- Open Ephys has recently started offering virtual 1-on-1 training sessions to help people get up and running with their tools. This is aligned with their goal of making open-source tools even more accessible throughout the neuroscience community.
0:45 Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Dr. Josh Siegle
4:00 "What is the Neuropixels probe and how does it work? Why is it important?"
8:00 What capabilities does working with IMEC bring?
11:15 How exactly were you working with IMEC?
12:30 Sponsorship by Ripple Neuro
13:15 How does the pitch of the Neuropixels probe compare to biology?
16:45 What is the Allen Institute like?
20:15 What kind of mix of people work at the Allen Institute?
21:15 "What's the stated aims of the Institute again?"
22:00 What is the Open Ephys project you had worked on before?
27:45 What is the Open Ephys training like?
29:30 Do companies love or hate Open Ehpys?
31:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Andy Cornwell is a return guest on the show and he is the Associate Director of the Case-Coulter Translational Research Partnership (CCTRP) in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. He is currently putting together the second Cleveland Neuro Design Entrepreneurs Workshop. The deadline to submit is June 30th.
This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "The application deadline is June 30th and applications are open now. The workshop itself is September 22nd to 25th in-person here in Cleveland and the workshop is free to students. We provide you with all of the lodging and meals while you're here. We ask you to cover travel costs, but if that's a burden and you could not attend because of that, we have some limited support for travel as well"
- "Ripple hired five people that they met at the workshop. They provided a lot of expertise and mentorship to the teams and through that process, we were able to basically conduct a three-day-long live action interview and made some offers to candidates. I think they ended up hiring five people out of that program. And some of our other sponsors also made hires out of the program as well."
- "Innovation is not a Eureka moment. It's not something that just happens to people. It's a discipline that can be learned. And the discipline of innovation is what the workshop is about."
0:45 Do you want to talk about the Entrepreneur Workshop?
2:30 "How's the second one gonna be different?"
4:45 "Were there any companies formed?"
5:30 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
6:15 "Who should sign up?"
8:15 Did headhunters come to hire any participants?
9:30 "What's the intention of this workshop?"
12:30 Is this workshop something that can help even those not looking to found a company?
15:30 "What's the main thing that people should learn, even if they don't take go to the workshop?"
17:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Evan Coopersmith is the galactic head of admonishment and also executive vice president of data science at Agency Enterprise Studio. There they do contract work for machine learning in neuroscience and neurotech.
*This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here*
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "One of the arguments I've often made is that it isn't only the hardware that holds us back. It is the software. When the software reaches a level of sophistication, suddenly the hardware is orders of magnitude more impactful."
- "Clearly we have learned how to understand patterns. We call these latent patterns in the data. The challenge we're involved in spoke to this idea of these latent patterns that exist in neurological data. And I think that's where the software has to take the next step of understanding those latent patterns in the same way."
- "One of the things that we're interested in is the unsexy efficiencies of how do you run data science analysis? In this field, how do you construct the infrastructure for it? How do you ensure that you're not driving your Ferrari on gravel roads?"
0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself?
2:30 What does AE Studios do?
8:00 How do you use machine learning for neuroscience?
11:00 How does your company work? When do they come to you?
12:30 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
13:00 Do you want to talk about your checkers and chess software analogy?
20:45 What is your company's headcount?
22:45 What are you guys working on which is not covered by NDA?
25:30 How do you guys run the software?
26:30 Is there anything that you wanted to talk about that we didn't mention?
Kirill Korotaev is the CEO and founder of Purple Gaze which is an AI Platform for collecting data from the brain using eye movements. *This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here* Top 3 Takeaways:
- "There wasn't any significant innovation in the eye tracking technology for the last 15 years. And we thought that if we use modern computer vision and image processing techniques, we could make it much more accessible and easy to use, which in turn would open up new applications and create whole new industries."
- "We've just launched in the United States. The Communication Disorders Lab at the New Mexico State University has recently acquired two of our FOXIE systems to conduct research on eye movements during speech and speech comprehension. So you should expect first preprints featuring our system in about half a year."
- FOXIE is a portable screen-based Eye Tracking system with a sampling rate of 600Hz that connects to any modern computer via USB
0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself a little bit and your company?"
2:00 "How did you get into eye tracking?"
5:30 How have things improved since you started out in this?
9:30 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
10:15 "What's the company doing right now? And what are you planning on doing next?"
12:30 "What is the footprint of your device?"
13:30 Have you worked with Iris Biomedical before?
14:45 Do you want to talk about how the invasion of Ukraine has affected you as a Russian?
15:45 "If you had unlimited funding, what would you go after?"
16:30 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
E.J. Chichilnisky is a Professor of Neurosurgery and Ophthalmology at Stanford University. His research has focused on understanding the spatiotemporal patterns of electrical activity in the retina that convey visual information to the brain, and their origins in retinal circuitry, using large-scale multi-electrode recordings. His ongoing work now focuses on using basic science knowledge along with electrical stimulation to develop a novel high-fidelity artificial retina for treating incurable blindness. *This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools here*
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "The basic 3 steps of the device are to 1) read the spontaneous activity that's there and use that to identify the different cells and different cell types; 2) pass current through each of the many electrodes (a thousand electrodes in the first device) to figure out which electrodes activate which cells and how much; and 3) finally translate that according to the “scores" we have for the different cell types into patterns of activity. This is way more complicated than any neural interface that's been designed."
- "Plasticity in the brain is not there just because the brain wants to be plastic. It's there because it's evolutionarily valuable to have a plastic circuit. If you think about it from an electronics point of view, a plastic circuit is costly."
- "Our understanding of the retina is 30 years ahead of our understanding of the brain. That's not because retina neuroscientists are smarter – it's because the retina is more accessible and easier to understand. So our understanding in the retina always precedes our understanding of the cortex."
0:45 "Do you do you wanna introduce yourself?"
1:30 "So how did you get into this?"
3:45 "What is your proposal versus how things were being done before?"
9:45 What are the 20 types of retinal cells?
14:30 "What's is this a specific design of the device? And then what's your role in this as well?"
17:30 "Are you guys working with other companies in the field too?"
19:30 Sponsorship by Ripple Neuro
20:00 Are cortical implants more or less sensitive to your 'orchestra' approach?
26:15 "What are some of the biggest challenges in this or if you had unlimited funding, what would you throw that funding at first"
35:00 "How are you interfacing with these different cell types?"
38:30 " That all sounds very tedious. And especially if you're talking about thousands of electrodes, is this done by hand, or is this the poor graduate student that has to do this? Or is there a way to automate it?"
43:15 "What are some timelines that we can expect with this technology?"
44:30 "What's the difference between you and Dr. Palanker?"
46:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Duane Mancini is the host of the Project Medtech Podcast which talks about Medtech Device industry. They talk about the success storiies, advice, pitfalls, trends and more. Duane also helps run Project Medtech which accelerates medical technology to improve patient lives. Finally, Duane and Giovanni Lauricella have started the Medtech Money podcast about how to raise money for medtech companies.
Top 3 Takeways:
- "Actually defining the problem too is a big issue. And it's something that I didn't really realize was an issue. They're asking questions that are going to validate their problem rather than actually going out and doing some in-depth research. Is this really a problem elsewhere?"
- "Ince you've identified a problem, you have to be a historian of how has this problem been attempted to be solved in the past?"
- "Regulations should not dictate your safety plan"
0:45 Do you want to describe your journey of how you got into this?
6:30 : What are the topics and themes of what do you usually cover on both of those podcasts?"
8:30 "What are some problems or challenges that a lot of entrepreneurs face and that's maybe easily fixable?"
14:30 Want to talk about your work before Project Medtech?
18:30 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Brock Lindsey and Jack Gelman are researchers at West Virginia University. Brock is an orthopedic oncologist who deals with bone and muscle tumors. Jack is a plastic surgeon interested in peripheral nerve surgery. Together they work on targeted muscle reinnervation in osseoimplants to bring back control for amputees. Top 3 Takeaways:
- Integrating prosthetics into the bone allows for better bone health since the bones are then under load
- Neuromas are transected nerves that continue to grow and cause pain. They've removed some that are the size of golf balls
- WVU has done 28 of these reinnervation surgeries. 500 papers have been written about this, 400 of them since 2020
0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself a little bit?"
3:45 How does a cadaver arm reinnervation work?
4:45 "What are the advantages of osseointegration? What are some of the challenges in this?"
10:45 How do you integrate these devices with nerves and how does it improve gait?
17:15 Are these just EMG devices that listen in on muscle movement?
18:45 "Is this something that's common or is this something that only you guys can do? And then also maybe how many patients have you guys worked on in this way?"
21:45 What would you improve with unlimited funding?
25:30 "You're saying that there would be an advantage to going directly into the brain versus going into the peripheral nerve and what would be the advantage of that?"
27:15 "I want to talk about WVU, do you want to talk a little bit about your institution, why you chose it?"
30:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
A few weeks ago the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) published an article based on a Freedom of Information request to look at the records of animals involved in trials at Elon Musk's Neuralink company. PCRM alleges that 15/23 monkeys used in the experiments have died and that they have been treated poorly. In a rare move from a Musk company, Neuralink published a rebuttal blog explaining their position explaining some of the nuances of what happened.
In this episode, I go over some of the facts of this case, my experience with animal studies, and then play a good video from The Tesla Time which goes into more detail.
https://www.pcrm.org/news/news-releases/us-department-agriculture-look-monkey-experiments-funded-elon-musks-neuralink
Karandeep Singh Badwal is a Quality and Regulatory Affairs Consultant in the field of Medical Devices. He is also the host of the MedTech Podcast where he talks to leaders in the field of Medical Technologies Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Once you understand your product, who's going to be using it, you can then build a risk assessment around that. But if you do not know what your product is, and you do not know the modes of failure, you really are going to struggle with this process."
- "So the UK is relatively easy for software devices. The EU has now become more difficult. Whereas previously the EU was considered to be easier than the US FDA, now companies are now considering the US FDA first, as they find that regulatory pathway easier"
- "build quality and regulatory at the start of your idea"
0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself?"
2:15 "What do you exactly do day to day?"
4:00 "How does this how does this relate to neural implants?"
7:15 How is software different from physical devices in regulatory approval?
9:00 "Let's say you're you have really cool technology. What would be some next steps that you would see as you're trying to get FDA approval?"
11:15 "How are things different in the UK and EU versus the US?"
13:15 "What were you doing before you started the consulting?"
16:00 "What is a common mistake that you see being made?"
17:45 "Let's talk about the podcast the MedTech podcast."
22:30 "Do you want to talk about the time zone shifts?"
Adam Sefler and Radhika Gupta head up NTX Services which is a distinct for-profit entity affiliated with the non-profit NeuroTechX. They offer consulting and recruitment services with the vision to aid in the commercialization of neurotechnology at a global scale.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Our projects range from [client] projects coming right out of labs, to setting up a whole new division for a larger company, to describing and setting the marketing strategy for an [international] startup, to doing C-level executive search[es] on the recruiting side, but […], that's by no means a complete list of projects we are working on"
- "Consultants are not always known or an obvious choice [for startups and scaleups]. But when you explain the extent of what can be done (and how it would be done), there's very often an appreciation for a fast solution that can be deployed without necessarily hiring a lot of different people, which is not [always] a possibility for a smaller company.”
- "[…] We bring the same quality and professionalism, that you'll find at a top tier consulting firm while knowing that, for example, the top management consulting firms can charge in the six-figures for one week of work. We know that a, a dollar spent on a service support is something that has to yield something in [both] the long term and the short term [...]"
https://neurotechx-services.com/business-cases/
0:45 "Do you want to describe yourselves a little bit and what you do?"
4:30 "Radhika, do you want to introduce yourself?"
5:15 "So basically you guys met Yannick and then you really liked what he was doing and had all these unmet needs. Is that kind of how that happened?"
9:30 "Do you want to; do you guys want to talk about exactly what services and what exactly people can expect from you guys?"
16:45 "Do you want to share some case studies as well?"
22:15 How has the investment landscape changed recently?
25:00 "And this upcoming report, is this something that you guys internally generated?"
33:45 " Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Mark Domyahn is a partner at JD Lymon where they help companies develop healthcare strategies. They help companies understand their unique value proposition and optimize their market potential.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "the FDA writes zero checks. They give you a license to hunt, but they don't guarantee you kill anything"
- "What I'm hearing more and more is the first question out of investor's mouth isn't what's your FDA pathway, it's what's your reimbursement strategy. Because FDA is at least a somewhat known entity. And they're the last entity that will tell you as a company "if you do this study, if you do this. We will get you to market. We will give you the clearance or the approval." Payers will never tell you that I've never had a payer say that if you do this randomized controlled study, or if you do this post-market registry, I will pay for your device at the price you want it. That doesn't happen. So you're guessing a little bit."
- "The three things is: Marketing is what do I want to be able to say about my product? Regulatory is what can I say without going to jail? And then reimbursement is who's going to pay. Those three things, in my opinion should be dictating what your clinical strategy is. Not one, not two, but all three of those things."
0:30 "Do you want to introduce yourself?"
1:45 "What are some costs and benefits of all of those different
options- VA, insurance, private payers?"
3:15 "What's the process of getting reimbursement approved?"
5:45 "What are some common timelines timeframes that we're looking at?"
9:30 "There are lots of insurance companies out there. So basically if you're able to get one code you got them all, or do you have to individually go after them?"
15:15 "What are some big issues that you see going on or things that, people I guess are messing up or are doing incorrectly either be it on the company side or the insurance?"
24:45 What is your role?
31:45 "So what are some big successes or failures that you've seen companies go through and maybe one of each?"
36:00 "How did you get into this field and what's been your path, your career path?"
38:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
mdomyahn@jdlymon.com
Tim Marjenin is the Vice President of Neurology Regulatory Affairs at MCRA where he helps neurotech companies get through the challenges of being approved by the FDA. Tim has had over 16 years in the regulatory side of things before now advising the companies.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "A big part of what I'm doing right now. It's trying to help them figure out, okay. What are you trying to do? How can I help you put that in FDA's language and language that FDA is going to understand?"
- "I think probably the biggest success is that Applied VR got their Denovo granted just a few weeks ago. We supported them in their de novo, but we helped them quite a bit with with writing the de novo and interacting with FDA throughout that process."
- "Probably the biggest tip that I always have is. Try and put yourself in FDA shoes. One of the examples: say you're in an engineering class and you're turning in some homework or you're turning in a test. Is a professor really just interested in the answer? No, he wants to know how you got to the answer. FDA is going to be the same. If they don't understand how you got from a to B, they're going to have a lot of questions about that."
0:45 "Do you wanna describe yourself a little bit? "
2:45 "What does the day-to-day look like in the FDA?"
5:30 "So for those that don't know, what is the FDA review process look like? How many people are reviewing it, what's the timeline?"
7:45 "How many people are involved in this whole process, is the weight of millions of people's lives resting on one person's shoulders, or is it more like a committee?
9:30 "What do you do at MCRA?"
10:45 "How has your job changed?"
13:45 "You wanted to share some successes that maker has had, do you want to talk about these?"
15:30 "What does it mean to get a de novo status?"
19:00 "What's timeline from start to finish for your guys' work?"
20:30 "What are some things that people do that they shouldn't do?"
23:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention? "
Arun Sridhar is a cohost of the Skraps podcast which talks about some of the behind-the-scenes stories in science and technology. JoJo Platt is the other cohost and she has been on the show before as well.
Today, Arun and I are talking about the recently unveiled $9.8M Neuromod Prize which aims to reward those that are able to come up with a precisely controllable neuromodulation treatment. Arun thinks the prize could've been made better and I (Ladan) think that it is nice to see other forms of grant money.
Here is the NIH announcement
Here is the GSK Bioelectronics R&D challenge from 2014 that Arun had worked on
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "The truth of the story is that none of the solutions was deemed to be good enough to warrant a phase two of the study, simply because those were all efforts that were already ongoing and the initial phase one did not result in an appreciable kind of jump in the technology. So people were basically taking the phase one money, they were retooling, rejigging it in a small way, resubmitting a proposal, five months down the line to actually get the bigger pot of money."
- "When you're always running against a clock that is an inefficient way to develop a therapy. Because when you're developing a therapy, you should be focusing on the right things. And therefore, because you are always on a race against the clock I'm not saying that people are going to cut corners, but just that it's actually an inefficient way, because just because somebody is getting their first, it doesn't necessarily mean that's the best solution"
- "How is somebody going to come up with a proposal to put in for a neuromod prize to develop a therapy focused on a novel neuro target that controls more than one function with the ability to selectively modulate it and to take that into the clinic? It just seems like very wishful thinking.
0:30 "How are you doing?"
2:30 This could be a more efficient way to distribute money, what do you think?
10:15 "I always believe in actually copying right and copying left"
14:45 "It sounds like a lot of money. But then when it comes down to it, it's actually not that much."
20:00 "If somebody loses a million dollars of their own money by not winning a prize, that's on them. So what's the harm in that? "
26:30 "What would you recommend? What would be another system?"
36:15 "if they don't meet the criteria, you don't have to give that money. You could just keep repeating that prize, potentially every two years, every four years and save that money"
38:00 "When do you think it would make more sense to do something like this?"
38:45 "Do you want to talk about your podcast?"
42:30 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Scott Burwell is the founder and CEO of Neurotype which makes a portable EEG headset, the NeuromarkR, which quantifies brain physiological responses to possible triggers for people with Substance Use Disorder. This enables the recognition of brain biomarker targets for treatment and tracking changes over the course of recovery.
Scott@neurotype.io.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "What we're trying to do is use these brain sensing devices to measure some objective biomarkers that can help make objective decisions. And objective treatment benchmarks accessible in addiction clinics."
- "This is really a risk biomarker and a way to stratify patients based on their risk, but it's also potentially a way to provide therapy and engagement practices with."
- "Patients aren't always aware of their own level of craving and their own level of vulnerability for relapse."
1:00 Do you want to introduce yourself?
3:15 "So let's talk a little bit, how you got into this"
5:45 "Do you wanna describe the technology a little bit? How it works, why it works?"
8:30 "It wouldn't be necessarily something that you take home? This would be like with the trained experts, something like this?"
9:30 "Can you also see the physiological side of things or is it, this is more like a psychological measurement?"
11:00 "So you've been around for two years. What are some good results, the best results that you've gotten so far?"
14:15 "Could you pair it with a, like an electroshock therapy to maybe disassociate that, that love?"
16:00 "What what are the next few years look like? What do you hope to achieve? "
18:00 "What have been some of your biggest challenges in in your company so far?"
21:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Jeremy Greenberg works for the nonprofit Future of Privacy Forum and has written a report about Privacy and the Connected Mind. The report is an extensive look into some of the challenges of privacy in the BCI space.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "A lot of the risks in this base really stem from the fact that neuro data is sensitive personal information. This is biological. It relates to mental privacy. These devices can be used to derive inferences about a person's likes their dislikes, their fears, emotions. So this is, this involves very sensitive and intimate details or inferences about an individual."
- "I think that the involuntary nature of this data is something that is really concerning for privacy."
- "The bill in Chile regulates neuro data as an organ under a Chilean organ transplant law."
1:00 "Do you want to introduce yourself because you're not a neuroscientist you're working in Washington DC non-profit. So who are you and how did you get into this writing?"
4:15 "So what is neurotech going to be used for, what are the potential applications? What are the potential risks?"
9:45 "Which areas are the most concerning?"
12:30 "So should we just ban neuro data? Are there any benefits, are there any upsides to this, and what are the upsides?"
15:00 " A country actually did this [setting up neuro rights] recently. Do you want to talk about Chile?"
18:00 "Why especially Chile, is that what caused them to do this?"
20:30 "So what are the takeaways? What should companies learn from this? What should they be doing in the future?"
25:45 "Are there any final thoughts, any takeaways that you wanted to mention?"
Tim Jorgensen is the author of Spark: The Life of Electricity and the Electricity of Life which looks at the history of bioelectrics all the way from prehistory to the modern era. The book is very informative and shows that current neurotechnology has very deep roots.
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691197838/spark
https://www.amazon.com/Spark-Life-Electricity/dp/0691197830
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "The word electricity comes from the Greek Latin word for Amber. That's where it originally comes from because that was the only way to create it. They would rub Amber with wool and you would get static electricity"
- "One of these tricks actually was called the flying boy. They would suspend a child from silk ribbons and would take a glass rod and rub it in order to make static electricity. And then they would touch the boys with the rod and his body would be that the electricity would go into his body. And then he would able be able to do things with his hands, pass his hand over an open book and the page would move or he could attract feathers to his fingers and things like that."
- "It was the doctor's demand for better and better electrical generators for treating patients that funded the development of electrical generator industry."
0:45 "Do you want to describe yourself and your background a little?"
7:45 "Maybe we can take, maybe we can go through a quick history starting with prehistory?"
9:00 "Afterwards it really doesn't start until, like the enlightenment, right?"
17:15 "Then I guess in my mind, the next thing is the industrial era, like you were saying that the Edison, or is there something in between?"
23:15 "How far back does neurostimulation go?"
42:00 "Overall what has been your impression of writing the book and what do you think about the future of neurotech?"
47:00 "You were talking about some of the difficulties of publishing now during COVID, how so?"
49:00 "I'm very glad that you wrote it"
Paul Grand is the CEO of Medtech Innovator which is an accelerator for startups in the medical technology space. It has been going for many years and the companies that they select to go through the 4 month process have gone on to be very successful.
Apply for this year's cohort, deadline January 31st
https://medtechinnovator.org/apply/
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "MedTech innovator as an accelerator is the world's largest accelerator for medical technology"
- "1,800 companies applied last year across all of our cohorts. We accept around 4% of that."
- "Some of the benchmarks we've got: over 90 products in the market, $3.5 billion in follow on funding to our companies post-MedTech innovator, and we've had 21 acquisitions."
0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself?"
3:00 "What is MedTech innovator for? Who is it for?"
6:00 "Is there exclusion criteria or is there some kind of a framework where certain companies would be better fits?"
9:30 Are there companies that would be too big for you?
10:30 "How do you find these companies?"
12:30 "How do you help find investment and how do you help people guide through this process?"
16:45 "What are some of your favorite success stories?"
22:15 Do busy CEOs have to drop everything in order to attend the 4 month workshop?
24:00 "What advice do you have for companies who want to get into Medtech Innovator?"
31:00 "Is there anything that we didn't mention that you wanted to talk about?"
Yannick Roy is the founder of NeurotechX which is a community of neurotechnology enthusiasts with over 18,000 members from around the world started in 2014. They have also held in-person events to help bring people together. Due to this large community, Yannick has also started NeurotechX Services which brings together this large community to help companies and people.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "we don't have any outside funding, government funding. We needed to bootstrap everything. The organization was and still is mainly volunteer-driven"
- three pillars: community, education, and, innovation
- "More money isn't necessarily a good thing because when you have too much money, then you're not necessarily smart about spending that money."
1:00 "Do you want to introduce yourself and talk a little about NeurotechX as well as some of your other stuff?"
6:30 "What do people do when they meet up? Do they just talk about how much they love neurotech or what's the agenda for the meetings?"
13:00 "What is a typical size of a meetup and then does it go like four in the morning?"
16:00 "If you were to want to start a group in your area, what would that look like?
22:00 "So have you been funded or where's the money coming from? Or is this coming out of your personal pocket?"
27:00 "Do you want to talk a little bit about NeurotechX services?"
34:30 "You've done all this while still in your PhD, right?"
40:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
https://neurotechx.com/primer/
Dr Marc Russo is the president of the International Neuromodulation Society which is a nonprofit group of clinicians, scientists and engineers dedicated to the scientific development and awareness of neuromodulation. Dr Russo runs a large multidisciplinary pain clinic in Australia. He has conducted a number of first-in-man studies of novel neuromodulation implants as well as designing unique leads and waveforms in spinal cord stimulation (SCS).
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Over more than a 20 year journey now we understand that these patients are best treated early rather than later. The best traded with as close to zero levels of opioids. And that doses higher than 40 milligrams per day, actually worsen outcomes for spinal cord stimulation,"
- "High dose exogenous opioid prescription can actually induce epigenetic change in the genome of a patient so that even if you remove something such as opioids after five years, the body doesn't return to its former expression of proteins and then maybe actually permanent changes that may have worse outcome."
- "What's in a book is not sacrosanct and that you need to not just blindly apply something that you read in a book and think that it was, descended from the tablets of Moses. You actually need to think of what are you doing and does that apply to this particular patient?"
0:45 "And do you want to introduce yourself?"
1:45 "What changes have you seen?"
3:45 "In bioelectronic medicine it's beneficial to have a combination of drugs and stimulation, but you're saying that's the opposite in pain? Is it something like a numbing effect or what's the justification that you found for this?"
5:45 "Is opioid something that lingers?"
7:30 "What are some other trends that you've noticed along your 20 years of working in the field?"
10:00 "So the stimulation is not something that's there forever that they're going to have to manage forever?"
11:30 What's it like running a clinical trials unit?
13:30 "What's the pain clinic, like what's the makeup of this and do hospitals send people to you or how does it work?"
15:15 "What would be the advantage of doing a clinical trial in Australia?"
16:30 "What's that process like, a clinical trial, and how long, how many patients are involved?"
19:00 "What would be a good clinical trial versus a bad clinical trial?"
24:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Gautam Sadarangani is the President & COO/CTO of TENZR by BioInteractive Technologies, a digital health system that provides a better way to retrain movement for the hand, wrist, and elbow.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Our core competence here is the fact that we're able to measure the limb with sufficient accuracy and sufficient resolution for rehabilitation purposes while being very unobtrusive for the person to wear essentially 24/7"
- "Quantifying and motivating is a big deal. It's not different than when you're trying to lose weight and use a weighing scale. You need those parameters to tell you if you're moving in the right direction."
- Using TENZR technology increases the motivation of patients to stick with the recovery program
2:30 " Let's talk about the technology a little bit. How does it work? Why does it work?"
3:45 "How precise is it and how precise do you need to be for this rehabilitation process?"
5:00 "So what would be a typical patient and how long would they be using the device?"
9:15 "You guys are a startup and you guys have raised money. How far along in the process are you and what does the next five years look like?"
11:30 "You had a very interesting story. How you came into this you grew up in Singapore, but also you worked at a company, a different company before, before coming here. Did you want to talk about both of those things?"
13:45 What's been your experience of my Neurotech Mastermind Peer Support Group?
15:45 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
John Doucet is a neuroscientist and biomedical engineer with 10+ years of FDA experience in medical device regulation, and 13+ years of Johns Hopkins experience in discovery science, and 6+ years of management experience at FDA and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He has extensive knowledge of medical device regulatory pathways to drive technologies from conception to market.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "That's what clients are paying for, I can detect the signal from the noise and all the stuff the company is doing, bring that to the FDA in a way that they can digest it
- "Everyone wants breakthrough device. If you're like talking to an investor, you want to say FDA labeled us a breakthrough device. "Yes, our device is the greatest thing since sliced bread, FDA thinks so too.""
- "One of the reasons, I left the FDA and I'm on this side with MCRA working directly with clients is I'm hoping that I can scrub some delays away"
- "I feel like I'm still protecting and promoting public health"
1:15 "Do you want to introduce yourself a little bit?"
5:30 "What is regulatory? Why is it necessary? Why do people like you in your previous life, at the FDA, why does that have to exist? And then why do you and your current life, why does it have to exist?"
10:30 "People should come to you even pre-submission, to be able to consultant and figure out how best to pitch it to the FDA so that it could be approved?"
16:15 "A lot of times when like politicians then become like contractors, it's like a revolving door. What do you think about that? Is it like you're using your connections or what are the ethics of that?"
18:00 "And what's your opinion on the field of neuro tech is it growing exponentially? Have we hit the hockey stick part of the growth?"
24:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Ni-Ka Ford is a medical and biological illustrator that works with both 2D and 3D sketches often in the neurotech space.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "I was doing an illustration for a procedure. And what happened was the surgeon actually ended up changing his manuscript after seeing my illustration."
- There are 4 accredited graduate programs for Medical Illustration
- "When I do something that's more a schematic, I could finish an illustration in maybe a week. More rendered illustrations that are high in details may take me about a month to complete."
0:45 "Can you describe what you do?"
2:45 "How did you get into this?"
5:00 "It sounds more broad than just illustrations. You're not just sketching cadavers, dead bodies but you do more than that. And then you have done some more of this work. Do you wanna describe that a little bit?"
7:00 "Why is medical illustration important? Why do you have to exist?"
12:00 "iIf people are interested in this kind of career path is this something you would recommend?"
14:45 "Do you want to talk a little bit about your freelance work as well?"
15:15 "How long does it take to do an image?"
Dr Paul Tubig and Dr Darcy McCusker are graduates from the University of Washington. Dr Tubig now works at at Georgia Southern University teaching neuroethics and is teaching social and political philosophy, bioethics, neuroethics, and philosophy of disability.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "There have been reports and testimonies of users who have experienced a sense of depersonalization, a sense of alienation and a sense that they are no longer themselves [after using implanted neurotechnology]."
- "It turns out that when you have an ethicist in the room, you end up asking really different kinds of questions of your participants."
- "We do these workshops for an hour and a half and the hope really is, that it's going to spark conversations when people go back to their labs and they'll bring it up at their next lab meeting"
0:45 "Why neuroethics, why is it important?"
3:00 "You guys conduct a lot of interviews both in terms of the implantees, researchers and talk about your outreach. Do you want to talk a little bit about this? And should I be scared about my position as a podcast host?"
4:15 "What are some ethical issues that are faced with neuro ethics that's not faced in normal day-to-day ethics? Trolley problem, for example?"
8:00 "You guys have done lots of implants or neurotech users interviews. So what's the takeaways from some of these interviews?"
9:30 "How many people that are there that are affected by this kind of thing? Is it still a very rare thing?Can you count all these patients on one hand? Or are there millions and we just don't know about it?"
14:45 "Why Neuroethics? Why is it interesting to you? Why do you think it's important?"
19:45 "When you mentioned that you make a neurotechnology sound a lot like drugs and alcohol, that you basically have this like happiness lever. And so basically couldn't we just transfer everything we know about the ethics of drugs and alcohol into neurotechnology?"
21:00 "You guys are a part of a neuro ethics round table project. What is this about, what is the goal, what has been some of the outcomes?"
24:45 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you guys wanted to mention?"
Seth Hays's research focus at the University of Texas at Dallas is enhancing neuroplasticity, or the ability of the brain to change, in order to treat neurological disease. The majority of current studies evaluate the ability of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), a putative targeted plasticity therapy, to improve recovery in models of motor dysfunction
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "VNS itself is not a thing unto itself. It's really the combination of VNS with the rehabilitation that's producing the effects that we see"
- "We think this is most effective when there's really some deficit that you have trouble overcoming the cognitive reserve. If you're in deficit and you can't get over that hump, VNS might be a way to promote some of that.
- "It's a simple concept that you're pairing their modulator release with VNS, with rehab, you put rehab on steroids in way that really might benefit patients."
0:30 Do you want to introduce yourself?
2:15 "This targeted learning neuro-plasticity how does it work?"
3:45 "Is this something that people feel, do they feel some kind of like a tingling?"
5:15 What kind of effects do you see?"
8:00 "What exactly do you use? How do you interface with the nerves?"
13:00 So it's just bulk activation?
14:30 "You were talking about testing these devices and do you want to talk a little bit about this?"
19:00 "What's something that you believe that most people don't"
22:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Francois Ladouceur is a University of New South Wales professor teaching and researching integrated optics, silica and diamond-based photonics, optical sensing networks, and photonics-based brain/machine interfaces
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "it's a liquid crystal-based transducer that can transduce an electrical signal into an optical signal that we can carry the away from the place of measurement"
- With electrical-based electrodes making the devices smaller increases the impedance degrading the signal which doesn't happen in LCP based electrodes
- "We have built a chip, which is bidirectional, it can read the action potential and it can stimulate the neuron. Again, entirely passive. It requires no electrical input. It does not dissipate energy."
0:30 "How did you get on this podcast?"
3:00 Is another advantage the lack of heat generated?
5:30 "What are the bio compatible properties of liquid crystal?"
7:00 "What are some advantages of this over other techniques?"
10:15 "How does the multiplexer work?"
15:15 "What would be the minimum width?"
19:00 "You haven't really published too much about this, but you said a big paper is going to be coming out?"
21:30 "It's really just for sensing, you couldn't stimulate with these, right?"
25:00 "When did this technology originally come to your mind?"
27:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Sergey Young is a longevity investor and visionary with a mission to extend healthy lifespans of at least one billion people. To do that, Sergey founded Longevity Vision Fund to accelerate life extension technological breakthroughs and to make longevity affordable and accessible to all
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "I'm sponsoring the development of age reversal X price. This is a technological competition to basically reverse aging measured by a set of biomarkers."
- "Some of the companies that we have in our portfolio decrease the cost of a particular healthcare intervention or solution to a particular health problem by a factor of 10, 20, even 50."
- Longevity investing is very collaborative, even if investors lose money they still feel like they helped the world.
0:45 "Do you wanna describe yourself?"
2:00 "So why, especially longevity?"
5:00 "What are you looking for when a company comes to you?"
9:30 "How do you measure success in a fund?"
11:30 "What does it take to raise a new fund and to get more money in order for you to invest?"
16:00 "Is there anything that we didn't cover that you wanted to mention? Maybe you want to talk about your book a little bit?"
Although the Nicolelis Laboratory is best known for pioneering studies in neuronal population coding, Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMI) and neuroprosthetics in human patients and non-human primates, they have also developed an integrative approach to studying neurological and psychiatric disorders including Parkinsons disease and epilepsy.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Every Brazilian kid dreams to play for the Brazilian national team in a world cup game, I didn't quite fulfill the dream, but I got as close as a scientist can get. And we had about 65,000 people in the stadium that day in about 1.2 billion people watching the kickoff."
- "Every time one of my students complain about the programming job, I said, are you kidding me? You have one megabyte of Ram. We had 64 K. No complaining anymore."
- Instead of selling a device they will be opening neuro rehab centers in under developed areas of the world to give better treatment than what could be possible at the largest hospitals
2:15 "Do you want to introduce yourself a little bit beyond [doing the FIFA 2014 kickoff]?"
6:00 "So what's the advantage of monkey versus rat versus pig. All these different animal models versus human?"
8:45 Why did the monkey implants last longer?
10:30 "I want to go into this hardware that you've used, you made your own, it sounds like you made your own probes and then I'm imagining, computers from the late nineties too. So were you limited by that?"
15:45 "Is it easier now with more RAM, better computation? We have a million times more, but is it a million times easier or how does that translate?"
18:30 "Neuralink had this really interesting presentation with the monkey playing pong, but probably for you that wasn't nearly as innovative. Do you want to talk about this a little bit?"
23:15 "You were going to choose to become an Ameritas at Duke and that you're sitting, setting up an Institute in Brazil. Do you want to talk about both of these?"
28:45 "Obviously you have ties to Brazil, but is there any other advantages to having it in Brazil versus Europe or us or Australia?"
29:30 "What's the next place? Where should we be looking forward to these hubs?"
33:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Dr. Ludwig leads the Bioelectronic Medicines Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, with the goal of developing next-generation neuromodulation therapies that use minimally invasive strategies to highjack the nervous system to treat circuit dysfunction and deliver biomolecules to target areas with unprecedented precision.
Prior to Wisconsin, Dr. Ludwig served as the Program Director for Neural Engineering at the National Institutes of Health. He co-led the Translational Devices Program at NINDS, led the NIH BRAIN Initiative programs to catalyze implantable academic and clinical devices to stimulate and/or record from the central nervous system, and led a trans-NIH planning team in developing the ~250 million dollar S.P.A.R.C. Program to stimulate advances in neuromodulation therapies for organ systems.
Dr. Ludwig also worked in Industry as a research scientist, where his team conceived, developed, and demonstrated the chronic efficacy of a next-generation neural stimulation electrode for reducing blood pressure in both pre-clinical studies and clinical trials. Through his industry work, he oversaw Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and non-GLP studies enabling clinical trials in Europe and the United States, as well as participated in the protocol development and execution of those trials, leading to approval for sale in seven countries and a U.S. Pivotal trial.
Top 3 Takeaways
- "We actually don't definitively know what we're stimulating for effects in most of our largest markets for neuromodulation therapy.
- "Don't ever date electrical stimulation. It will cheat on you. It's very promiscuous. It also creates a lot of effects in non-neuronal cells. That may be important... electrical stimulation is very dirty. There's no way around it"
- "A lot of things we don't consider as one of the startup company fails. Now we've got a piece of hardware in my neck and I've got nobody who knows how to maintain it."
1:00 "Do you wanna introduce yourself?"
2:00 You've been in academia, industry, and government, what's that like?
5:00 "Before we started recording, you were talking about, drug-resistant drug coatings on neural devices. Why might not that be a good one?"
12:30 "Everybody uses rat models, but that might not be very accurate because humans and rats are different, right?"
15:00 "So what's the solution? Use more human testing?"
18:30 "What's the solution. How did people gain this perspective?"
22:45 "Is this something that we need to wait for AI to be able to solve?"
26:45 "But is that bad? So for me, I'm more engineering-minded, more practical. It's just if it works, it works, right?"
33:45 "The small percentage that makes it through the phase one and I wonder how many, good therapies were out there that just because of chance, fell through.?"
37:15 "So we have to redo statistics, is that what you're saying?"
37:45 " Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Dr Justin Sanchez is a Life Sciences Research Technical Fellow at Battelle but before that he was Director of Biological Technologies office at DARPA.
Top 3 Takeaways
- "You'll never be able to establish your academic career unless you go and move to another place. I'm like, guys, this doesn't make any sense to me. What's most important is to do great work in the field and establish a foundation of the field."
- "I still had my university job for a couple of years while I was serving at DARPA. And if my time at DARPA and everybody's term-limited at DARPA. When that term ended, I could have gone back to Miami."
- "I launched three gigantic programs in neurotechnology each one with 70 or $80 million behind them and found some of the best teams in the world to do that."
1:15 "Do you want to maybe start at the beginning and talk a little bit about your work here in Gainesville?"
10:00 "So on the show and when we're talking about to the other DARPA directors we talk about the moment you got tapped on the shoulder, is that when you were tapped on the shoulder to go serve?"
16:15 "I think of DARPA, as...seemingly throw unlimited resources at, projects to solve them. But it's very time-limited and it can stop at a moment's notice. So it's almost a little bit like cocaine research... So what was that like? And what was the day-to-day or how was that different than being a professor researcher?"
19:45 "So what was your day-to-day like?"
23:30 "Afterwards... you went to go work at Battelle. Do you want to talk about this?"
27:45 "Your official role [at Battelle] is Life Sciences Research, Technical Fellow. I don't know what that means. What do you do?"
32:00 "So what are some maybe specific projects that are exciting you nowadays? "
36:00 "You wrote a book about all this. I'm very curious about it. Do you want to talk about this a little bit?"
39:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Dr Victor Pikov is the founder and CEO of Medipace, a sacral nerve stimulation neuromodulation company and VP of Technology at TRI, Trans Stimulation Incorporated. He also worked at Galvani, a joint venture between Google and GSK as well as working in academia before.
Top 3 Takeaways
- "When you try to speak to potential investors who consider themselves experts in medical devices, they typically fall into three categories: One is no experience with neuromodulation and another bucket is experienced with wearable neuromodulation. And the third very small bucket is experience with implantable class three neuromodulation."
- "Chinese VCs, typically are much younger, often they're less than 30 years old. And they're joining typically in larger numbers, about four to six to the zoom meetings versus one to two in the US and they're also being rather silent during the presentations."
- " [A surgeon] showed a whole bunch of photographs of failed implantations and you could see all kinds of ways it possibly can fail. This is very educational. It's much better than showing a picture of a working implant."
0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself?"
1:15 "You were working at Galvani... do you want to explain it and what the, what this venture was aiming?"
8:00 "So you were there for three years and then you decided to go do your own thing, did you see a need in the market?"
12:15 "Let's talk about these NIH, SBR grants"
19:00 "You were pitching to VCs in China. And so now you have a comparison, the US versus China. So what's that like?"
21:00 "A lot of people are a little bit nervous about working with China or Chinese companies because of intellectual property. They're worried that their technology will be stolen or copied. Is that something that people should be worried about? Is that how did you approach it?"
25:15 You guys decided to use an off-the-shelf IPG instead of developing your own one, why?
30:45 Can you talk about the small neurotech meetings you organized?
34:15 "So you're saying as an academician, you had lots of time, but now you don't."
35:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Here is the link to 5 conferences that Dr Pikov helped to organize:
https://neuroprostheticdevicesconferences.wordpress.com/
Dr Daniel Palanker is Professor of Opthamology at Stanford University. He has had many successful technologies spun off into companies or patents including those involving retinal prosthetics, optical imaging and spectroscopy, laser-tissue interactions, and retinal plasticity.
Top 3 Takeaways
- "The [size] limitation for a retinal prosthesis is not in a fabrication side. The limitation is an interface with neurons"
- Allergan acquired Oculeve but then didn't do much with it seemingly because they already had a more profitable drug on the market
- "Stanford is industry-friendly, encouraging commercialization, basically making things practical and useful and in Berkeley it's a communist mentality"
1:15 "You've worked on a railroad. Do you want to talk about this a little bit?"
2:00 "I introduced you a little bit, but do you want to describe yourself and your role?"
3:00 "The retinal prosthesis is a very fascinating technology. What's the advantage of this versus something else?"
7:15 "Tell me about the progress of this technology. Where did it start and how far has it progressed in the many years since you've been working on it"
14:00 "It seems there's a curse, on these vision prosthetics companies and the SecondSight and actually Pixium also has stuttered a little bit in the last year or so. Do you want to comment?"
19:30 "You mentioned this sub 40 micron photo detector, do you see a potential for, getting down to the five and the three micron size of that you had mentioned?"
22:45 "Did you want to talk about TrueTear and Oculeve a little bit?"
24:00 "If you suspect [a company buying your tech and shelving it] were to happen the then would you would you go through with that sale or would you continue to develop it yourself?"
25:15 "I was reading you have 70 patents and seven platform technologies... Is this a Stanford thing? Do you have access to great talent or are the projects you're working on especially good at spinning off these companies?"
27:15 "Is there anything else that you're excited about? Any other crazy physics rules that you're gonna be breaking?"
33:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Dr. Donna Hamlin is a corporate executive with thirty years of corporate, governance and strategy consulting experience. She oversees BoardWise’s global programs, including its centers and their services. These include: board evaluations, professional certification and training, its global registry of qualified directors, Board Bona Fide®, its strategic partnership programs and its Boardwise center.
Top 3 Takeaways
- "It's really important to know that if we want to be good at our work, then we've got to explore things outside of our normal swim lanes. And when we do that, it gives us a different view or another way"
- "There's a great exercise called appreciating your vices. If you can identify vices, and then you can go teach some group of people, how to do that vice really well. Then you start laughing at it because you realize how silly it is."
- "360 is when an executive coach hand picks five to six people that work with that person routinely and you do an in-depth interview about the experience of working with this person. And then you summarize all of that into some themes and sit down with the person to say what we can do to make you a stronger leader as a result of that. And typically in that process, you're getting raw feedback about what that experience is through a third party."
0:30 "How would you describe yourself?"
6:00 "Why creativity? Why leadership? How are those two things connected?"
10:00 "How should one think about approaching being a good leader or being the ideal leader? "
11:30 "Are you limited to a specific type of job based on your predisposition?"
14:15 "You mentioned five different types of, I guess leadership styles. Do you want to go through these and explain what each of them are a little bit?"
21:00 "What are some big mistakes or what's the biggest issue that you see with leaders?"
24:30 "Is there any other exercises that we can do in order to strengthen those muscles of listening more?"
30:00 "Do you have any other more stories how this 360 or this kind of social gaps were changed or improved by having some sort of an outside perspective?"
32:15 "Do you want to talk about your company? What do you do?"
34:30 "Do you have any stories of the most radical transformation?"
37:45 " Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
David McMullen is the program officer at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in the National Institutes of Health (NIH). They are launching the NIH Blueprint Medtech (links below) which aims to help incubate growing neurotech companies go from Bench to Bedside.
Top 3 Takeaways
- "We're funding individual projects and trying to help groups in the past have struggled... to get funding and to get all the way to in human trials.
- The Blueprint Medtech resource is meant to derisk later investment and grants for companies
- "We saw some great programs... having difficulty when they come in - Can we decrease the activation energy to getting to first-in-human? Can we compress the timeline a little bit Can we spend that money a little bit more wisely and improve some of these outcomes?"
0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself?"
5:45 "Do you want to describe your job? What do you do and what is the program director do?"
7:45 "Do you want to talk about the Blueprint Initiative?"
9:45 "This sounds almost like a government-led VC, am I off in this?"
11:00 "Do you want to describe the project a little bit?"
13:30 What are some guidelines of the project to fund neurotech companies?
16:30 "Generally, what stage should the company be at?"
18:15 "How do the hubs work? When I think of a hub, I think of a physical, like one location but does it have to be like that?"
23:45 "Do you want to talk a little bit about the motivation for this?"
26:30 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
NIH BLUEPRINT MEDTECH LINKS
https://neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov/neurotherapeutics/blueprint-medtech/blueprint-medtech
-Home website for the Blueprint MedTech program. Overall figure explaining the program on the front page. The site links to the webinars and funding opportunities.
Blueprint-MedTech@NIH.gov
Please reach out if you have any questions!
INDIVIDUAL PROJECT FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:
October 20, 2021 First receipt date. Multiple receipt dates.
https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-21-315.html
Blueprint MedTech Translator (UG3/UH3 - Clinical Trial Optional)
https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-21-282.html
Funding Opportunity TitleBlueprint Medtech: Small Business Translator (U44 - Clinical Trial Optional)
INCUBATOR HUBS:
Only 1 receipt date! October 20, 2021
https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-21-314.html
Blueprint MedTech: Incubator Hubs (U54 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
WEBINARS:
Incubator Hub Funding Opportunity (PAR-21-314)
Monday, August 30, 2021, 3:00 PM EDT
https://nih.zoomgov.com/meeting/register/vJItduqhqTgvHK78uuoSkwWMy8Fxerkorrk
Translator Funding Opportunities (PAR-21-315; PAR-21-282)
Tuesday, August 31, 2021 4:00 PM EDT
https://nih.zoomgov.com/meeting/register/vJItdeGgqjoiHfRfjhhV11eGmkgbXiiRwPM
Blueprint-MedTech@NIH.gov
Jon is the founder of Greenlight Guru (quality management software exclusively for medical device companies) & a medical device guru with nearly 20 years industry experience. Jon knows the best medical device companies in the world use quality as an accelerator. That's why he created Greenlight Guru to help companies move beyond compliance to True Quality.
Top 3 Takeaways
- If it isn't documented, it didn't happen.
- One particular audit didn't take four days. It took two days because the Greenlight system made it so much simpler.
- Greenlight Guru also has an academy to teach people about the medical device regulatory process.
0:45 "What is quality management and why is it important? And it doesn't have to be boring?"
4:15 "Why couldn't people just make their own system?"
7:00 "Is the process any different for neurotech or neural implants or is this pretty applicable to all medical devices?"
8:00 "Is this something that is applicable to... people in government or academia or anybody else?"
11:00 "What are exactly the tangible benefits of using GreenLight Guru?"
16:00 "You guys got a nice investment recently, $120 million. I'm surprised. Why so much? And what's it gonna be used for?"
20:00 "I want to hear a little bit more about the academy."
Professor Aldo Faisal is the Professor of AI & Neuroscience at the Dept. of Computing and the Dept. of Bioengineering at Imperial College London. His work is in Machine Learning and eye tracking to improve neurotechnologies.
Top 3 Takeaways
- "What we do is we get people to move into our living lab/studio flat and they live their daily lives, and we record everything that they do, how they do, where they look, we record the eye movements, the body movements, and everything."
- "The more subjects you add to your dataset from different datasets, the worse the performance of the system becomes."
- A combination of fNIRS and EEG works significantly better together than they do apart
0:45 "Do you wanna introduce yourself?"
16:00 "Why is the eye movement retained even in degenerative disorders? Why that versus something more basal and integral to life like breathing or heartbeat or something"
18:45 "It seems like neurotech is, and should be very deeply ingrained with AI and machine learning. How important is it?"
22:00 Are there plug-and-play AI programs for neurotech?
25:30 " So why wouldn't you like always go to those larger data sets from other labs?"
26:45 "Machine learning/AI takes a very long time and it's very computationally intensive. Is this something that people can do at home?"
28:30 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
30:15 "So how much better is the combination of EEG and fNIRS versus just one?"
https://beetl.ai/introduction
Interesting videos about Dr Faisal's work:
https://youtu.be/xvZbDQ7JmbE
https://youtu.be/YHxm0q4rzc0
https://youtu.be/rnNBZW8yRRM
https://youtu.be/JsX21xFLwbU
https://youtu.be/hjNFyp2S9Pk
Dr Florian Solzbacher is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Blackrock Neurotech which has the Utah Electrode Array, the only FDA-approved neural implantable device. Blackrock Neurotech recently closed a $10 million financing round, led by Christian Angermayer's re.Mind Capital with participation from Peter Thiel, German entrepreneur Tim Sievers, and Sorenson Impact's University Venture Fund II.
Top 3 Takeaways
- "In the end, you have to have the drive. It has to be a passion. And then you will find a way because very often in life, you will find that, just when you need it, all that you really need is one door opening at the right time”
- "The worst thing that can happen to this field is this sort of Hollywood-type hype and associated fear… 'people put chips into our brain and then they can read my thoughts”
- "You need to understand that you stand and fall with a team"
2:00 "You got a round of $10 million. So do you want to talk about this?"
10:45 "So are you saying then that they're not as interested in the prosthetic side of things but they really want to improve the bandwidth between consciousness and machines?"
16:00 "What do you plan to do with the money? Because $10 million is a lot of money, but at the same time, it's not a lot of money. That's like what you were saying, that's two studies, right?"
17:30 "I'm curious to hear your history of the company and how it's progressed over the last few decades."
25:30 "What advice do you have for listeners who want to do not only science, not only neuroscience, but engineering, science, business, and development?"
33:45 " Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Thomas Oxley is a neurosurgeon who is also the founder of Synchron which makes the Stentrode. Instead of requiring invasive brain surgery for implantable neural devices, they are able to use stents such as those used in cardiology to collect neural signals
Top 3 Takeaways:
- Stentrode implantation it's one of the simplest stent procedures.
- Got a $40 million Series B funding round from Khosla Ventures thanks to the success of in-human studies as well as the potential to piggyback off of existing hospital technologies
- "We see an avenue for a range of products that do not require open brain surgery that reaches all regions of the brain, that can take information out, that can take information in that are fully implanted, that is easy to put in, and that should open up a new industry to solve problems that haven't otherwise been able to be solved."
2:00 "Do you want to describe the technology?"
5:15 "What is the level of skill required for an implant of a stent?"
6:45 "How did you come up with this technology?"
9:00 "You cold-called DARPA to get funding?"
12:15 "Our device is meant to be encapsulated and so it is a benefit for us, so how did that work?"
15:00 "And then you guys got a breakthrough status in August. Do you want to describe what this is and what that meant for you guys and how you got it?"
16:00 "I'm assuming this potentially helped with the round of funding for Silicon Valley the Khosla Ventures round that you got, do you want to talk a little bit about this?"
20:00 "I have some questions about these first patients. It was done in Australia. Is there a difference or how does that work?"
22:00 "What are the plans for the future?"
25:45 "Do you have any ideas of how to be able to [have payers cover costs]?"
27:30 "We met each other at the bioelectronic medicine forum. Is this something that you've thought about?"
28:45 "I read that you guys have 60 patents. Is that true? And why so many?"
Eddie Chang's paper?
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2021.714256/full
Giovanni Lauricella is a Vice President of the Mullings Group which is a Medical Device Technology recruitment firm. He helps startups in the neurotech space find talented people from the most experienced down to the entry-level positions.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Always pull on your network, always pull on that trust factor because people go to work for people. That's what they do, especially in startups and especially really early-stage startups"
- "If you want to be headhunted, make yourself available to be found, build your LinkedIn profile. Let us find you, there's tools and platforms that exist"
- "Just realize that there is a stigma. If you're 10 15, 20 years in corporate and you've never left and you want to go join a startup. I'm not saying it's impossible, but you start putting yourself into a box and breaking those shackles of corporate life. Going into a bootstrap, incredibly lean startup mentality, hair on fire, no resources to figure it out yourself can be hard"
1:00 "Do you want to explain what you do?"
4:15 "How are you able to get that talent and be able to consistently get talent?"
9:15 "What advice can you give in order to be headhunted by you? What is like the ideal candidate and what can candidates do to be more attractive?"
15:00 "So what's what can people do, learn or engage in order to build up that repertoire and be more desirable to you or do you just already have to be a CEO to be recruited for a CEO, be in regulatory to be recruited for regulatory? How do you break into that?"
25:00 "Is that kind of the better way to do it is learn skills in a big place and then go to a small place?"
29:30 " What, what should entrepreneurs, or what should companies be looking for?"
34:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention? Do you want to talk about your podcast as well?"
https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Sand-Hill-Road-Venture/dp/059308358X
Kunal Ghosh is the founder and CEO of Inscopix which uses imaging tools to understand the brain in both health and disease.
Top Three Takeaways:
- Miniscopes were invented out of a need for tools that have the ability to monitor and record large-scale neural circuit activity
- Imaging tools have the advantage of scale, single-cell resolution, longitudinal recording capabilities, and labelling for specific cell types
- Inscopix technology has enabled over 150 scientific papers
0:45 "Do you wanna introduce yourself a little bit?"
5:00 "Why you did choose an imaging technique instead of, something else?"
12:00 "How did you since you started with the research and then leave academia, go into industry, and create this company. How did you do that?"
17:15 "Are you guys partnering with these big pharmaceutical companies or more on the FDA side?"
22:30 "What is the role of this circuit dysregulation almost like fingerprints of the, of these deviations from the norm. Is this something that you can visualize even predict before it happens?"
27:15 "How does it work with sifting through enormous amounts of data?"
32:45 "What are you excited about now?"
Head-mounted Calcium Imaging on a Rhesus Macaque paper link
Ulrich Hofmann is a Professor at the University of Freiburg in Germany working on some of the cutting edge and newest things in the field of neurotechnology.
Top Three Takeaways
- The 8 micron limit for not causing a foreign body response might actually be closer to 1 micron
- Magnetoelectric nanoparticles might be the solution towards getting to the dream of having a 0 dimensional neural probe
- Neural Implants seem to activate those genes found in brain tumors
3:00 "You're working in Freiburg, which is bottom southwest corner of Germany, but I actually just found out that you don't live there. Where do you live?"
4:00 "Do you want to describe your work a little bit and how you've gotten into neural implants?"
6:30 "So do you want to talk a little bit about how, what you've been, what you've been up to the last few years, if you want to, the direction you're going?"
11:45 " What I was taught is below eight microns it's invisible to the body, but before the show started, you were saying, it actually might be one micron. Do you want to explain this a little bit?"
15:00 "So I want to go back to the transcriptomics, what have you been finding out?
19:45 "So deep brain stimulators, DBS has been around for decades. Wouldn't, we have seen it in something like that?"
21:00 "It seems like you've had a lot of transitions in your career and even now you seem to have these four or five-year sections and then you completely switch. Is that accurate?"
24:00 "So what did you tell the selection committee when you were becoming a professor, what was the purpose or what was the disease that you were trying to cure with that?"
31:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Blythe Karow is a medical device veteran who is now the cofounder and CEO of Evren Technologies, a medical device company making a wearable Vagus Nerve Stimulator to help with the problems brought about by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Top 3 Takeaways
- Not only veterans but first responders often get PTSD and 1/9 women will have it at some point in their lives
- Stimulating the auricular (ear) branch of the Vagus nerve has fewer side effects but with a calming effect on the body
- Diagnosing and curing PTSD is very difficult and subjective
1:15 "Do you want to introduce yourself and the technology?"
2:30 "You spun out of the University of Florida and then you were able to license it, what did that look like? "
3:30 "So you have some background in medical devices, you saw the potential in this and then you were looking to do something new?
5:00 "What were you looking for and what were the acceptance criteria?"
6:00 "So how does this work? What are some of the effects of vagus nerve stimulation?"
9:00 "So it is this calming effect, you're able to flip that stress response back to normal with the PTSD patients. Is that a one-time thing? Is that a one-time flip or does it have to be re flipped?"
11:00 "PTSD is very hard to quantify, right? How is that currently done?"
13:00 "So what are the current treatments for it?"
15:30 "So what's your device and how does it work? And how do you know that you're stimulating the Vagus nerve? "
19:30 "You guys are still in the prototyping phase and then you have to get FDA approval for this, what are the next steps for the company?"
21:15 "What are some I guess are your biggest challenges?"
23:30 "Would they have to get it as a prescription through a doctor? Would they be able to buy it on Amazon?"
24:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Nicolas Vachicouras is the cofounder of Neurosoft Bioelectronics which is focusing on utilizing a novel soft electrode material in neural implants. The company comes out of Switzerland and has partnerships with the Stephanie Lacour lab and the Wyss Center
1:45 "Do you want to talk a little bit about yourself and your work and Neurosoft?"
4:30 "What's the benefit of soft versus hard implant?"
7:00 "Is the foreign body response, something that happens in ECOG as well, does the body react poorly to that?"
9:45 "So your guys device also doesn't have MRI artifacts. What is that? How is that and why is it important?"
11:45 How was it spinning off a company in Switzerland?
14:15 "You've seen the Swiss side and the American or, Boston side, how would you compare and contrast those?"
17:15 "You guys have been very successful with competitions and these kinds of grants in everything like that. Do you want to talk a little bit about this as well?"
20:15 "What are some kind of next steps or plans for the future?"
22:00 "You're utilizing such a soft device. Do you want to talk about this a little bit?"
24:00 "You guys also have the spinal cord stimulators, do you want to describe this?"
28:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Anish Kaushal is an analyst at Amplitude VC which is looking at investing in neurotech companies. In this episode we talk about what they look for when investing into a company
1:30 "Do you want to introduce yourself a little bit? "
10:30 "How is venture capital different in med tech versus Silicon Valley?"
14:15 "So you guys do, would you say that you guys put more research upfront into investments vs Silicon Valley-style investors?"
16:30 "Due Diligence for, six months or a year, what are you doing during that time? What takes so long?"
21:30 "If somebody wants to be like the best candidate, what would be the best candidate for you?"
26:30 "You guys haven't invested anything yet, but what's on your radar?"
31:00 "And then how about for neurotechnology neuromodulation, neural implants?"
34:30 "What are some misconceptions or what are some things that people don't know about VCs and, med tech, VCs that they probably should know about, or maybe that they think is, but it's wrong?"
38:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"
Dr Silvestro Micera is a professor at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland focusing on developing neural interface implantations in patients.
In particular, the following research fields are currently investigated:
- robotic systems for neurorehabilitation
- experiments for the investigation of neural control of movement
- development of neural interfaces with the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS).
- development of hybrid neuro-prosthetic systems
1:15 “Do you want to explain your work?”
2:25 “You guys are very much into the compliant implants…do you wanna explain that a little bit?”
3:15 “You've worked in the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. Is there one that needs to be more compliant is the one that it needs to be softer?”
6:00 “One of your interests is a hybrid neuroprosthetic systems. Can you explain this? What is this?”
9:15 “one of the papers that you recently published actually was talking about enhancing the body with extra hands or fingers. Do you want to talk about this? And if this overloads the brain, that, do you want to talk about this?”
15:45 “do you have a favorite paper that you want to explain?”
21:45 “So that was your favorite paper. What about your, is that different than your most popular paper?”
23:00 “why did you get into this field?”
26:00 “What are your biggest challenges right now in your research?”
28:45 “And then you're doing this translational work. You're more that the process or the procedure and having that go into the clinic, how does that work?”
33:15 “I know the process a little bit in the U S is it different in Switzerland? This translational work?”
36:45 “Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?”
Dr Warren Grill is a professor of biomedical engineering at duke university. He is the chief scientific officer of NDI medical LLC, Managing director of NDI Healthcare fund. He is the cofounder and chief scientific officer of Deep Brain innovations and Chief scientific advisor of SPR Theraputics.
His research interests are in neural engineering and neural prostheses including design and testing of electrodes and stimulation techniques, the electrical properties of tissues and cells, and computational neuroscience with applications in the restoration of bladder function, treatment of movement disorders with deep brain stimulation, and multi-joint limb movement. He has authored 250 peer-reviewed publications, and is an inventor on 54 issued patents.
2:15 "Do you want to talk a little bit about your work and how you've managed to publish 250 papers?"
4:45 "What do you think that's you're doing that there's a missing and what's the secret sauce?"
10:15 "How many people are in your lab?"
12:00 "What is the thing that you believe that's maybe a little bit controversial in the field?"
15:15 "What are takeaways that you've had in your career about stimulation restoration and prosthetic control?"
24:00 Hear a bad joke that lands flat
24:30 "What is motivating you in this field? Why, especially neurotech?"
28:15 "How do you make sure applicable therapeutics and standards of practices transfer into the real world?"
32:15 "How do you balance those two things? Actually getting stuff done, actually getting things out to mass market without for lack of a better word, mental masturbation?"
35:45 "What is the biggest challenge in your work?"
Eric Chang is a Neuroscientist and Assistant Professor at the Institutes of Bioelectronic Medicine and Molecular medicine at the Feinstein Institutes of medical research at Northwell Health. His areas of interests are Neuro-immunology, electrophysiology, microscopy and bioengineering. In today’s episode, Eric talks to us about his work with the vagus nerve and approaches being used in his lab to understand signalling between the nervous system and immune system.
Top three takeaways:
- We haven't got technology that can image individuals neurons connected to the vagus nerve but in the near future, the tools might evolve to do this.
- Recording neural signals in different patients lets you see different types of variations across patients and informs how you design treatments based on that person’s neurobiology.
- “There are the traditional senses that are related to exteroception, like sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. There's a plethora of as I mentioned, interoceptive signals as well that have to do with organ function.”
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Eric Chang
[1:50] Eric Chang introduces himself and his work. His lab is interested in finding the connection between the nervous system and immune system
[3:45] How is imaging different from electrophysiology and what are the advantages and disadvantages of both?
[6:10] “So I would say patch-clamp electrophysiology, which is patching a single cell with a glass pipette, is still the gold standard, but the tools are rapidly coming to the fore that are starting to replace that a little bit.”
[11:20] Eric talks about some of the challenges with imaging individual neurons connected to the vagus nerve, especially where there is a lot of movement.
[12:50] While the technology is quite small now, it’s not so small that it could quite fit into a necklace. Eric believes that somewhere in the next 5 - 10 years, something of the sort will be available.
[13:40] “Dr Tracey's work from two decades ago showed the discovery of something called the inflammatory reflex which is that If you electrically stimulate the vagus nerve under conditions of inflammation, let's say acute endotoxemia, then you can reduce levels of circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines”
[20:00] Eric discusses some of the tools used to tease apart different signals.
[23:05] Eric talks about some future breakthroughs he expects.
[27:00] “Yeah. So the nerve innervation exists for protection; it's for survival. We need to know when we're getting close to a fire”
[28:00] Eric talks about the importance of understanding pain.
[31:00] “There are the traditional senses that are related to exteroception, like sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. There's a plethora of as I mentioned, interoceptive signals as well that have to do with organ function.”
Marom Bikson is a Biomedical Engineer. He is a Professor at the City College of New York City and also the co-director of the Neural Engineering Group. Marom has been at the City College of New York for over 15 years. He has a B.Sc in Biomedical Engineering from John Hopkins University and a PhD from Case Western University Cleveland. He cofounded Soterix Medical. Marom's research group studies the effects of electricity on the human body and applies this knowledge toward the development of medical devices and electrical safety guidelines.
In today’s episode, Marom talks about his work with Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and how it works. He also talks about his work with NC Neuromodulation and Soterix Medical
Top three takeaways:
- Transcranial means, through the cranium. And the thing that you're stimulating is targets inside the cortex. So you're trying to identify targets centrally that you think that you can activate. To lead to different therapeutic outcomes.
- TDCS works by the application of direct electrical current to electrodes placed on the scalp.
- “A lot of times when we think about TDCS, we think about changing the sensitivity. And then the question comes in with a sensitivity to what. Often TDCS is combined with other forms of therapy, like behavioural therapy, or physical therapy
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Prof Marom Bikson
[1:50] Marom introduces himself and his work
[2:30] Marom discusses the wave of persistent COVID symptoms that are referred to as neuro COVID and talks about some of the work he and his colleagues are doing around it.
[4:50] Marom describes how Transcranial Direct Current Simulation work.
“ transcranial means, through the cranium. And the thing that you're stimulating is targets inside the cortex. So you're trying to identify targets centrally that you think that you can activate. To lead to different therapeutic outcomes.”
[6:00] Marom discusses papers documenting the use of TDCS in different therapeutic areas such as depression and pain.
[7:45] Currently, there is no FDA clearance for TDCS in the US so most of the work now happens in clinical trials.
[10:10] TDCS works by the application of direct electrical current to electrodes placed on the scalp.
[13:40] “A lot of times when we think about TDCS, we think about changing the sensitivity. And then the question comes in with a sensitivity to what. Often TDCS is combined with other forms of therapy, like behavioural therapy, or physical therapy.”
[16:20] Marom talks specifically about his research and some of his breakthroughs.
[20:50] Marom talks about his company, Soterix medical; the background for starting the company and what kind of problems they are solving
[27:40] Marom discusses NYC Neuromodulation which he co-founded.
“NYC neuromodulation has now run. I think about five times the last time was an online version. The two times before that we worked with other organizations, the North American neuromodulation society was partnered for one and neuromodulation of science was partnered for another.”
[33:50] So what are some Big pieces of advice that you would say to other neural engineers?
“ If you're loving what you're doing, then that probably means you're on the right path.”
Dustin Tyler is a Kent H Smith professor at the Case Western Reserve University and the Director of the Human Fusions Institute. He has a secondary appointment as the principal investigator at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veteran Affairs Medical centre. His expertise and interests include directly connecting humans and technology over the neural system to improve human performance and capability. His areas of work include clinical trials of Class III medical devices with emphasis on neural interfaces; acute and chronic pre-clinical studies in small and large mammalian models, and computational neuroscience. In today’s episode, Dustin talks about his work with brain-computer interfaces and some of the exciting breakthroughs he has seen in the past 10 years.
Top three takeaways:
- "Most people think brain-computer interfaces are whole brain implants, but in reality, they are more correctly cortical interfaces, which is only a small part of the brain. Peripheral interfaces are also brain-computer interfaces and generally engage all of the brain."
- "In an experiment, Dustin and his team found that simply by adding sensation, and hence engaging human-in-the-loop control, participants had more success performing delicate grasping and manipulation exercises."
- "So we have augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), and the next advance forward is NeuroReality. And, what I mean by that is that we're actually connecting directly technology to the human nervous system."
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Dustin Tyler
[2:00] Dustin starts the conversation by explaining what the term ‘Brain-computer interface’ really means and introduces us to his work focus on the peripheral nervous system
[4:00] Dustin discusses some of the differences between the sensory and motor neurons; breaks down the mechanics behind what’s happening in the nervous system to stimulate sensation; and some of the breakthroughs of switching from non-human primates to clinical work.
[11:50] Dustin shares some of the other success that his research team have had with amputees and other patients
[14:40] “It's unlikely is that the nerve itself just stops responding to electrical stimulation. Based on a long history of activity, that's unlikely, but we couldn't rule that out.”
[17:00] Dustin describes an experiment where participants with prosthesis were asked to remove the stems from cherry and the remarkable difference observed when patients were given the sensation of feeling even over vision.
“ What it says is how intricately your sensations are in this feedback in the control system. That vision is actually a really poor control.”
[19:00] “Even with a poor control system, patients can gain a whole lot more by adding sense into that loop”
[28:30] We don’t really have any best practices. We have found that frequency tends to be what we prefer in terms of modulating pressure.
[33:30] “So. I think the field in general right now is looking at and rightfully so again, the information content of what we can put into the peripheral nerve and how we do that.”
[36:20] “What we're kind of looking at now is, next level, which is adding touch. So it's a third dimension that we can now add. And if you think if you've ever been in VR, when you reach out to touch something, you can't touch it, it kind of. Destroys the illusion. A lot of ways we can change that now where you can actually feel when you're doing through that, um, through that system.”
[37:00] Dustin discusses some of the ideas and possibilities that come with thinking of this new area termed Neural Reality.
[47:30] Unlike with cyberpunk, with the interface, we aren’t changing you. The interface is there but when it’s turned off, it doesn’t exist
[49:40] Dustin talks about some of the work coming in the future and some of the projects he is currently excited about.
Professor Paul is an assistant professor of Bioengineering, Neurosurgery and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He received a B.S. degree in cybernetics from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2006. He received an M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in bioengineering and M.D degree from Stanford University in 2011, 2012, and 2014, respectively. His postdoctoral work was with Jaimie Henderson and Krishna Shenoy in the Neural Prosthetics Translational Laboratory. In today’s episode, we feature Professor Paul's video where the discusses the recently released video by Neuralink of a monkey test subject playing pong wirelessly and its significance for the fields of neuro-engineering and systems neuroscience.
Top three takeaways:
- At 1024 channels, the Neuralink team have surpassed the previous breakthroughs in the number of transmitting channels
- They (Neuralink) are sampling from the brain at a higher density than what is possible with more conventional chronically implanted electrodes like the Utah electrode array.
- “For an expert in the field, this video represents a pretty big step for us”
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Paul
[1:10] Paul introduces himself, his work and gives full disclosure about his relationship with the Neuralink team. He isn’t affiliated with the team in any way.
[3:40] (Audio from Neuralink video) Test subject is introduced and Paul describes the setting of the experiment
[6:15] Paul breakdown the enclosure and describes the setting of the experiment
[7:30] (Audio from Neuralink video) “The links record from more than 2000 electrodes”. Paul explains the implication of having 2000 electrode implants.
[10:15] Paul explains why it’s impressive to have 1024 channels presumably in Pager (the test subject). “The larger the sphere, the stronger the depth of modulation”
[12:40] (Audio from Neuralink video) “As he is playing this game, we are wirelessly streaming in real-time, the firing rates of thousands of neurons to a computer” Paul talks about the information on the panel and what it tells us about the experiment system.
[20:30] Paul talks about brain activity and speculates what decoding algorithm is running.
[22:30] Paul pauses the experiment video to bring attention to a click that happened too fast. “This couldn’t be running a dwell”
[26:00] (Video ends) Paul reflects over the potential impact of the video and the work Neuralink is doing. “For an expert in the field, this video represents a pretty big step for us”
Watch the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzNOuJIzk2E&ab_channel=BrainInterfacingLaboratory
Andrew Cornwell is the Director of industrial and strategic collaborations for the Cleveland FES centre. He is also Director of the VA Translational Education Mentoring Centre and Associate Director at Care Coulter Translational partnership. In today’s episode, Andrew talks about the importance of translational research, the process and some of the achievements of the Cleveland FES centre.
Top three takeaways:
- Translational work is concerned with solving the inefficient of getting Academic work into the clinic.
- Cleveland FES Centre has a new program called the Neuro Design program, set up to grow the base of entrepreneurial talent in Cleveland with a focus on neurotechnology.
- Application for the second cohort of the Neuro Design program at Cleveland FES centres is currently open and you can apply to the program at www.clevelandneurodesign.org.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Andrew Cornwell
[1:45] ‘I try to spend my time solving the inefficiencies of getting Academic work into the clinic’
[2:30] Why is translational research in medicine important? Why is it necessary for translational work to exist?
[5:00] Andrew Cornwall describes the process of the work he does from when someone approaches him with an idea, to the point where that idea is made into a consumer product.
[9:10] Why aren’t there more places like Cleveland FES centre?
[12:20] Andrew talks about the importance of collaboration and cites an interesting example he read on how research productivity increased when a history department was put in the same building as a neuroscience department
[14:40] Andrew discusses some of the companies that have come out of the Cleveland FES centre and the projects that have come out from the centre.
[16:00] The centre has recently started a new program called Neuro Design designed to grow the base of entrepreneurial talent in Cleveland with a focus on neurotechnology.
[17:00] Andrew discusses the Biodesign program and the different phases: clinical immersion, prototyping phases and designing a business plan
[20:35] We are currently recruiting for our cohort next year and you can apply to the program at clevelandneurodesign.org. Strong preferences for applicants include clinical experience, strong engineering background, research background, builder, industry experience etc.
[24:50] If you had unlimited funding, what would you do with it?
[28:00] “We need to do a better job of this, pouring money into what we call translational research… And I think it's a great credit to them that they've recognized that this is an area where there's some room for improvement and, The VA is deeply passionate about their mission of taking care of veterans.”
Nick Halper is a cofounder of Braingrade, where he and his team are developing a brain-computer interface to reverse the cognitive deficits associated with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Before founding Braingrade, he worked at Blackrock Microsystems as a project manager on the product, support, engineering and software teams. In today’s episode, Nick talks about his transition from academia to industry and then from leaving a stable job to joining an early-stage startup in the middle of a pandemic. He also talks about the work he is doing with his new company, Braingrade.
Top three takeaways:
- Braingrade is working on implantable devices geared towards the memory circuit.
- Working remotely has created a system to employ lots of talented people without the usual barrier of location.
- There are currently openings and Braingrade for talented young people looking to contribute to their work.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Nick Halper
[2:20] Nick Halper introduces Braingrade to the public. He talks about his background and how he got started with Braingrade.
[5:30] Braingrade is working on an implantable device geared at the memory circuit and hippocampus. A disease they are working to have a real impact in treating is Alzheimer’s disease.
[7:30] Some aspects of the company (Braingrade) are defined by COVID, for instance, Peter and Nick work in completely different parts of the world. This structure has helped produce an incredible team of people by removing the barrier of entry.
[10:00] Nick talks about working with a team completely remotely and setting up a work culture that keeps everyone feeling included.
[11:20] Braingrade is hiring for Head electrical engineering and a few other roles.
[13:00] Challenges: A neurodegenerative disorder is an interesting one to tackle and that will differently come with its challenges.
[15:30] Speaking on how medical regulations should actually be seen as guidance rather than challenges, Nick discusses how he sees the opportunity to have constructive discussions and interaction with institutions like the FDA on moving your project forward.
[16:55] Nick talks about his career jump from academia to industry to joining a med device startup
[18:30] If you had unlimited funding, what would you do?
[22:50] Reminder: Braingrade is currently hiring for positions to join their team doing cutting edge work in Alzheimer’s research and memory enhancement,
Yael Haneun is a professor of Electrical Engineering at Tel Aviv University. Her research field is neuro-engineering, focusing on developing wearable electronic and bionic vision. She is also the VP of Nano Retina and has previously worked as a research associate at the University of Washington. In today’s episode, Yael talks about her work in neuro-engineering and some breakthroughs with electrophysiological tools.
Top three takeaways:
- With soft dry electrodes, you have a system that is truly wireless.
- Wet electrodes are better for short durations and dry electrodes are better for long durations.
- At the moment, Yael’s company is focusing on 3 directions, sleeping monitoring, sports application and developing a kit for other researchers to apply the technology.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Yael Hanein
[1:55] Yael introduces her work in neuro-engineering; giving a timelapse from her work in electrophysiology to her recent work using electrophysiological tools for skin applications.
[2:45] EEGs are basically electrodes on the skin, Yael explains the mechanics of using EEGs.
[6:00] ‘Wet electrodes are for short durations and dry electrodes are for long durations.’ Yale breaks down the explains the functional lifetime of the two different electrode setup and when to use either.
[6:45] The information we get from these electrodes is electrophysiological. The first thing we use the electrodes to get was facial mapping and facial expressions.
[12:25] Yael discusses what academic life is like in Israel. She talks about some of the similarities and differences with American academic life.
[15:20] Yael talks about starting a company, the motivation behind it and the difficulties of going commercial.
[21:15] What are some of the challenges with the research and making it more mainstream?
[26:45] Thomas discusses his role at Cortec-neuro
Thomas Stieglitz is a professor at the University of Freiburg where he does research on the development of biocompatible construction and interconnection technology as well as the use of microsystems for neuroprosthesis and neuromodulation. Thomas Stieglitz is also on the scientific-technical advisory board of Cortec- Neuro. In today’s episode, Thomas talks about is work in neuromodulation, shares insights on the best materials for implant development and finally, share some of the challenges faced with neuroprosthesis.
Top three takeaways:
- Polymers have a lot of advantages as materials for implants. They are more flexible than Silicon although they are not as flexible as
- Making the ideal implant takes targeting very well. And tailoring functionality to needs. General-purpose implants will not work
- 3d printing has injected a new wave of possibility in the world of prosthetics
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Thomas Stieglitz
[3:30] Thomas Stieglitz talks about the different disciplines of Neural interfaces / neural electrodes and the motivation for his work.
[8:00] Polymers have a list of advantages. One is that they are more flexible than Silicon. Another is their variety of shapes.
[9:20] Silicon has advantages in certain areas. It is the best technology for recording and stimulating
[13:00] Thomas Stieglitz talks about the P dot polymer, what it is and how it works.
[16:35] Thomas Stieglitz talks about the ideal implant and describes the most robust and reliable implant you can have
[18:50] It will be an exciting development to see a paper on the comprehensive model of a digital twin of implant failure nodes.
[23:30] In Europe, without any institution like the IDE, there is no seamless way to get implants to human trials without negotiating with a legal entity to prove potential for success
[26:45] Thomas discusses his role at Cortec-neuro
[27:35] There are good and bad aspects of working with implants. Sometimes implants are damaged because Surgery personnel are not careful enough or rehabilitation personnel don’t follow the manual and break the connectors.
[30:00] “We believe that now, that we can predict with the data that we have and some additional in vitro experiments that we did after getting them back to proving something that those pieces can survive up to 5 billion of stimulation, pulses.”
Rob Spence is a documentary film-maker. He lost his right eye as a child during a shotgun accident at his grandparents home. Thirteen years ago, he replaced his prosthetic eye with a wireless video camera. He continues to make improvements on the eye and has produced films about people living with bionic implants. In today’s episode, Rob talks to us about living with a camera implant and the fast-moving world of bionics.
Top three takeaways:
- There’s room for improvement in the area of eye prosthetics, especially to increase the adoption of cameras that can restore vision for the completely visually impaired.
- Ethics and privacy are big issues when you have a camera installed into your eye socket.
- 3d printing has injected a new wave of possibility in the world of prosthetics
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Rob Spence
[1:40] Rob Spence shares the story behind losing his eyes during a shotgun accident as a child.
[3:40] After living a few years with an eye patch, Rob, now a filmmaker, decided to get a prosthetic camera.
[6:50] Rob works with a team on improving the camera and making it better. He talks in detail about what goes into making a good ‘eye camera’.
[11:15] On some of his filmmaking projects, Rob is giving enough creative freedom that he occasionally includes footage from his camera.
[13:20] It’s difficult turning the ‘eye camera’ into a mass prosthetic product because each one has to be made custom for the wearer.
[18:50] For blind people, there’s some benefit in connecting an implanted camera to the optic nerve to restore some level of vision.
[24:00] There is quite a bit of ethical consideration to keep in mind when you have a camera in your eye. People often bring up how it threatens the privacy of the people I capture with my eye.
[26:05] “I just have a hole in my head and I wanted to put a cool camera in there”
Ryan Tanaka is the host of Neura Pod which is the Youtube channel and podcast specifically about Elon Musk's Neuralink company.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDukC60SYLlPwdU9CWPGx9Q
"My interest from for Neuralink primarily started because of working at Tesla previously, and then just getting more and more exposure to Elon Musk and some of the other projects that he's been working on and then realizing that Neuralink is going to be a substantially larger company in the future."
Matt Angle is the founder and CEO of Paradromics, a Brain-Computer Interface company that can handle up to 65,000 simultaneous channels. He was on the show 2 years ago and is updating us on new happenings at Paradromics. He also talks about their new Neurotech Pub Podcast which brings together neurotech leaders in a roundtable podcast.
"And I think you'd say also, early nascent industry is like a bank heist. Everyone is friends. Until they get the money and then everyone tries to kill each other. And I think that we're, neurotechnology is still in the, like trying to get the money side of the bank heist. The markets are just opening up."
Dr. Rio Vetter is the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at NeuroNexus. Dr. Alexis Paez is the Director of Science Outreach at NeuroNexus. NeuroNexus hosted a virtual conference in mid-November. In this episode, Dr. Rio Vetter and Dr. Alexis Paez discuss the NeuroNexus Symposium.
Top three takeaways:
- The NeuroNexus Symposium had themes for each day including neural interface technology, neurophysiology, optogenetics, and optical microscopy techniques.
- The symposium included attendees from over 36 countries and over 1700 participants.
- There have been great advancements in optogenetics concerning non-human primates.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guests, Dr. Rio Vetter and Dr. Alexis Paez.
[4:30] The reason for the symposium was to bring researchers together during the time of COVID.
[9:20] In the future, they hope to expand to include more projects and involve even more people.
[13:30] The future of electrotechnology is to increase the bandwidth and number of electrodes.
[20:30] Dr. Alexis Paez discusses the optogenetics presentations that were given.
[25:11] Dr. Rio Vetter summarizes the presentations given about optical microscopy techniques.
[30:00] Considering time zone differences is important in creating the schedule for the symposium.
[35:00] Virtual components could become an important factor in future conferences once in-person events occur.
Dr. Ben Paul is the founder and CEO of Neuroloom. Neuroloom is located in the United Kingdom and works to create new neuro-technology. In this episode, Dr. Ben Paul discusses how Neuroloom develops an effective way to stimulate neurons.
Top three takeaways:
- Neuroloom electrodes mitigate the intensity of the immune response and immune-rejection of invasive devices
- The goal is to use tissue engineering techniques and apply those to neuronal circuits to create living electrodes.
- As opposed to penetrative electrodes, the hybrid electrodes are planar and neurons culture on top of them.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Dr. Ben Paul.
[2:10] Dr. Ben Paul gives a background of his education and how it led to the creation of Neuroloom.
[6:20] The way the Neuroloom electrodes are built, the interfacing area is less disturbed by an immune response.
[17:20] The prototype device uses 3D printed structures, living neurons, and electrode arrays.
[27:15] Neuroloom is a lean company when dealing with producing designs and getting the basic science of the device demonstrated.
Scott Kim is the Co-Founder and CEO at Neofect. Neofect provides technologies that work to provide stroke victims with rehabilitation devices that can increase their range of motion. These devices include smart gloves and ankle braces. In this episode, Scott Kim discusses how Neofect technology is assisting stroke victims.
Top three takeaways:
- The user receives a smart-glove and a tablet with the Neofect App.
- Each therapeutic session consists of eight different “training games” that allow users to regain mobility lost from a stroke injury.
- This technology allows users to achieve rehabilitation results from their own homes.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Scott Kim.
[2:40] Scott Kim describes the beginnings of Neofect and their devices.
[5:40] The smart glove works by measuring six targets of motion guided by the therapist coach.
[7:50] An initial range of motion for each activity is captured as a baseline, then progress is determined over time through improved performance.
[10:55] The therapists at Neofect report a 10% improvement in the range of motion of users.
[15:00] While the main target with the device is stroke victims, the technology can be applied to other injuries in the future.
[18:00] The company recently launched Neofect Connect, which gives users daily reading and training games.
Lloyd Diamond is the CEO of Pixium Vision. Dry age-related macular degeneration affects millions of people globally. Using an insertable implant in the eye in combination with lenses, central vision focus can be regained. In this episode, Lloyd Diamond discusses how Pixium Vision is creating a solution to dry age-related macular degeneration.
Top three takeaways:
- There is a dry and wet form of age-related macular degeneration. The dry form makes up 80% of all cases.
- The degeneration begins in the center of the eye and then migrates to the periphery at the age of 60-65.
- The implant is no thicker than a human hair and contains 378 independent electrodes on it, activated by light.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Lloyd Diamond.
[1:50] Diamond explains the need for a device like the PRIMA system.
[4:00] The macular degeneration (AMD) targets the central vision portion of the retina, making it difficult to read or recognize faces.
[7:00] The retinal surgery recovery time is four weeks. After this, the activation and rehabilitation process begins.
[9:30] A pair of lenses that houses a camera are used in combination with the implant.
[11:45] The entire event of observance to signal processing occurs in microseconds, so the user is unaware of the reaction time of the device.
[16:00] Their new data proves that using clear glasses and the implant, it is possible to read as small as size eight font. This demonstrates seven lines of improvement on an ETDRS chart.
[19:00] Diamond discusses the history of Pixium.
[21:30] Due to the difficulty in regulatory approval for these types of implants, AMD research is not as common as retinitis pigmentosa.
[25:00] The ability to be independent and recognize family members’ faces makes the rehabilitation time and procedure appealing to the aged population.
[27:20] The future goal is to sell in Europe first and then bring devices to the US using FDA approval.
Renee Ryan is the CEO and Dr. Kate Roosenbluth is the founder, CSO, and member of the board of directors for Cala Health. The company creates bioelectronic neuromodulation devices to mitigate the effects of chronic diseases. In this episode, Renee Ryan and Dr. Kate Rosenbluth discuss how the Cala Trio device controls essential tremors.
Top three takeaways:
- The Cala Trio device uses the nerve circuitry of the body to calm tremors by stimulating a part of the brain through the wrist.
- Accelerometer sensors in each of the devices assess the efficacy of each use.
- There is a digital screen on the watch that displays time, length of session, and tasks.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guests, Renee Ryan and Dr. Kate Rosenbluth.
[4:50] Dr. Kate Rosenbluth explains the history of the company and its goals.
[7:00] The wearable device goes on the user’s wrist to stimulate the ventral intermediate nucleus in the brain.
[9:00] The essential tremors are characterized by action tremors in the hands, which makes daily tasks incredibly difficult.
[13:40] Cala Health plans to accomplish more wrist-based projects to help mitigate other chronic diseases.
[16:30] Renee Ryan explains her transition from investor to CEO at Cala Health.
[19:30] The demand for the Cala Trio device was so great that the clinical trials were fully enrolled within 6 weeks.
[22:30] Due to the wristband having dry electrodes, the band needs to be replaced every 90 days.
[25:20] A new device trial has started that includes a new band technology.
Iain McIntyre is the CEO and co-founder of Humm. Humm creates devices such as the Bioelectric Memory Patch that use electricity to stimulate the brain. The disposable forehead device has shown to cause an increase in brain functionality and memory.
In this episode, Iain McIntyre discusses how the Humm Bioelectric Memory Patch provides a brain-boost.
Top three takeaways:
- When this device improves your working memory, it is improving your capabilities to focus, multitask, and acquire new skills.
- The Humm Bioelectric Memory Patch brings neuromodulation to a cheaper and smaller design compared to traditional devices.
- The benefits of use compound over time; even in the beginning stages, 15 minutes of use could provide up to two hours of mental performance improvement.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Iain McIntyre.
[2:50] The Bioelectric Memory Patch device works by delivering tACS to stimulate the prefrontal cortex and improve working memory.
[5:00] The research studies done at Berkeley showed that users of the patch had a 20% increase in working memory effectiveness.
[8:20] McIntyre describes it as a compound interest transaction, the more the patch is used, the greater the benefits each time.
[11:10] Humm can provide results in a safe manner where there are rarely side effects due to the low amount of current.
[14:00] While trials and data collection currently assess healthy users; in the future, the project will be used to help with neurological diseases.
[17:00] Interestingly, the test groups that were found to have the most need for such a device are college students and the elderly.
[21:10] With a 15-minute session, you can achieve an hour and a half of noticeable brain activity improvement.
Dr. Sangeeta Chavan is a professor at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. In September of 2020, the Feinstein Institutes hosted its fourth annual Bioelectronic Medicine Summit located in New York. In this episode, Dr. Sangeeta Chavan discusses the key takeaways of the summit.
Top three takeaways:
- Bioelectronic medicine uses modulation and stimulation of neural activity for the benefit of those with diseases as an alternative to drugs.
- Various advances are being made in clinical trials dealing with problems such as Crohn’s disease, neural plasticity disorders, and vision loss.
- Vagus nerve stimulation has opened a gateway to many bioelectronic medicine applications.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Dr. Sangeeta Chavan.
[3:40] Dr. Chavan discusses Dr. Kevin Tracey’s background in neuromodulation.
[5:10] Bioelectronic medicine takes into account molecular mechanisms and neural circuits that contribute to diseases, to be able to modulate them.
[7:20] At the summit, Dr. Chris Puleo discussed non-invasive neuromodulation using ultrasound as a form of therapy.
[9:30] The speakers that inspired Dr. Chavan the most were Dr. Molly Stevens and Dr. Chris Collier for their cutting-edge projects.
[11:50] The keynote speaker for the second day was Dr. Lawrence Steinman, whose research focuses on the role of amyloid proteins in inflammatory disease models.
[13:40] Dr. Larry Miller spoke about the uses of bioelectronic medicine in regulating sphincter function.
[15:00] Targeting nerves to treat diseases has been proven to work for many patients and is continuing to grow.
To learn more about the Feinstein Institutes, listen to these episodes: Dr. Stavros Zanos, Dr. Kevin Tracey, Jojo Platt, Dr. Harbi Sohal
Dr. Owen Phillips is the co-founder and CEO of Brainkey. Their mission is to “revolutionize brain health care by helping people access, understand, and benefit from advances in our understanding of the human brain”. Brainkey’s work allows patients to view their own MRI scans in 3-D while teaching them about the regions of the brain through an online platform. In this episode, Dr. Owen Phillips discusses how BrainKey develops 3-D MRI visualizations.
Top three takeaways:
- An MRI consists of photographic slices of your brain put together to produce an image. Brainkey takes these images and makes a 3-D model.
- 3-D imaging allows for biometric data to be collected that could provide more information about neurological diseases.
- Your brain age can be calculated through the MRI scans, giving patients data to track brain health.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Dr. Owen Phillips.
[2:30] Dr. Owen Phillips explains how Brainkey makes medical imaging friendly for the patient.
[4:00] By developing relationships with MRI centers, Brainkey can provide affordable MRI scans.
[6:20] Repeated Brainkey MRI scans can allow patients to view how their brain has changed over time and check on their brain health.
[8:30] As a HIPAA compliant company, they ensure that patient data is secure.
[10:20] Aside from getting a 3-D visualization, you can also get a life-size 3-D print of your brain.
[13:25] While many are still able to upload their MRI into Brainkey, COVID has made it difficult to provide MRI scans as easily.
Dr. Alfred Poor is the editor and publisher at Health Tech Insider. Aside from this, he is also a technology speaker and writer, providing insight into the health technology community. In this episode, Dr. Alfred Poor discusses current events in brain-computer interface technology.
Top three takeaways:
- Health Tech Insider provides newsletters that cover wearable mobile devices for health and medical applications.
- In this time of online conferences, it takes great lighting, audio, and engagement to be a successful speaker.
- It is becoming increasingly popular for doctors to remotely monitor patients.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Dr. Alfred Poor.
[2:20] Dr. Poor discusses the differences between online and onsite conferences.
[5:10] Dr. Poor emphasizes the importance of having an online conference structure that allows for audience participation.
[8:20] Using an external camera and microphone during online meetings can keep members engaged and help presenters get their message across clearly.
[11:40] After the COVID-19 pandemic, the new normal will include much more online events than previously.
[13:10] Dr. Poor describes his roles at Health Tech Insider.
[16:30] Brain-computer interface technology is creating ways to close a feedback loop for motion and senses in the body.
[18:10] Smartphone technology has accelerated the progress of brain-computer interface devices.
[21:35] Monitoring of blood sugar levels has become exponentially easier over time due to continuous glucose monitors and now under-the-skin sensors.
[25:00] Artificial intelligence and machine learning play key roles in making use of the biometric data collected with new technologies.
[28:30] A new Galaxy watch product will be able to take in blood pressure and ECG.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT (September 22, 2020)— Blackrock Microsystems would like to congratulate the University of Utah Biomedical Engineering Department on receiving FDA approval to initiate their investigational device exemption (IDE) study for their next evolution of peripheral nerve studies using the Utah Slant Array (also known as USEA) under the HAPTIX program. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program from their Biological Technology Office (BTO) is pursuing key technologies to enable precision control of and sensory feedback from sensor-equipped upper-limb prosthetic devices. With FDA approval for further peripheral nerve research using the Slant Array, a take-home trial will begin investigating whether the University of Utah’s prosthetic arm system improves amputees’ performance of activities of daily living.
At the core of these studies is the Slant Array, which is the peripheral nerve cousin to the Utah Array – the gold standard for human central nervous system recording since 2004 and stimulation since 2015. Until now, all human peripheral nerve studies using the Slant Array under the HAPTIX program have taken place in the lab using the DEKA LUKE Arm, a prosthetic device with multiple powered joints and sensors. The team has spent several years developing the technology that controls the motor control and sensory feedback delivered to the amputee through the Slant Array. It is their goal to make the control and feedback as realistic as possible. Previous work has shown that the Slant Array can create natural sensations, and the sensory feedback enhances interaction with the prosthesis in a meaningful manner.
Loren Rieth, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and Adjunct Associate Professor of the Biomedical Engineering Department says, “This study would not have been possible without development helical leads, tip metal improvements, truly countless SEM images and characterization of truly countless arrays allowing the devices to perform well for up to 17 months with past participants.” He continues, “Ranging from substantially improved [Slant Arrays] that provide unprecedented biomimetic activation of cutaneous percepts and greatly increased long-term functionality, to [Blackrock Microsystems’] assistance with obtaining regulatory approval, these have been absolutely essential in advancing the field of neural prosthetics.”
The Slant Array is the electrode interface array for peripheral nerve applications due to varying electrode lengths across the array, and the ability to utilize up to 300 individual electrodes (3 Slant Arrays) for these studies. The varying electrode length allows more selective stimulation and recording of fascicles with the nerve when compared to conventional cuff electrodes. The University of Utah team, led by Associate Professor Gregory Clark, mentions many broader applications of the Slant Array, “Experimental successes and regulatory approvals associated with HAPTIX may facilitate progress and approvals of Slant Arrays for other peripheral nervous system uses that are already being explored experimentally, such as for auditory nerve implants to provide improved hearing, motor nerve stimulation for reanimating paralyzed limbs after spinal cord injury or stroke, bladder control, or pain mitigation.” He further adds, “Because peripheral nerves innervate almost every body part and organ system, there are multiple opportunities to provide clinical benefits for a wide variety of disorders or diseases.”
“The initial success the UofU has had in this field is precisely what government funds should support, it is crucial financial funding we need to translate an innovation technology such as this into a clinical application to benefit patients”, says Marcus Gerhardt, CEO of Blackrock Microsystems. The University of Utah Biomedical Engineering Team will begin their FDA-approved take-home phase of the research, testing how the prosthetic LUKE Arm with the Slant Array for sensory feedback functions in real world settings. The advancements of this research will benefit millions of people living with limb loss, as the HAPTIX program continues its mission of restoring function and feeling.
Blackrock Microsystems, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, was founded in 2008 and is the world’s leading provider of technology in the neuroscience, neural engineering, and neural prosthetics space. The company’s technology is at the core of worldwide innovations in Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMI/BCI), implantable bionic technologies and epilepsy diagnostics. Most impactful implantations of the Utah Array have been in some tetraplegic individuals from University of Pittsburgh’s Nathan Copeland, who controlled a prosthetic arm to fist bump US President Barack Obama in 2016; Ohio State University’s Ian Burkhart who is learning to control an automobile, and CalTech’s Nancy Smith who is learning to play a virtual piano. Seemingly easy tasks, all have used the Utah Array to translate their thoughts into action to restore function
This week’s guests from NICO Corporation are Jim Pearson, who is the founder, president, and CEO, and Joseph Mark, CTO. The third guest is Dr. Julian Bailes, part of the NorthShore University Health System as Co-Director of the NorthShore Neurological Institute. The NICO Corporation is based in Indianapolis. Their technology has been used in over 35,000 brain surgeries, published in 100+ clinical articles, and they have been awarded hundreds of patents on their technology and surgical methodologies. In this episode, Jim Pearson, Dr. Julian Bailes, and Joseph Mark discuss how NICO Corporation is innovating brain surgery.
Top three takeaways:
- The brain is the last and only major organ in the human body left to not have a Minimally Invasive approach. NICO is changing this through the use of their interventional technology coupled with advanced imaging. The brain’s fiber tracks can be identified, and these images are then coupled with NICO’s technology allowing imaging and intervention to be used simultaneously, resulting in more effective and safe brain surgeries.
- NICO Corporation has developed technologies and a brain surgery approach that displaces tissue using the natural folds to gain access rather than slicing through it and it has successfully been used over 35,000 brain surgeries.
- Their current technology has solved the demanding problem of internal safe access to deep areas in the brain to remove a tumor or a blood clot. Now, their next challenge is about “putting technology into the brain”. They are at the cutting edge of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) and they are accomplishing this by being the first to implant a computer chip deep in the brain (not just on the surface) where 99% of the functioning of the brain occurs.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guests, Jim Pearson, Joseph Mark, and Dr. Julian Bailes.
[3:35] Jim Pearson discusses the start of NICO Corporation.
[5:25] Dr. Julian Bailes tells of his experience as a neurosurgeon working with NICO Corporation.
[7:30] Joseph Mark describes the process of designing devices that provide safe access to the brain.
[10:00] The displacement method does not cut through tissue but rather moves it while keeping it intact.
[13:10] Other aspects such as tissue preservation and biological preservation are beginning to show importance in brain tumor research.
[16:20] Their next project is to implant a murine model in a rat to show that it is possible to get in and out of the deepest areas of the brain without compromising brain function. This is where 99% of the functionality is and the most important aspect of the brain.
[18:17] For human patients, the access portals are 11 and 13.5 millimeters in diameter; and these values are scaled down for animal implants.
[21:30] The future of NICO Corporation is finding ways to surgically place things into the brain causing the least damage and minimizing invasion.
[24:00] Their current focus is a major trial on hemorrhagic strokes, which Dr.Bailes is a part of.
[27:20] The group seeks to find what effect the mechanical interfaces have on the final results of the brain surgery.
[31:15] The NICO Corporation ensures that each customer of their devices is properly trained before use.
Gordon Wilson is the co-founder and CEO of Rain Neuromorphics. They work on technologies that improve memory processing, analog computation, and scalable systems. In this episode, Gordon Wilson discusses how Rain Neuromorphics recreates neural networks.
Top three takeaways:
- Rain Neuromorphics prides itself on providing technology that has reimagined the analog multiplication architecture.
- GPUs are the standard hardware used for neural networks because of their capability of performing matrix algebra.
- It is important to focus on technology that processes information at the source.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Gordon Wilson.
[2:40] Wilson describes why building a brain is necessary for understanding it.
[4:40] In this research, it is fundamental to understand the difference between digital and analog signal processing.
[7:10] Processing in memory consists of using analog processors to complete matrix math.
[9:40] The Rain Neuromorphics technology allows scaling up of analog processing to build larger neural networks.
[12:30] Current projects include fabricating nano-wires that perform matrix multiplication.
[14:50] Chips that are analog and scalable are very well suited to be the kind of device in brain processing.
[16:30] The “memristor” is programmable and capable of changing resistance values.
[19:30] Rain Neuromorphics completes multidisciplinary projects in the Bay area.
[21:47] The product that Rain Neuromorphics will bring to the market will be a massive, sparsely connected array of neurons.
[24:40] A “puff” occurs when wires are placed in a stochastic fashion in such a way that they are physically unclonable.
Dr. Ivan Gligorijević is the co-founder and CEO of mBrainTrain, based in Serbia. Their main goal is to improve the quality of life of users through non-invasive electrode technology. In this episode, Dr. Ivan Gligorijević discusses how mBrainTrain is producing a mobile EEG device.
Top three takeaways:
- The headphone design of the device makes it easy to use in everyday conditions.
- Through this methodology of data collection, there is no invasiveness or risk to the individual.
- The goal of the device is to help users gain back their time and life through the optimization of their mental state.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Dr. Ivan Gligorijević.
[2:10] Gligorijević explains how the headphone device is suitable for recording brain activity in everyday conditions.
[4:30] With the EEG data obtained in the headset, more can be learned about a person’s mental workload, focus, and even quantification of stress.
[8:00] The device consists of electrodes at the ears and top of the headphone to extract part of the EEG.
[10:30] Gligorijević emphasizes the importance of scientific studies confirming the positive effects and strategies of similar headphone devices.
[12:40] Being based in Serbia, it can be difficult to gain funding but the mBrainTrain team received a grant in 2014.
[15:50] The future direction for the company is to bring EEG to everyday people and have it be viewed as a new type of interface.
[17:40] mBrainTrain firmly believes that having technology that is scientifically proven to work through research is necessary.
Top three takeaways:
- The goal is to accelerate the translation of devices to be able to reach patients globally.
- Jojo Platt is the co-creator of Skraps, a podcast that focuses on the inspirations and stories of influential people in various scientific fields.
- There is an important conversation to be had about the future of implantable devices and user privacy.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Jojo Platt.
[2:15] Platt talks about her involvement in the MSRI-EC conference.
[5:36] The conference included video testimonials from Ian Burkhart and Kelly Owens, both research advocates and participants.
[7:00] Vanessa Tolosa, one of the founding members of Elon Musk’s Neuralink, also gave a presentation at the conference.
[12:24] Platt emphasizes the need for the public to discuss the privacy of information associated with brain-computer interface technology.
[14:03] Skraps is a new podcast that Jojo Platt and her partner Arun Sridhar created, having guests from various fields talk about their experiences and inspirations.
Richard Hanbury is the founder and CEO of Sana Health. Their device consists of a non-addictive mask and headphones that use stimulation to increase balance in the hemispheres of the brain. This leads to greater relaxation and can mitigate the effects of fibromyalgia, pain, anxiety, and depression. In this episode, Richard Hanbury discusses how Sana Health’s device can help users achieve relaxation.
Top three takeaways:
- The Sana Health sleep mask and headphones use pulses of light and sound to help users get better sleep.
- By stimulating the left and right hemispheres of the brain to a balance, users can reach a deeply relaxed state.
- The device is sold on the basis of monthly subscriptions, with users even being given a free one-month trial period.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Richard Hanbury.
[2:20] Hanbury discusses upcoming clinical trials that assess how this wellness device helps with pain, anxiety, and depression.
[6:00] A difference is seen in the EEG of a long-term meditator compared to those who rarely meditate, which was useful in the development of this device.
[9:00] People experiencing long time chronic pain or anxiety tend to have a hemispheric imbalance.
[11:00] Using the theory of brain hemisphere balancing, there have been promising results in the treatment of opioid use disorder and fibromyalgia.
[13:40] The focus of the company shifted from being a solely sleep based company to neuropathic pain remedies.
[15:50] New clinical trials are being done for FDA approval of the device with a larger sampling size, which has shown great results thus far.
[17:30] Users can gain access to the device through monthly subscriptions, making it affordable to a larger amount of people.
Dr. Jessica Robin is a scientist at Winterlight Labs. Winterlight Labs is a speech analytics company based in Ontario, Canada. They use applied healthcare technology to assess Alzheimer’s and dementia progression. In this episode, Dr. Jessica Robin discusses how voice samplings can be used to make predictions about diseases.
Top three takeaways:
- Dr. Jessica Robin and her team give patients a picture to look at, and the patient describes what they see, giving them speech data to analyze.
- Current projects include mining interviews of celebrities for data showing alterations in speech as a prediction to Alzheimer’s.
- The data collected ranges from unstructured and structured speech to assess the acoustics, pacing, and syntax.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Dr. Jessica Robin.
[2:50] Just one minute of speech can give over 500 variables of speech data to analyze.
[3:40] This type of technology can be applied to presidential speeches, and studies show that it is useful in observing healthy versus Alzheimer’s patients’ voices.
[4:50] While certain conditions of voice samples such as previously prepared speeches do not provide the choice of syntax, acoustic and cadence data can be observed instead.
[7:00] Dr. Jessica Robin wishes to expand into psychiatric disorders since aspects of a person’s mental state are reflected in how they speak.
Brian Pepin is the CEO and founder of Rune Labs. Since 2018, Rune Labs has managed neuromodulation systems in a way that acquires the most value out of the data available through therapies. Through this process, they hope to improve current models and push the neuromodulation field forward. In this episode, Brian Pepin discusses how Rune Labs is working to improve the ways data is collected and evaluated.
Top three takeaways:
- The two main projects consist of precision medicine, such as decision support, and remote monitoring.
- The goal is to build better neuromodulation therapies in terms of collecting continuous data rather than just at a clinical visit.
- The pandemic has caused a push towards remote data collection for clinical trials.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Brian Pepin.
[1:00] Brian Pepin explains the role that Rune Labs plays in neuromodulation technology.
[4:00] A new Apple Watch integration allows for the collection of many types of data that can be assessed by researchers using algorithms to yield clinical results.
[7:10] Patient privacy towards data collected is highly protected and regulated.
[10:50] The goal of Rune Labs is to properly gather effective data that can be used to build and improve models that push the field forward.
[12:30] Amid the pandemic, there has been an urgency for continuous remote monitoring in order for clinical trials to proceed.
[15:30] While some patients prefer the convenience of telemedicine, others strongly prefer face-to-face interaction with clinicians.
[18:15] The future goal is to have a large-scale simulation of neurological diseases in which different data and therapies could be derived from.
Arvind Gupta is the founder and venture advisor at IndieBio, a biotech company accelerator based in San Francisco. Through an intense four-month program, IndieBio’s team guides a promising technological project into being an accomplished company. They pride themselves on being the home of tomorrow’s leading companies. In this episode, Arvind Gupta discusses his strategy in turning ideas into successful companies.
Top three takeaways:
- IndieBio collaborates with incredible technological innovations and strategizes the best way to set up a business that maximizes the impact of the invention and the value created by that invention.
- IndieBio plans to build milestone-based businesses that can interface people with machines to get a greater quantification of personal thoughts and feelings.
- 83% of the 116 companies IndieBio has funded are still alive today, totaling a worth of $2.3 billion.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Arvind Gupta.
[1:10] IndieBio is a biotech company accelerator, helping companies with business and scientific milestones.
[4:10] Being based in San Francisco, the pool of investors is smaller but the market size is immense.
[6:20] Before IndieBio, Gupta invested in Vivid Vision, which used virtual reality to cure lazy eyes and improve vision.
[10:30] IndieBio is looking for ideas that are noninvasive, cognitive enhancements that provide a benefit to a large market size.
[13:50] Over the course of four months, mentors, investors, and venture capitalists work in the IndieBio lab to de-risk the chosen companies towards success.
[17:00] 43% of all the companies funded by IndieBio have female cofounders and have better performance because of it.
[19:30] The accelerated nature of IndieBio allows for intense work to quickly figure out the potential success rate of a project.
Dr. Stavros Zanos is an Assistant Professor at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. In his Translational Neurophysiology lab, they develop methods and techniques to interface with, stimulate and record the vagus nerve to understand how it controls physiological functions, with the end goal of developing therapies for diseases. In this episode, Dr. Stavros Zanos discusses his recent publication regarding anodal blocking in the vagus nerve.
Top three takeaways:
- The selectivity capability between afferent and efferent fibers will be used to create better therapies using vagus nerve stimulation.
- The vagotomy technique proved to be useful when assessing the characteristics of the fibers as afferent or efferent.
- A major challenge of this project was recording the effects of the vagus nerve stimulation due to their complexity.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Dr. Stavros Zanos.
[2:10] Dr. Zanos tells how his experiences led him to the Feinstein Institute.
[4:10] His focus has been on engineering implants, understanding the physiological effects of bioelectronic therapies, and testing animal models to be able to create chronic implants for testing therapies.
[7:00] The anodal block technique used in their publication is a way of biasing the activation of afferent and efferent fibers to effectively treat different diseases.
[9:30] At the lowest intensity of stimuli, the larger fibers get engaged first; as you increase the intensity, smaller fibers are able to be engaged.
[13:30] Judging by the physiological changes that occurred during a vagotomy, afferent and efferent fibers are indexed.
[16:00] Dr. Zanos cautions researchers to always evaluate the translatability of their devices from animals to humans.
[18:00] Another major focus of the lab is to develop chronic implants in animals, understand how to make them last longer, and then judge how the interface changes over time.
[20:30] By increasing the intensity of stimulation, there is a greater amount of potentials going in one direction and blockage of the other potentials.
[24:10] The cycle of innovation when it comes to medical devices ranges between five to 10 years.
Dr. Patrick Ganzer is a Principal Research Scientist at Battelle. Battelle uses groundbreaking science and technology to solve the world’s most pressing issues. Their projects focus on vagus nerve stimulation, haptic feedback technologies, and helping paralyzed patients regain mobility. In this episode, Dr. Patrick Ganzer shares the incredible story of Ian Burkhart and the new developments at Battelle.
Top three takeaways:
- The goal was to have the paralyzed patient, Ian Burkhart, have a chip implanted that would become active when he thought of a movement he wanted to complete.
- Even with weak natural signals remaining, BCI technologies are able to pick up multiple types of information in a seemingly small area of the brain.
- When vague signals of residual touch are perceived, an artificial haptic feedback is activated on the skin so that the patient can have some capacity of conscious touch.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Patrick Ganzer.
[3:10] Dr. Ganzer speaks about his recent publication in Cell regarding a paralyzed patient, Ian Burkhart, that they were able to give mobility to in his hands.
[5:00] After the injury and with intense practice, there could have been plasticity in Ian's cortex such that touch and movement representations may have started to overlap.
[7:30] There can still be a faint signal recognition in the motor cortex, which hints that even a small amount of fibers can relay reasonable transmission of sensory information.
[9:30] There are weak signals that can be picked up from the somatosensory cortex next to the implant chip with regard to mood, muscle stretch, movement, and touch.
[13:25] A new project focuses on vibrotactile or a vibration intensity feedback in the bicep correlating to varying grip pressures.
[15:40] Battelle is working on getting the haptic feedback to be incorporated into the sleeve technology in order to be able to miniaturize the system for home use.
[17:10] Demultiplexing techniques are used to separate touch and movement signals that are occurring at the same time to power different devices.
[21:30] While at UT Dallas, Dr. Ganzer worked on a therapy that focused on vagus nerve stimulation to help the brain grow new connections and neuro-plasticity during rehab.
[23:20] His work currently focuses on using vagus nerve stimulation to treat ischemia, a cardiovascular disease causing inadequate oxygenation.
[26:00] A perk of being a PI at Battelle is the opportunity to develop new technologies that get made into devices rather than strictly writing papers.
Relevant Episodes: Bolu Ajiboye, Ian Burckhart, David Friedenberg
Kelly Roman is the cofounder and CEO of Fisher Wallace Laboratories. Since 2007, their revolutionary Stimulator device helps all types of patients cope with mental illness through brain stimulation. In this episode, Mr. Roman emphasizes maintaining science as a priority while building a sustainable business.
Top three takeaways:
- The biomarker studies completed using the Fisher Wallace Stimulator have shown increases in serotonin and endorphins with a decrease in cortisol and stress hormone.
- The Stimulator has a 70-75% success rate with almost no side effects.
- With a low maximum output and safe product placement variability, the Stimulator is a very user-friendly device.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Kelly Roman.
[1:30] Roman discusses the beginnings of how the Fisher Wallace Stimulator came to be.
[4:15] A Mount Sinai study showed that compared to patients given a placebo device, those using the Fisher Wallace Stimulator saw improvement in their mental illness symptoms.
[6:30] Alternating current used in the stimulator allows for brainwave entrainment, which leaves the brain in the desired brainwave state even after stimulation has stopped.
[8:25] Patients are reporting 70-75% success rate when treating at least one symptom.
[11:30] The next step for the company is to compile MRI and imagery data using the device.
[14:00] The Stimulator device is inexpensive due to highly effective commercialization and lack of needed doctor administration.
[16:25] For safety, there is a low output current that still maintains clinical effects.
[19:20] Roman explains the process of acquiring the intellectual property for the device and the company’s beginnings.
[21:50] Due to Roman’s digital marketing experience and many prominent drugs becoming generic, sales for Fisher Wallace’s new device went well.
Sarah Hill, CEO and Dr. Jeff Tarrant, Chief Science Officer, started Healium in 2015. Healium uses the user’s wearable device to show purposeful content to help control the state of mind of the user. In this episode, Dr. Jeff Tarrant and Sarah Hill speak about the ways Healium is developing anxiety relief through virtual and augmented reality techniques.
Top three takeaways:
- Healium is an app that contains more than 20 virtual reality experiences that are designed to guide users into a specific state of consciousness.
- There are studies around the world looking at the effects of using Healium from labor pain, PTSD, and addictions to generalized anxiety and pain.
- Compared to a control group, those with moderate anxiety using Healium saw a significant decrease in the activation of their anterior cingulate cortex, which is responsible for feelings of stress and anxiety.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guests, Sarah Hill and Dr. Jeff Tarrant.
[2:30] Sarah Hill discusses her background in journalism and Dr. Jeff Tarrant discusses his background in psychophysiological monitoring.
[4:20] The Healium app helps achieve a calm state of mind using virtual reality techniques.
[6:25] There can sometimes be a disconnect between what we say we are feeling versus what our brain waves are showing our state of mind is.
[8:15] Healium has future plans to add features that can provide physiological measurements that have an effect on the vagus nerve.
[10:40] In their research studies, a 19 electrode EEG cap is placed on patients and the sLORETA process is used.
[14:20] Healium is a self-awareness tool that helps to create a mind-body connection that many people have not been trained to have.
[16:40] The virtual reality experiences range from South American waterfalls to solar systems, providing focus-driven content.
[19:20] Hill emphasizes the importance of protecting not only our physical hygiene but our mental health hygiene as well.
Dr. Ryan Todd Discusses How Headversity Provides Resilience Training
Ryan Todd is the cofounder and CEO of Headversity. He completed his MD at the University of Calgary. Since then, he has worked as a psychiatrist and cofounded this company. Headversity focuses on facilitating resilience in the workplace using a personalized app. In this episode, Dr. Todd speaks about the ways Headversity is able to provide resilience in these trying times.
Top three takeaways:
- Headversity focuses on resilience training so when faced with adversity, people not only survive but thrive in these situations.
- The main skills targeted with resilience training include stress management, mindfulness, and hardiness.
- An initial psychometric exam will provide you with a resilience score that guides you to the tools and content that would be most helpful for you.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Dr. Ryan Todd.
[2:00] Todd explains how Headversity is a training program targeting improving resilience, which is given to all employees at many large organizations.
[4:30] A hardiness mindset consists of realizing the differences in what we can and cannot control, and reflecting upon these differences.
[6:30] Resilience is easiest to spot in athletes because we can see how they react under pressure, but these aspects can be applied to our mental fitness as well.
[8:40] Headversity users have shown an increase in mindfulness, mental health and heartiness scores of 30% over six months.
Dr. Pawel Soluch is the founder and CEO of Neuro Device Group S.A. He completed his PhD in the field of functional brain research from the University of Warsaw. Neuro Device focuses on wearable devices to mitigate the limitations aphasia presents as well as olfactory devices that can provide data on olfactory sensor activity. In this episode, Dr. Soluch speaks about the ways Neuro Device is developing devices that can predict the onset of Alzheimer’s and help overcome speech impairments.
Top three takeaways:
- Aphasia is a speech impairment most commonly caused by a stroke, tumor or infection. People with aphasia are often intellectually intact with no way of communicating, which can cause social problems.
- The Voic device merges modern neuromodulation, clinical experience and new technology to improve the quality of life of post-stroke aphasia patients.
- The first symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases are smell disorders. Neuro Device’s scent project will help by providing early diagnosis of such diseases.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Dr. Pawel Soluch.
[2:20] Soluch discusses his beginnings in neurotech as a PhD student and why he decided to create Neuro Device.
[5:15] Their team has goals to create an invasive and non-invasive stimulator in relation to neurostimulation to prevent aphasia.
[8:30] Aphasia can have more negative impacts on the quality of life than symptoms associated with cancer or Alzheimer’s.
[10:15] The Neuro Device Voic allows therapists to build their own exercise programs on the model, making it adaptable to different languages.
[12:30] The devices use applications of oscillating electrical currents to influence cortical excitability and activity.
[15:25] The global pandemic has caused a pause on the progress of the olfactory device project while the Voic device is developing in hardware and software.
[18:10] The company has grown to be a success including 30 people partnering with leaders in science and medical device technology.
[21:35] The scent project in development could be used as an effective tool for the early diagnosis of diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Dr. Mauro Gandolfo is the cofounder and CEO of 3Brain. He received a PhD in Bioengineering from Università degli Studi di Genova and over the last 15 years, has committed to facilitating research in major fields like neuroscience, ophthalmology and cardiology. 3Brain is the world's first company to create microelectrode arrays with high resolution (HD-MEAs). In this episode, Dr.Gandolfo speaks about the ways brain organoids and CMOS technology are revolutionizing our understanding of neuronal functions.
Top three takeaways:
- The main advantage of using CMOS-APS technology over conventional microelectrode arrays is that it is possible to manipulate many electrodes within a small area and prevent undersampling.
- The label-free, non-invasive methodology of 3Brain allows for data to be collected over extended periods of time, which will benefit studies on neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
- The extent of oversampling can be controlled by finding a balance of compromising resolution and the range in area of neurons being measured.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Mauro Gandolfo.
[2:30] Gandolfo discusses the beginnings of 3Brain and how their products revolutionize electrophysiology using CMOS technology.
[5:40] Their team has worked to modify the structure of the pixel on the CMOS device to measure changes in voltage of neuron membranes rather than photons.
[8:10] The 3Brain approach eliminates the need to dye cells and instead emphasizes functional imaging, where cell behavior is observed.
[10:50] While each electrode can sense 1-3 cells, triangulation can be used to find the source of the information, and as a result, locating the neuron.
[13:20] As a control for oversampling, compression tools allow users to decide the level of information they want to capture based on their study.
[15:35] Stem cell technology and cellular reprogramming technology have revolutionized medicine in the 21st century.
[17:40] Brain organoids allow scientists to test compounds that can treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
[19:20] Researchers are working on adding components to the organoids to increase accuracy such as vasculature and diversification of cells.
[21:20] A new project consists of 3-D technology that can penetrate into the organoids to record data from the inside.
[24:30] Currently, the goal height of their silicon chip is 100 microns, promoting more proper recordings of brain organoid behavior.
[26:20] 3Brain’s mission is to provide answers to patients with brain diseases, contributing through their technologies.
Amir Bozorgzadeh is the cofounder and CEO of Virtuleap. Virtuleap uses specialized virtual reality games to help improve cognitive health. The company has successfully developed data dashboards that communicate the cognitive performance progress of each user. In this episode, he discusses the current ways VR is altering the landscape of brain training, as well as the future of Virtuleap.
Top three takeaways:
- Virtuleap works to translate standardized cognitive tests approved by scientists into VR games that range in complexity, providing high quality 3-D interaction brain training.
- There is hope that in the future VR cognitive therapy can benefit people suffering from cognitive disorders such as dementia, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson’s.
- The VR games by Virtuleap are created alongside research institutes which use the VR data as a way of measuring cognitive health changes in participants of clinical studies.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Amir Bozorgzadeh.
[2:45] Bozorgzadeh discusses the positive outcomes of brain training with VR.
[5:00] Virtuleap works to translate standardized cognitive tests into VR games in hopes of creating a diverse library for users.
[7:45] The targeted audience is the growing elderly population, which is predicted to outnumber children within the next ten years for the first time in United States history.
[9:00] Virtuleap can help users to improve their quality of life and cognitive health.
[11:20] Bozorgzadeh expresses the importance of having technical and non-technical members in any startup.
[12:00] In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an increased demand for STEM oriented startups.
[13:30] While a research-validated startup can be challenging, it is rewarding to be able to create a company that provides such great benefits to society.
Dr. Ginger Campbell is the host of Brain Science, a very large neuroscience podcast, and one of the earliest neuroscience podcasts created. In this episode, she discusses the podcast itself, why and how she started it up, as well as what it takes to run a neuroscience podcast.
Top three takeaways:
- If you want to make a scientific podcast, you must understand the workload that comes with it. It takes a lot to generate accurate scientific content for your listeners.
- When doing a scientific podcast, it is critical to think about your audience. It can be very helpful to try to reach those outside your field, especially in science, as there is a need for this communication.
- When picking a topic for your podcast, pick something that you are passionate about, and something that you can talk about easily.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Ginger Campbell
[3:30] Campbell explains why she chose neuroscience as the topic for her podcast
[6:45] The subject that Campbell is most interested in right now is the intrinsic activity of the brain
[10:15] One author suggests that we should do away with the idea of the mind, and focus more on how the brain as an organ interacts with the world around it
[12:45] To make a scientific podcast, one must realize that there is a tremendous workload involved. Creating accurate scientific content for a podcast is much different than making a podcast talking about your favorite TV show or sports team.
[16:30] Authors enjoy coming onto the podcast for the publicity, as obtaining publicity can be very difficult, and being a guest on a popular podcast can be very beneficial
[19:00] When doing a science podcast, you need to deeply think about the audience you are trying to reach. Communicating with those outside your field about what your field does is very beneficial in building a good audience, as there is a need for this type of communication.
[22:15] Be careful of goofing off at the beginning of shows and going off on irrelevant tangents early in the episode, or it may prompt some audience members to stop listening
[26:00] Campbell started the podcast because she has an interest and a knack for explaining science, the same way she explains medicine to her patients
[29:30] Due to the current economic crisis happening, podcasters depending on advertising will likely suffer within the near future
[31:00] For those wanting to do a podcast, it is important to pick a subject that you are passionate about. Talk about what you know and what interests you.
[34:30] It is easier to make a podcast about neuroscience than about quantum mechanics, because everyone has a brain, whereas quantum mechanics do not affect people’s lives
[37:00] Listener feedback is what will really keep you going when it gets tough
[39:00] Ladan gives further thoughts on the discussion and discusses the services of Neural Implant Media
TRANSCRIPT (Auto-generated):
Welcome to the neural implant podcast where we talk with the people behind the current events and breakthroughs in brain implants and understandable way, helping bring together various fields involved in Euro prosthetics. Here is your host, Latin Yara. Check. Hello everyone, and welcome to the neural implant podcast.
Today we have a special guest. It's ginger Campbell of the brain science. Podcast, and I'm really happy to have her on the show. She is an O, G original gangster of the neuroscience podcasting space. She's been doing this since 2006 and the really one of the pioneers of podcasting, she says podcasting started in 2004 so she's not completely.
The first person to do this, but that was like 1415 years ago, so you know, we can call it pretty much like that. So really interesting stuff. She's had over 10 million downloads on her show and really an honor to talk to. One of the people that started out Pluralsight is podcasting
ginger Campbell. Pleasure to have you on the show. You are the host of the brain science podcast, which is a huge neuroscience podcast, and I'm really excited to have you on. We've actually been talking about this for awhile and do you want to introduce the podcast a little bit? Yeah, thanks. First I want to mention that the name of the podcast is.
Brain science podcast is not part of the name anymore. Just in case you happen to be searching in your podcasting app. I think I took the name, I think I took podcasts I will name about five years ago. Actually, I don't remember exactly when I did it. I decided that putting podcasts in your title had become sort of redundant.
Back when I started in 2006 it was really common for podcasts to be part of the title, but you know, now it's not so much. So anyway, just plain old brain science, neuroscience for everyone. Now you're making me rethink the name of my podcast. And so basically the idea of the show is to explore how recent discoveries in neuroscience are helping unravel the mystery of how our brains make us human.
And my tagline is. The show for everyone who has a brain, because I want to communicate. The show doesn't require a scientific background. However, the listeners are very diverse, ranging from people who haven't gone to college. I've got a house painter and a plumber, and then actual neuroscientists, so that makes for a challenge when I'm creating my show.
Interesting. And you said you started back way back in 2006 I think that's pretty much when a podcasting started. How was that? Well, podcasting officially started in 2004 and then it appeared in iTunes in the summer of 2005 which is when many of us early people became aware of it because before that you had to be able to.
Code your own RSS feed and stuff like that. So I wasn't that much of a pioneer. And then it took me about a year to figure out what I wanted to make my show about. So, so I think I started about two years in which now that I'm on my 14th year, I guess, represents almost a pioneer. Yeah. I think for those looking back nowadays, they would, they would see very much as to see very little of a distinction.
It's like, Oh, when did you, you know, when did you come to America? 1492 or 1512 or something. Like I said that at some point it's kind of like, ah, it's kind of, you know, splitting hairs, but so why did you choose neuroscience. Well because it just happened to be what I was reading at the time that I decided to start a show.
I didn't want to show about my job, which I'm a physician, so I wanted to show that was about what I was just interested in, and at the time, neuroscience hadn't been quite become quite so popular, but I would be listening to people say things that weren't quite right because mainstream media. Coverage of science and neuroscience is, you know, pretty bad, and I wanted to share the things I was reading.
I figured lots of people weren't going to read the books. I wanted to share the stuff I was learning with others. That was really my motivation and I wanted to make a show that was accurate, that told people what the science really shows. That was my, that was my driver. So you're working as a physician, but not necessarily in the field of neuroscience.
It was just kind of an interest of yours then, right? Yeah. I actually came through it through philosophy of mind. I was reading Western philosophy for the first time in my life. I had been through Eastern philosophy, which is actually very mind oriented, but not exactly science oriented. And then I decided to explore Western philosophy.
I discovered there's this whole subset of philosophy called philosophy of mind, and that's when I discovered that neuroscience had come a long way since I had last. Got it. Which was like right before I started medical school in 1980 that was in the days of huge glass electrodes and, and so I got really fascinated with neuroscience because like I said, it, it, it's, it helps us understand who we are.
Yeah, definitely. And I mean, but that's still pretty interesting. I mean, there was a, to keep something up for 15 years or to, to maintain, you know, as somewhat expensive habits and a very, very time consuming habit of podcasting, you know, really is, is more than just a passing interest. I would have to argue that there was something bigger driving you, like how you were thinking, why you were thinking and the science.
So maybe what were your favorites. Episodes or favorite subjects like this philosophy of mine. Specific topics, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Early on, I was really interested in the question of consciousness. That would be a major theme that still carries through on the show. My favorite early episode was one about exercise and the brain.
With John Rady, unfortunately, as a horrible sound quality, but, but that was my favorite early episode because that was something people could use. He explained why exercising is good for your brain, and since the people who tend to listen to my show oftentimes care about their brain health, that one was one that had a personal impact for people.
So it stands out out for me. Really? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And then of course, learning about brain plasticity. That was something that was new at the beginning of the show. Now it's kind of old hat everybody knows about brain plasticity, but the subject that really, the subject that I'm really fascinated by right now actually has to do with the intrinsic activity of the brain.
And this actually might be relevant to your listeners who are interested in neural implants, because I've been reading a couple of books about the idea of the intrinsic activity of the brain. One is called the brain from the inside out by URI Misaki, which is, he's the guy who's very well known as a pioneer in brain rhythms.
And I have another one. I can't think of the name of it right the second, I think it's called the spontaneous brain, but they're both on the same idea that we need to start looking at the brain from the inside out. It's intrinsic activity is really a key feature, and the reason why I think this might be relevant to people interested in neural implants is that I think it may explain how something like say the cochlear implant.
Is why it's so successful. I don't know if you're aware of this, but when the cochlear implant was first invented, people didn't really think it would work because the amount of information in the signal is very poor relative to normal hearing. And what they found was that people learned to make sense out of what they were hearing from the cochlear implant.
You start out making sense, but eventually their brain just kind of decoded it. And so. Bruce hockey's idea is that the brain is going along, making signals, making it, throwing signals out, throwing signals out. And then when we're lippy as a part of life, we associate through the timing of brain rhythms. A spontaneous signal was something else in the world, and we make a match.
So if that's really true, then that means our brain can be more flexible for, you know, learning, you know, new ways to interact with the world. For example, a brain machine interface. You know, we could learn to, to generate a different brain pattern, to do a thing, say with the computer. And that seems to be what people are actually experiencing, right?
When they're trying to create these interfaces. Are you familiar with what I'm talking about? Yeah. Yeah, I know. I know. Boost hockey has a boost hockey, uh, array the Tetro and everything like this, and, and some of my colleagues have worked with them, but yeah, it's, it's definitely, you know, the amount of plasticity that's in the brain.
And you, you might remember this actually, you might've been around like when this was, people were saying like, Oh, there's no, you know, change in the brain. There's no neurons being created after, after childhood. Right. And essentially that everything's kind of set in stone, but you know, that that basically negates all of learning.
And, you know, people like kind of, kind of like with the cochlear implant, like, you know, people can learn crazy, crazy stuff like Morse code. I mean, people learn beeps and boops, you know, and, and translate that into, you know, speech almost. And, and like, I think I heard, I was hearing about like, people that are really good at Morse code, like they almost here.
Writing or speech in that, you know? So yeah, it's crazy stuff. All this, all this about plasticity and how dynamic the brain actually is. And this other guy that I'm reading, and I'm, I can't pronounce his name, so I'm love to say it, but the name of his book is the spontaneous brain. He actually argues that maybe we should even do away with the idea of the mind and just talk about the world brain problem.
That is, how does the brain. Interact with the world. And in, in his book, he, he talks about the empirical evidence. It's very similar to be sockies because they both talk about the evidence that faster rhythms are nested into slower rhythms. And also the fact that when you look at the brain's response to an external signal, it's.
Influenced by whatever the brain is already doing. They're not additive. There's an interaction. So I think that idea, the idea of just doing away with the idea of the mind, he calls it a Copernican revolution because he's saying instead of having this, you know, like sort of mind centered view of the world, which gives us this, this, you know, mind body problem, which we can't seem to solve that.
If we just shift our viewpoint from. To the interaction between the brain and the world. We can just do away with the whole mind body problem. It's just kind of an interesting thought. Yeah, definitely. I think, I think there definitely is a fallacy that lies there. But I want to talk about the podcast. So, you know, you have written here that you've passed 10 million downloads and are very influential.
You've been ranked number one on iTunes and Libsyn, which is a big, you know, podcast, hosting a site. They're also have you as one of the proud, you know, like, Hey, look, who goes with us? You know, look who we have, you know, is one of our customers. But what has been your experience with hosting? One of the biggest.
Well, unfortunately, science podcasts are not, you know, the most popular in terms of big numbers. I mean, my numbers are very good for science, but because of the way advertising works, you need really big numbers to, to make money. To give you an example, I don't know if you've heard of the person who does grammar girl.
She's. Made a business out of her podcast, a Minoan Fogarty. She actually started as a science podcast and back in 2007 she told me she gave up science podcasting cause it was too much work. And, and that really is a reality. I mean, if you're going to, I know you would like to encourage more people to do science podcasts and so would I.
But I think that it is important to be realistic about the work. Load involved. You know, if you make a fan cast about your favorite TV show and you just get together with your buddies and talk about it, you know, every week it's not, I mean, it's time consuming, but it's not the same kind of work as trying to create accurate science content.
I think it's a level of challenge that the people that the average podcast or doesn't appreciate. That's funny that there's more money in grammar than there is in science. Yeah. Well, everybody needs grammar, and a lot of people don't think they need science. Yeah. No, it's very helpful actually. So what has been some of your, I don't know, responses or what?
What kind of feedback have you gotten over? Geez, almost a decade and a half that you've been doing this, huh? Well, the two most surprising things. One is feedback from students. I never. Expected the feedback from students. I thought of my show as being a show that would be sort of the NPR adult kind of person who, who was curious about about neuroscience, but I have students of all ages, and I actually have one listener.
Who is now in his first year of residency, who's been listening to the show as a psychiatry resident who's been listening to the shows for eight years since he was in high school. So that's pretty amazing. And I've had people write to me and say, I'm going to go into neuroscience because of listening to the show, so that.
That was a total surprise. I did not expect that. And the other surprising thing is when people with with neurological or mental health challenges write to me and tell me that. That might show helps them to cope with their challenges. I had a listener once who said he was listening to the show with his father who was dying from Alzheimer's, and I recently actually had a patient, sorry, excuse me, habit, a listener, right?
Saying that he had recently been diagnosed with early onset dementia, and he was still listening to the show that he felt that was helpful to him. So. It's as a physician, I have to say that the most amazing thing is realizing the show has impacted so many people, so many more people than I'll ever reach as a physician.
Yeah, that's pretty amazing stuff. I mean, and that's something I, I, you know, talk about on my show as well. Like, you know, a good scientific paper might get, you know, a hundred views and like five citations or something like this. And that's, you know, you can be proud of that. But with our shows, you can get hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of downloads and that reach, although maybe not as deep and, and like, you know, in the specific subset it breaches, it goes much further.
And I think that really. Gives your research and your message much more value as well. Yeah. I don't have any trouble getting guests. Uh, even though I do focus on scientists who write books, I occasionally interview people who are involved in basic science, especially people that are, uh, extremely good at communicating like Seth grant, for example.
But the reason that I focus on books is that it gives my listeners a place to go if they want to learn more. The average person doesn't have access to the literature. You know, they don't have access to an academic library. All these, lots of these papers are still behind paywalls. But by talking to somebody who's taken the time to put a bunch of research together in a book, if a person you know, wants to go to the next level, their first choice is just go and read the book and people actually do that.
So authors are very happy to come on my show cause they, most of them really do understand that. Yeah. They, they want as much, you know, public publicity as I can get. Cause it really can be hard to sometimes break above the noise. And yeah. I mean there is something special about like having somebody who's worked in the field and you know, potentially.
Simplify things and, and, you know, get it from behind the paywall because that's actually, that's the reason I started this show as well, was, you know, trying to get to the research. I was outside of the paywall at the time, but I wanted to learn what everybody was doing and who the big people in the field were.
So, uh, I figured I might as well help other people with this as well. So, yeah. That, that's really interesting. You, you're very much into books. You have a different, you have another podcast about books actually as well, right? Yeah, so it's called, it's called books and ideas. It has a pretty small audience because it's not niche enough.
You know, in podcasting, it seems to be an advantage to be, to have a niche. And even though books and ideas clearly describes what the show really is, it, it's not quite, I mean, it's really the place I put everything that doesn't fit. So I might talk to a science fiction writer, or I might talk to a scientist.
I might talk to, I, I've interviewed. Astronomers physicists, a woman who's written video game novels. So I mean, it's very, very, very diverse, which I enjoy, but makes finding its audience difficult. So it's truly my passion project. Yeah, for sure. That's a, that's interesting. So what do you think, I mean, do you think, uh, the world would be better if there was more podcasts if more people were doing this kind of stuff, or would it be crowded or what's, what's your kind of opinion on science communication?
We definitely need more good science podcasts. I mean, many years ago, I actually tried to start a website. It was called, this was back in 2008 I started a website called science pod-casters dot org and I tried to recruit Joe's to come and basically share their. Show notes all in one place so people may be, would find them.
And I closed it down in 2010 because the national science foundation started their site, which I think is called. Science three 60 I'm not sure. Anyway, it's a very good clearinghouse for good science podcasts, and there was a way I could compete with that, but I do think that if you're going to do a science podcast, you really do need to think about what is the audience you actually want to reach.
If you want your show to be, you know, the inside baseball, you know, really highly technical. Fine, but realize your chances of getting an audience is going to be, you know. You could, it's okay to have a small audience, but you need to know that that's what's going to happen if you want. If your passion is you want people outside your field to understand what your field is about, I think that's really, really valuable, especially these days because science journalism, you know, the newspapers aren't paying for science journalists, the television networks.
Obviously aren't paying for good science journalists, so there's a huge need for somebody to go out there and communicate to people what science is really about. To give you an example of another great Lipson podcast that I'm promoting right now, for obvious reasons, is this weekend virology. I mean, if you want to hear a great show, that's really the science of coronavirus.
This week in virology, which is a Lipson show and Vincent ranch and Ella used to be a part of my science podcast or.org organization. This week in virology launched in 2008 so it's not a, you know, Hey, let's jump on the bandwagon. You know, I had to get that in there cause I really think this is an important show for people to listen to.
I just think that, I think it's really valuable. We need, I'd like to see some good physics shows that, you know, tried to explain things to regular people like me. You know, I guess maybe Sean Carroll does a little on his, but he, his show is, I don't think it's. It's really focused on physics, even though he's a physicist.
Yeah, but if you're going to do it, I would the run recommendation if I had anything to do different, I don't know if you're planning to ask me that question. If I was going to do something different, I would want to have a cohost. I mean, you know someone to carry the load so that you know it's not all on you.
If you can find a cohost, you'll probably have a better chance of, of lasting and not pod fading. And plus listeners enjoy, you know, hearing the relationship between the cohost. And that's something that, that, that I, I've never had the opportunity to do. Yeah, definitely. I agree. Like I've, I've had, I've also co-hosted some, some other podcasts, you know, with some colleagues, and that does get go much better because you get a different perspective.
I mean, obviously, you know, the questions that you ask, you know your way of thinking, but then the cohost might ask a question and that's just like, Oh wow. That is actually very interesting. I'm very curious what the answer is. I think that's a very good piece of advice. But beware of the excess chitter chatter.
I can't tell you how many podcasts I have turned off at the beginning because everybody's talking about. You know, it doesn't matter what TV show they watched or whatever. Most of us can't pull that off. I mean, if you're like a celebrity, maybe somebody wants to know what you did last night, but otherwise they probably don't and they're probably going to turn off your show before you even get to your interview.
If you make it a habit. Of doing too much goofing around at the beginning. And that's, that's just my opinion. But I've heard other podcast listeners say the same thing when talking about what shows they turn off. Most of us aren't as funny as we think we are and know, get to the point. For sure. I completely agree.
It has to be substantive. So, okay, so what's, what's your plans with the future of brain science and what kind of goals are you hoping to accomplish with it? Well, you know, this year it's hard to know what's going to happen. I was really hoping to take the show to another level this year. I actually experimented with going back to twice a month, which I, um, did the first two years of the show.
But I've decided to go back to once a month, which has worked well for over 10 years. I'm trying, I was planning to release the second edition of my book. Are you sure? The unconscious. Origins of certainty next week, but that's been held up just in the layout. Um, stage, just because of uncertainties with, with the pen dynamic, and I'm not sure how people are going to get books.
Amazon's society books are very low priority. If you order a book right now from Amazon, it'll come whenever. So it's probably not a re the best possible time to be releasing a book. And I really want to write that book. Are you sure is really just based on several older episodes of the show. And what I really want to do is to write a truly original book because I mean, I got almost 15 years worth of material.
I got lots of material. I want to write an original book, mainly because let's face it, there's still a lot of people who don't listen to podcasts. And. The reality is books are still, you know, the gold standard. So I want to write a really good, but it's called, it's going to be called why neuroscience matters, because really my, my whole premise is that understanding how neuroscience works should be a basic scientific literacy skill for the 21st century.
For example, if you understand what cognitive dissonance is. Politics make a lot more sense, but at any rate, so that's really my focus for this year is to get those books out. And then I w I hope they will help grow the show, but the main thing is to reach new people. Okay. Yeah. Just kind of educate the world on, on everything that's going on, how we think, why we think, I think that's a really good idea.
But I would, I would argue that, you know, books are, you know, obviously they reach different type of peer person than, than podcasting. And maybe more, maybe less, I don't know. But I would say that even better. Methods of teaching. And a big part of that is actually video is, you know, lot more people. For example, watch YouTube, then read books.
Yeah. And I'm not going to argue with that. I don't see myself as a video person. If somebody came to me and said, Hey, do you want to be part of a video project? I'd say, cool, but I'm not, you know, I'm not gonna. Take that on as a solo project. Audio podcasting is enough of a challenge as a solo project. I appreciate the fact that that a lot of people still, you know, now learn by video.
I happened to be a person who learns by reading and believe that there are still those of us out there. We learn by reading and I'm willing to accept the fact that. Someone else may be reaching those video people. Yeah. And if somebody wants to come to me and say, Hey, here's your great book. How can we put parts of it into a video?
You know, I'll be, I'll be up for that too, but I know what my strength is. Yeah. I mean, I got into podcasting because I realized almost immediately that it was just something that, that, um, really excited me and I felt like I was good at it. Explaining science is a lot more like my day job in which I explained medicine to my patients.
So it kind of, you know, trying to translate things into English is something that sort of comes naturally, or at least I've been doing it so long. It feels natural. Yeah, definitely. Kind of, I mean, essentially you're translating from Latin into English. Well, it's not quite that bad, but close enough. Yeah. I did want to talk about one other thing that was related to the book, and that was, I had.
I've had half a listener who's been just sort of hounding me about making an audio version of, are you sure? Which I'm not planning to do, partly because of expense and partly because of the content is already available mostly in audio. Format, but when I do my big book project, I definitely do consider making an audio version of it to be essential for the exact reason that you just mentioned that the format of audio is so good for reaching people.
And the thing I love about audio versus video is that a person can be. They can be driving their car. They have been going for a walk. They can be cleaning their house. They can, I don't know how you would mow the lawn because I don't think you'd be able to hear it, but you can do a lot of stuff while you're listening to audio as opposed to, you know, video, which if you're actually really paying attention, you know, you kind of have to.
Look at it. So that's why I'm comfortable with not doing video, although I appreciate the fact that, that it's, it's a very powerful tool. I mean, I'm the person who, when I go to the website, I don't watch the videos. I say I look for the, where did they put the written instructions? In fact, I have a coach who has all these videos and she's learned that she's just going to send me the PDFs because I don't want to watch the video.
So it may be a generational thing, but. You know, I'm a baby boomer. There's plenty of people in my boom's still left. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I mean, I think also like audio is kind of the sweet spot where it's easily accessible and you also, like you said, you can do it while doing other things, driving, transporting, you know, basically all the stuff that I've stopped doing.
So actually I've had my podcast kind of pile up because I've stopped commuting to work and I stopped, you know, doing all this stuff that where I, where I used to listen to podcasts. It's been a, it's been pretty bad. I'm going to have quite a backlog once I get back to everything. Right. And that's, you know, that's why it's hard to know what's going to happen.
Rob Walch from, from Lipson, he, he's been talking on the feed about how the last slump in, in podcast advertising happened in 2008 with the, with the financial crisis in 2008 and I remember that because I had one. Really great advertising campaign with the Navy, and then the rates just went through the bottom.
I mean, they just, they went way down. So people, podcasts, which you rely on, on advertising, are really going to be, you know, hurting in the next, you know, foreseeable future. And then the people who are making their living off of production, you know, audio editing and things like that are probably also gonna, you know, struggle a little for me.
My show's established and I can survive on a plateau for a while, but if I was somebody just starting out, I'm not saying you shouldn't start now. But this might be a good time to be in the planning phases, right. And, and really get everything aligned up. Maybe if, I think if I was starting a new show at this point, what I might consider doing is getting a large number of interviews in the can, right.
And then launching in the fall, maybe when people are hopefully going to be back on a more regular schedule and then you won't have that time pressure of trying to put out a show every week. So we can make the best of it. Yeah, definitely. Don't have this be dead time. Have it be useful, actually. Yeah. So what is, what are some, what is some advice that you have for people in the neuroscience field?
Neurotechnology in general, like through your experience in the field and, and having talked to so many people. Well, I always, I always ask my guests to give advice to students because I have so many student listeners, and one of the things that, that many of my guests say, which I think applies to us whether or not we're students or not, is to choose something that, that you're really passionate about.
In other words, if you were going to do a podcast. Unless you are intentionally planning a very short run series that's gonna like say go 12 episodes in and, but if you want to do it for a prolonged period of time, you've got to pick something that you're really passionate about. I picked neuroscience because I felt like I wasn't going to run out of material, which has certainly proven to be true every time.
I think that I've kind of gotten. You know, into a stuck point. I turn around and I've got a bunch of new books in my mailbox and I'm like, and I get enthused again. So if the subject doesn't light you up, you're not going to last. I think the, the old writing advice, you know, to re, you know, which is write what you know, probably applies to podcasting too.
Yeah, definitely. I would completely agree. I mean, you know, even even in the field of, even in the sub field of neural implants, you know, especially the guests that I have a little bit more familiarity with, it's much easier for me versus something like, you know, computational stuff or you know, programming or whatever, and they're just like, Oh shoot, this is a bit outside of what I know and what I can intelligently speak about.
But also, I guess not. What I'm interested in. I am interested in it, but maybe not to the extent to the other stuff. So I completely agree, and I think you've shown this very well. It's, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon, you know? And then when you're, when you're planning your interviews, I think they're, the most obvious rule is read ahead of time.
You know, you know, if you listen to interviews in the mainstream media, you can lots of times tell that they haven't read anything by the person that they're interviewing, right? So even if you're interviewing somebody who's only who's written a paper or whatever, you want to have read their work. And then when you're thinking about your interview, I recommend making your questions.
Ask yourself, well, what is the one thing about this person's work that I want my listeners to understand? And then gear all your questions to that. And most scientists don't mind if you say to them, can you back up for a minute and explain what you meant by XYZ? If you're making a show for nonspecialists, they don't have to understand everything, but they need to be able to understand the big picture and they don't like being talked down to.
I mean, the show I do basically goes against all the, all the dogma about how to do science. Broadcasting. You know, if you look at mainstream media, everything is so watered down. There's this assumption that people won't understand it or that you need a bunch of special effects, which of course obviously don't have and neither one.
I think neither one of those things are true, but you do have to be able to make it clear. Why should I, the guy off the street care about this? I mean, you're doing a show about neural implants. I think probably, you know that. That's not as hard as it might be for some other show. I always like to joke that it's a lot easier to make a podcast about neuroscience because everybody does have a brain, and neuroscience really does affect us as individuals, whereas like most of us are not affected by quantum mechanics, so it doesn't matter whether we understand it or not.
Yeah, I mean, I know we are affected by quantum mechanics on some level, but you know what I mean? We're not making day to day decisions based on her understanding of quantum mechanics. Yeah, exactly. Kind of make it relevant. Bring it, bring it all home. Right. And I'm not mean telling them what to think. I am also a big believer in trusting that the science can speak for itself.
You know, decide what the key idea is. Help your guest to share that key idea. And then you have to trust your listeners. Yeah, for sure. This is really interesting stuff. I love it. Um, you know, especially coming from, you know, like I said, one of the biggest science podcasters, you know, of our time and, and somebody who's been doing it all, I'll say pretty much from the beginning.
Yeah. There's a couple of science podcasts out there. They've been around longer than mine, but not many. Yeah, I mean, I, I, I'd have a hard time believing it honestly. Like, unless it was like radio program before, I was just like, Oh, we might as well do podcasting in addition to this, like science Friday.
That's kinda what I'm thinking. Right. I don't care that I don't count those because those are repurposed radio shows. So you're right. One of the oldest ones is probably a repurposed radio show, but there is a show called the astronomy cast, which is Pam Hamlin. Gay's done over 300 episodes of that show.
I think she launched in three 2005 while she's in the podcasting hall of fame, the only science podcast in the podcasting hall of fame, like actual hall of fame. Well, it's called the Academy of podcasters, and now it's been bought out, so it's probably going to become the Hollywood podcasting hall of fame, but the people that are currently in it are true pioneers.
Just Google Academy of podcasters hall of fame. She got a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.
No. But yeah. Yeah, it's, it's, it's a lot of work creating a science podcast, but I think it's, it's, it's a great way to share pot. I think it's a great way to share science. It just, it's just a lot of work. You have to, the thing that will keep you going if you decide to do it, and I don't know if this is your experience, but for me, it's listener feedback.
Every time I think I'm going to quit. I get an email from somebody who said, tells me, you know how it's made a difference to them. And, and that, that keeps me going. Yeah, definitely. Like the, the feedback is, is great. And the really, it's amazing kind of the connections that you create for others and then you create for yourself as well.
But another thing for me too is because I can go to conferences and I have gone to conferences kind of helping out on the meta side of things with some things, I, I'm basically in the room of, you know, a few hundred people that, you know. Portion of them who know who I am and listen to the show and everything like that.
So that's kind of an amazing thing because I have a, I have a travel podcast as well actually, and it's, it's bigger than the Nerland pop podcast, but you know, it's just diffuse, like it's all over the world. So I would never in the wild run into one of my listeners, but at one of the conferences, it really, it does happen and people are, you know, people like it, you know?
And so that, that also kind of motivates me a little bit further, cause it's just like, it's not just numbers on a screen, it's actual. People and it's actual, you know, it's, it's has real life consequences I guess. So, Dr. Campbell, this has been excellent. Thank you so much for coming on. Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?
Yeah. And, and I have a free newsletter on my website, so if somebody says, well, I'd like to know when that book is really happening. Who's got a brain science podcast.com and sign up for the newsletter. You get. Show notes automatically and know when the book is finally a reality. Excellent. I'm looking forward to it and especially looking forward to the audience
guys. Hopefully you enjoyed that. Yeah, it was interesting. Afterwards we talked about, you know, how hard it is to make money podcasting and how little it is, and you know, she's like, Oh, you can put some of your episodes behind a pay wall, or, you know, do a Patrion and have people donate to you. But with how niche this show is, I don't think I'd be making too much.
And I don't think, I don't want to do that to you guys. Like, and only earn 20 bucks a month, you know, sell out my soul for 20 bucks a month, or you know, 30 or whatever. I might end up earning from that. But I do this for the love of the topic and the. The people that are in it and just reaching out and everything like this.
I think it's really good, but I mean, please do remember that I do offer other services, and so if you're interested in either advertising on a podcast or making your own podcast, or filming a promotional video for example, or a conference, or you know, a panel or whatever, I'm doing three D animations, then I'm available for this as well.
The email is. Latin@neuralimplant.media and so yeah, I can do all your media needs. Even things like making some figures in, in some journal articles. I've seen some really, really ugly figures, really ugly photos, and I can make that a little bit better. Just that much better. To, to make it more attractive.
And you know, it's a small thing, but it's a is, it's a very real thing. And I've seen people close and I've seen people just stop reading. If they saw like an especially hideous graphic, then yeah, let me know. Let me know and I'll see if I can help you out. Hope you enjoyed the show and were able to learn something new, bringing together different fields in novel ways.
Until next time on the neural implant podcast.
Keeping a company in business during a major recession can be like keeping a boat afloat amidst stormy waters. The neurotech company Neuros Medical was created in the middle of the Great Recession of 2008, and still fares well even during the current recession brought on by COVID-19. In this episode, Jon Snyder, the founder of Neuros Medical, discusses, during the NYC Neuromodulation 2020 Online Conference, how the company was founded and succeeded during the Great Recession, and what advice a neurotech company should follow in the face of limited funding and capital.
Top three takeaways:
- During the Great Recession, when Neuros Medical was starting out, the economic world was very uncertain from day to day, and you never really knew which neurotech companies would be able to maintain enough funding to survive.
- Neuros Medical fared so well because it was very focused and determined, but above all, very capital efficient. It didn’t rely on hundreds of millions of dollars, and could do a lot with a little.
- When running a neurotech company during a difficult time like this, it is important to ask yourself why you’re doing this, remember that your products will eventually help patients, and remember that tough times don’t last, but tough people do.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode
[3:20] Ladan introduces and discusses Neural Implant Media
[6:00] Jen French discusses how various companies fared throughout the Great Recession, and how some companies did better than others
[10:00] Jon Snyder introduces himself and discusses the nerve block created by Neuros Medical
[12:45] The bulk of testing for the nerve block happens in the US because the US is where Neuros Medical received the necessary Investigational Device Exemption for the pilot studies
[16:30] The company was incorporated in 2008, in the heart of the Great Recession
[20:00] During the Great Recession, the economic world was changing every day, to the point where you didn’t know from day to day whether a neurotech company was going to be able to raise any more necessary capital
[24:00] Snyder discusses how those in academia can get a better understanding of the funding landscape and better interact with funders
[27:45] Snyder’s mindset is to be very capital efficient, which worked out very well when the company first started
[31:15] Snyder discusses liquidity as the company raises capital and how this will change going forward
[33:15] People losing their jobs nowadays increases the pool of talented candidates for the company, which is an optimistic way of looking at things
[35:45] The company was successful because it was very focused and capital efficient, which may have been how other companies were successful during the Great Recession
[40:30] It is important to be able to know whether your company would fare better as more management heavy or more tech-heavy
[43:45] As a neurotech company, what you’re working on will eventually help patients, which is something very important to think about when you think about why you’re doing what you’re doing
[46:20] Tough times don’t last, but tough people do. It’s what’s inside of us that can help us get through this setback.
[48:00] Neurotech Entrepreneur Working Network is a great network for entrepreneurs to share ideas and advice for the success of new neurotech ventures
[52:40] Ladan briefly discusses the Neurotech Entrepreneur Working Network again
During unusual times like this, it is more important than ever to have good communication with your peers in the neurotech industry. In this episode, Avery Bedows and JoJo Platt discuss, at the NYC Neuromodulation 2020 Online Conference, the importance of having a good network of peers, and how to establish such a network and keep it robust.
Top three takeaways:
- It is very important in fields such as neurotech to build up a good and reliable network and to have clear communication, especially during times like this with the COVID-19 pandemic
- When receiving a request from someone asking to be added to your network that you don’t know, it is important to learn more about the person by searching for mutual connections, and what their work involves
- It’s hard to learn about things you don’t know you need to learn, and it takes humility and willingness to learn a new skill set for a different work environment
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode
[2:20] Avery Bedows introduces himself, gives his background, and discusses his consulting group, called the Substrate Group
[5:45] Bedows discusses his framework of story world, storyline, and storytelling
[9:10] Ladan gives a bit of background about himself, the podcast, and Neural Implant Media
[12:30] JoJo Platt of Behind the Bench discusses what she does as it relates to helping clients create strategic partnerships and collaborations
[15:20] When receiving a request to be added to your network from someone you don’t know, it is important to see who they are, what your mutual connections are, and whether they are legit
[20:00] It may be in bad taste to post content that is superfluous and redundant during this time
[24:30] If you do not have lab access to learn about a topic, learn by reading (and by binging this podcast)
[27:30] It’s hard to learn about things you don’t know you need to learn, and it takes humility to admit that the business world comes with a different skill set that is necessary than for academia
[30:00] The biggest hurdle to getting your idea out into the real world has to do with regulatory obstacles rather than communicatory obstacles
Dr. Shelley Fried is an associate professor at Massachusetts General Hospital, the teaching hospital to Harvard Medical School. His work involves retinal prostheses and using electromagnetic fields to stimulate neurons. In this episode, he discusses these fields of research, as well as goals and challenges with each of them.
Top three takeaways:
- The main challenge with current retinal prostheses is that the visual acuity it provides is so poor that it cannot be meaningfully used for most daily applications, so there is a need for a narrower and more specific region of stimulation within the retina.
- Non-contact magnetic stimulation using coils has the advantage of avoiding a lot of challenges faced with electrodes, and it provides more specific and confined stimulation.
- The goal with magnetic stimulation coils is to clinically test them in a number of blind patients and compare the obtained visual acuity relative to that obtained from electrodes.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Dr. Shelley Fried
[2:15] Fried discusses his background and how he came to study retinal prostheses
[5:00] Visual prostheses work by mirroring the visual pathway; in diseases involving retinal damage, the prostheses target downstream bipolar cells
[8:20] A major challenge with stimulating visual neurons is that since they are packed into such a small space, being able to manufacture electrodes small enough to fit into the retina and accurately implant them is difficult
[11:45] The retinal prosthesis has the advantage of not involving direct surgical procedures with the brain
[15:30] The main goal now is to get the electrodes closer together to activate a narrower region of the retina in order to improve visual acuity
[18:30] There are a number of barriers to getting these visual prostheses on the market, namely that the vision it provides cannot be meaningfully used due to the visual acuity being so poor
[21:30] By properly activating ON cells without simultaneously activating OFF cells in the retina, the goal is to be able to recreate natural signaling to the retina
[25:30] There are a lot of issues that arise with electrodes, such as charge density limitations, foreign body response, and stability
[28:00] Non-contact magnetic stimulation evades these concerns, and the coils used can safely activate neurons in the cortex
[31:00] With electric stimulation, cells far from the stimulation site can be stimulated, but with magnetic stimulation, the stimulation is much more specific and confined more to the stimulation site
[34:30] Current is not being deposited directly into tissue, but is passing through the coiled wire where it generates the magnetic field for stimulation
[38:00] After successfully conducting surgical tests for these coils, the goal is to clinically test the devices in a number of blind patients and observe the resulting visual acuity
[42:00] Changing stimulation location and parameters is easier with these coils, and the interaction between the induced fields from multiple coils is being looked into
[44:00] Ladan gives further thoughts on the discussion with Dr. Fried
Dr. Robert Riener is a professor at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. His research involves exoskeletons, brain-computer interfaces, and EEG. He is also in charge of running the Cybathlon in ETH Zurich, which is an Olympic-like event where patients with disabilities compete, using assistive robotic devices. In this episode, he discusses the Cybathlon, its events, and its goals and purpose.
Top three takeaways:
- The Cybathlon is a major athletic competition where the participants use assistive robotic devices and prosthetics to compete in the events, which are centered around daily life activities.
- The main purpose of the Cybathlon is to promote inclusion of people with disabilities.
- Most of the teams are developing specific technologies to participate in the Cybathlon, so this event has also helped spark a movement in creating new robotic technologies.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Dr. Robert Riener
[2:20] Riener discusses his research and how the robotic devices that he researches work
[6:30] Cybathlon is an athletic competition for disabled people who use robotic devices; there are several events including the brain-computer interface race
[9:00] Russia also enjoys this event, and is coordinating their own similar event. President Putin has stated that he is willing to organize the next international Cybathlon event in Russia in 2024.
[12:30] The most important goal of the Cybathlon is to support the inclusion of people with disabilities into athletic events
[15:00] The obstacle courses in the events are centered around daily life events; for example, an activity for patients with arm prosthetics may involve the use of the BCI arm to manipulate and carry objects
[18:30] The awards in the competition include not only a medal and a cup, but also the honor of participating, and the “Swiss experience”
[21:00] “Techno-doping” is approved, and even encouraged, as long as it is done in a safe manner
[25:00] About 80% of the teams competing in the Cybathlon are developing completely new technologies, or are updating existing technologies
[28:20] This could be the biggest brain-computer interface event that’s ever happened
Dr. Andrew Wilder is the CEO of Ripple Neuro, a medical device company which specializes in neural interface technology and neuroprosthetics. In this episode, he discusses how the company plans to progress in the next decade, as part of their big 10-year announcement.
Top three takeaways:
- One big advancement that Ripple Neuro is planning to make in the next decade is to hold clinical trials for neuroprosthetic upper limbs, and obtain market clearance for these devices
- As far as the company itself goes, Ripple Neuro will be restructuring itself over the next decade to accommodate markets for both end medical devices and components for medical devices
- Ripple Neuro is constantly seeking those who are passionate about the long-term sustainability of the company, as well as those who have a passion for solving challenges and having an impact on the world
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Dr. Andrew Wilder
[1:45] Wilder discusses his background, how he became CEO of Ripple Neuro, and what the mission of Ripple Neuro is
[5:15] Ripple’s goal for the next few decades is to continue to provide solutions in the neuroscience space that can inform therapies for patients with neurological disorders
[8:15] Ripple plans on doing clinical trials with prosthetic limbs over the next five years, after which the product is projected to receive market clearance
[10:20] Ripple is producing both medical devices and components that other vendors can use in their medical devices, and part of the company’s big announcement is that the company is restructuring itself to accommodate both of these markets
[13:00] Ripple is not about developing solely one type of technology, but rather a continuous pipeline of technologies
[16:30] The company looks for people who are passionate about long-term sustainability of the company, and people who are committed to the idea of having an impact on the world
[19:00] Ripple has always had an expertise in sensing in stimulation, which is what some other companies are starting to work with
[21:45] An impact goal for the next 10 years is to have 10,000 devices implanted in humans
Dr. Kevin Tracey is the president and CEO of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. He is very well-known and well-cited for his seminal research within the field of neuromodulation, particularly as it relates to the immune response. In this episode, he discusses the current progress being made in the field of bioelectronic medicine, as well as how it compares to pharmaceutical treatments.
Top three takeaways:
- The power in bioelectronic medicine is in the fact that rather than sending out a drug into the body and hoping it affects the target area, the target is identified and the device is designed and manufactured around it.
- Since testing in mice is an important precursor to human clinical trials, the field of bioelectronic medicine has been greatly slowed down by the lack of available tools for device implantation in mice.
- The field of bioelectronic medicine is in its early stages with regard to clinical testing; as such, its efficacy relative to pharmaceutical approaches is not yet fully understood.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Dr. Kevin Tracey
[2:00] Tracey discusses his background in research in bioelectronic medicine and neuromodulation in the immune system
[6:00] What’s so powerful about bioelectronic medicine is that it’s scalable, replicable, and generates testable hypotheses. The device is designed around the target.
[9:00] Side effects are the main limiting factor for drugs. With devices, the side effects are easier to understand and manage since a specific nerve and region are targeted, as opposed to drugs, which have a systemic effect.
[12:30] Tracey co-founded SetPoint Medical with Dr. Shaw Warren, and it was founded to establish a mechanism to test the idea of harnessing the inflammatory reflex in human clinical trials
[16:45] When stimulating the vagus nerve, several fibers are stimulated. Despite this, controlling the amount of current delivered through stimulation can control which organs (such as the heart or spleen) are affected.
[20:30] The field of bioelectronic medicine has been slowed down by the absence of available tools that can be used for mice
[23:45] Bioelectronic medicine is still in its early stages and is new in terms of clinical testing and adoption; at this point, we don’t fully know its efficacy relative to pharmaceuticals
[27:00] One study found that patients who have not responded to drugs or to vagus nerve stimulation did respond when a combination of the two was used
[31:00] The advantage of targeting close to the organ is more localized stimulation, but the disadvantage is that some of these organs are difficult to access
[34:00] The mission of the Feinstein Institute for Bioelectronic Medicine is to produce the necessary knowledge in bioelectronic medicine to cure disease
[37:00] The new labs the Feinstein Institute is building are investigating the neural control of drug targets, neural information processing, sensory and motor signals to nerves, and previously unrecognized neurons that control aspects of the immune response
Dr. Phil Kennedy is a neurologist who has implanted patients with a neural recording device that can detect firing patterns attributed to certain words. This device can help locked-in patients communicate with others by detecting these firing patterns and outputting words on a computer. He has also had himself implanted with this same device. In this episode, Dr. Kennedy discusses how the device works, and his experience being implanted with his own device.
Top three takeaways:
- Silent speech works by recording neural firing patterns that occur when a patient thinks about a word many times. Once these patterns are stored, the patient can communicate this word by thinking about it and outputting it onto a computer.
- Speech makes you more human; speech allows you to contact and connect with people. It is therefore important that implant centers are available worldwide so that locked-in patients everywhere have access to this technology to be able to communicate.
- Neurosurgery is not dangerous if the surgeon knows what he’s doing. We think of the brain as more precious, but brain surgery is not much more dangerous than cosmetic surgery.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Phil Kennedy, who explains how he decided to be implanted
[3:45] Kennedy explains the procedure he underwent in Belize and how and where the electrodes were implanted
[6:00] Kennedy explains how since the incision wouldn’t fully close, the electronics eventually had to be removed
[9:20] In neural recording, slow-firing units should not be ignored, as they may contribute substantially to the accuracy of the signal
[11:45] Silent speech can be obtained by giving a patient a word to think about several times and recording the firing patterns that happen
[15:00] Obtaining more firing units can be used to distinguish the firing patterns brought on by similar sounding words
[19:00] More units are not entirely necessary for a prosthetic; rather, conditioning the units already obtained may be more effective
[21:30] Without resolution in the recorded signal, true signal from each unique firing patterns is difficult to obtain. Garbage in, garbage out.
[24:00] Kennedy explains how he has the idea of opening up implant centers around the world to help more locked-in patients communicate
[27:20] Neurosurgery is not dangerous if the surgeon knows what he’s doing
[30:15] Kennedy explains why the signals obtained through electrodes last over time; features of the electrode prevent scarring at the site of implantation and collect accurate signals over time
[33:45] You don’t need a high channel count for a prosthetic; you need stable signals over time that can be used as often as needed
[37:00] Ladan gives an outro for the episode and discusses a book and documentary coming out called Unlocking Eric, which documents one of Dr. Kennedy’s patients
Dr. Kika Tuff is an ecologist and science communicator who founded Impact Media Lab, an organization which consists of scientists who seek to change the world through powerful storytelling. In this episode, she discusses the power of making compelling stories to spread scientific knowledge and gain a greater audience as a scientist.
Top three takeaways:
- Telling your story effectively can improve your credibility, and can result in an increased following, such as more students and funders for your research
- Science not communicated is science not done – people have to be able to fully understand what it is you are doing, and scientists have to know your research so that it can be replicated and verified or falsified
- It is important for a scientist to be realistic of the fact that their field may be very niched and esoteric, but gathering even a small following is very beneficial
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Kika Tuff
[2:30] Tuff explains her background and the experiences that inspired her to create Impact Media Lab
[5:15] Tuff explains how stories and characters inspire people more than data, and how it can be very important when trying to inform policy and behavior
[8:00] A lot of times when communicating with scientists, Tuff has realized that extra time must be taken for communication and that initially, a smaller select audience must be chosen for the stories being told
[11:30] Being able to tell your story well can help improve your credibility; return on investment of good communication can be attracting more students, listeners, funders, etc.
[14:30] Important part of grant writing is being able to effectively pitch your ideas, and using compelling story writing can get ideas across better
[18:30] Tuff explains how Impact Media Lab will put together pitches for broader impact for free since the company has a template that is used
[20:45] Science not communicated is science not done
[23:30] Often times scientists get caught up in things like getting grants and publications that it can be hard to step back and ask why they do the work they do and why it fascinates them
[26:45] It is important to evaluate what a lab does and how it is unique in creating a scientist’s “brand”
[29:20] Brand, website, short film, and social media are important steps in building an audience
[33:00] When branding, one must be realistic about the fact that a lot of scientific fields are very niched, but if one has only 1,000 true fans, that is successful
[35:30] Believing in the power of your work, it can be really easy to get disappointed. Even if you feel that what you do doesn’t matter, there is always something compelling that attracted you to the questions you’re trying to answer.
[37:30] Ladan provides additional thoughts on his conversation with Dr. Tuff
[39:00] Neural Implant Media is open to provide media services for scientists, organizations, and conferences
Nathan Copeland is a paraplegic neural implantee who has four Blackrock Utah electrode arrays implanted in his brain. He uses a robotic arm which has a wider functionality than a regular arm, and has even fist bumped the president with it. In this episode, he discusses his experiences being implanted and how using the implants has changed his life.
Top three takeaways:
- When Nathan Copeland met President Obama and had a fist bump with him, he realized that the president was very interested in the science involved in his implants. He was able to connect personally with the president, and this reaffirmed the notion that the president is just a human being.
- There are many different types of robotic arms with slightly different structures and functionalities, and different people may prefer different varieties. Some people prefer ones that look more anatomical, while others may prefer ones with a wider functionality.
- Nathan Copeland initially had a fear of public speaking, but after giving presentations on his condition and the various robotic arms he used, he found that he was actually enjoying it more and more. In particular, he found it very fulfilling when people would tell him how inspired they were by his presentations, and this increased his enjoyment of public speaking.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Nathan Copeland
[3:20] Copeland describes the accident that led to C-5 quadriplegia and his time spent on a research registry to become a subject in the BCI study that gave him the implants
[5:45] Copeland discusses the screening process he had to go through to become a part of this study and how he knew he wanted to be a part of it despite his mother’s opposition to it
[9:30] Copeland talks about the pain and discomfort he went through following the implantation of the electrode arrays
[13:20] When Copeland went to meet President Obama, he was told that the president was “just a person”. When Copeland did meet the president, it was obvious that he seemed very interested in the science behind the implants and was able to bond with Copeland as a person.
[15:45] The training Copeland needed to use the robot limbs controlled by the implants was never something that he had to really work for
[18:45] The robotic arm that Copeland uses is a non-anatomical arm, and he likes it because it can move in his workspace in ways a regular anatomical arm cannot
[22:15] Different people may have different preferences in what they would want in a robotic arm – some would prefer a traditional anatomical arm, while others would want an arm with more functionality even if it looks unconventional
[25:00] One of Copeland’s biggest dreams that recently came true was to travel to Japan – he had wanted to visit Japan his whole life, and he knew that his condition would have made it very difficult
[28:30] Copeland used to have anxiety when it came to public speaking, but after giving his presentation on the robotic arms he has used, it gets easier for him the more he presents it. A lot of people have been inspired by his presentations, and he now very much enjoys the experiences.
[32:10] Copeland would like to see an improvement in the robotic arms used by the BCI systems
[35:30] Copeland has a YouTube channel called BCI Can Do Better where he demonstrates the various activities he can do with his BCI system, such as playing Final Fantasy XIV
Nathan Copeland’s email address is bcicandobetter@gmail.com
Dr. Alie Caldwell, a.k.a. Alie Astrocyte, is a neuroscientist who is well-known for her YouTube channel Neuro Transmissions. In this episode, she discusses the YouTube channel, how it was created, what types of videos the channel produces, how the videos are made, and what she has gained out of it.
Top three takeaways:
- In doing this channel, Alie Caldwell has had to overcome the challenge of maintaining a good work-life balance, since this channel is not her full-time career.
- In academia, you are taught to feel as though you don’t know anything, which can make people feel hung up on inaccuracies; however, a lot of the time, you can explain something with simple terms and it will still be accurate.
- When building a YouTube channel, the most important thing is to realize what your goals are; you have to ask what you want to communicate, who you want to reach, and what is unique about your content.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Alie Caldwell
[1:30] Caldwell talks about her YouTube channel, the type of content she produces, and who her target audience is
[4:30] Caldwell explains how a special event in her graduate program helped her get into making neuroscience videos
[6:45] The biggest challenge when starting the channel was that since neither Caldwell nor her YouTube partner Micah does YouTube full-time, maintaining a good work-like balance while doing this “side project” became difficult at times
[8:30] The channel tries to put out a video every two weeks, and every video takes roughly 20-30 hours to create and edit depending on the style and amount of animation
[12:15] The content the channel puts out is high-level enough that Caldwell is confident enough in her research on the topic to be able to teach the topic without fear of inaccuracies
[14:45] Caldwell recently finished her PhD and is currently employed by the Bigelow Memorial Science Communication Fellowship
[17:45] Both Caldwell and her YouTube partner Micah are trying to figure out their next career steps; they are not intending to have YouTube be their full-time career
[21:00] The most important thing is realizing what your goals are with your videos; what are you trying to get across, who are you trying to reach, and what is unique about your videos?
[23:45] This YouTube channel was an opportunity to build a portfolio and stand out from other scientists with a distinct skill set
[27:30] One main thing that Caldwell learned from the YouTube channel is public speaking and translating it into a video personality
We know you are facing challenging times in this current health crisis. The U.S. Small Business Administration is committed to help bring relief to small businesses and nonprofit organizations suffering because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the CARES Act, which provided additional assistance for small business owners and non-profits, including the opportunity to get up to a $10,000 Advance on an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL). This Advance may be available even if your EIDL application was declined or is still pending, and will be forgiven.
If you wish to apply for the Advance on your EIDL, please visit www.SBA.gov/Disaster as soon as possible to fill out a new, streamlined application. In order to qualify for the Advance, you need to submit this new application even if you previously submitted an EIDL application. Applying for the Advance will not impact the status or slow your existing application.
Also, we encourage you to subscribe to our email updates via www.SBA.gov/Updates and follow us on Twitter at @SBAgov for the latest news on available SBA resources and services. If you need additional assistance, you can find your local SBA office and resource partners at www.SBA.gov/LocalAssistance. If you have questions, you may also call 1-800-659-2955.
Daniel Powell is the CEO of Spark Biomedical, a medical device company based in Texas whose mission is to develop effective, wearable neurostimulation devices. In this episode, he discusses an auricular nerve stimulator to aid in the relief of opioid withdrawal both in adults and newborn infants.
Top three takeaways:
- This auricular, transcutaneous nerve stimulator device works to alleviate opioid withdrawal by stimulating the necessary nerves to kickstart endogenous endorphin release in the brain.
- A major part of opioid addiction is avoiding withdrawals; opioids chemically replace endorphins and bind to opioid receptors, and the brain no longer produces endogenous endorphins, so that when the user no longer takes the drugs, they no longer have the necessary chemicals to deal with anxiety and pain. This is what makes opioid withdrawals unique and is why opioid addicts try so hard to avoid them.
- When starting a project, it is highly beneficial to have a diverse team of people with different skill sets that can contribute to every aspect of the project.
[0:00] Powell explains his job – Spark Biomedical is currently developing an auricular, transcutaneous nerve stimulator designed to stimulate specific cranial nerve branches and is designed to relieve opioid withdrawal
[3:45] There is some evidence to support the efficacy of acupuncture-based stimulation for treating opioid withdrawal in adults, which is the basis for the creation of the non-invasive auricular nerve stimulator
[7:15] The ear pieces are easy to apply and disposable – since there are no needles, it is easy to replace the ear pieces as needed
[9:15] When observing withdrawal symptoms in adults using this device, one can observe that the common symptoms – shaking, sweating, etc. – approach a normal level over a 60-minute window
[10:45] So far, there have not been issues with the FDA, as Spark Biomedical has completed their pre-submission process, where they write down the questions to be answered by the FDA
[13:30] This is Spark Biomedical’s first main project; the company was formed specifically for this project at the end of 2018, and there was a good network of people to call on for both scientific and financial applications
[16:45] When someone is addicted to opioids, they are not simply chasing euphoria, but are also trying to run away from withdrawals
[20:45] During acute withdrawal, the stimulator helps to jump-start the brain to produce the endogenous endorphins necessary to occupy opioid receptors, which helps to alleviate withdrawal
[23:45] A good dose of endogenous endorphins can alleviate withdrawal symptoms for a long time; one subject who used the stimulator device for an hour felt no withdrawal symptoms for six hours after removing the device
[25:15] The project is currently in clinical trials for adults, and Spark Biomedical is currently partnered with MUSC to run the trials for infants; the hope is that the product is on market for adults in the second half of 2020
[28:15] A good piece of entrepreneurial advice is to have a diverse team with different educational backgrounds and skill sets to be able to contribute to every aspect of the project
[31:30] A challenge when building the company is that it was built remotely, and does not convene in a single office
[34:00] The company was built on people who were tired of corporate life, and pays based on results rather than hours
This outbreak of COVID-19 is a very difficult time for scientific research. A lot of experiments are being interrupted and put on pause, and conference travels are essentially not possible. In this episode, Ladan discusses what steps are being taken by government grant-funding agencies to assist researchers during this time.
Top three takeaways:
- Grant-funding agencies such as the NIH and NSF are extending deadlines for grants and experiments, and late applications are being accepted without the need for pre-approval.
- NIH grant money can be used to cover fees incurred from interrupted travel, as well as changing any protocols as necessary.
- The safety and health of researchers and research participants alike is the number one priority during this time.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode
[1:30] The NIH and the NSF will extend the deadline for many grants and experiments during this time
[3:45] Dr. Mike Lauer from the NIH explains the implications of this pandemic on scientific research and the way the NIH will be cooperating with researchers during this time
[5:30] The NIH has put out a guide notice stating that late applications will not need pre-approval
[8:00] Hotel and airline refund fees, as well as any other fees incurred due to interrupted travel, can be charged to NIH grants
[9:45] There will be opportunities to apply for administrative supplements to cover costs incurred due to changing protocols and venues
[11:00] This is a very difficult time, but also a time of compassion
Info on how NIH is responding to the outbreak: https://www.nih.gov/health-information/coronavirus
Message from Dr. Mike Lauer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLmBi5wvifk&feature=youtu.be
Info on how NSF is responding to the outbreak: https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/coronavirus/
Producer’s log: I wrote these notes while in quarantine. Ladan locked me up in a tiny room and I don’t know why. He said it was for my own good, and that he’ll let me out "once the storm passes". I haven’t been outside in over 2 weeks. I miss the world. I miss the laughter. I miss the sunshine. Someone please help me.
Producer's log update: OK I'm just kidding, I'm not really locked in a little room. But I do miss socializing with people, I'm starting to get very lonely.
Jeremy Magland and James Jun are researchers at the Flatiron Institute whose work involves spike sorting for analysis of large recorded neuronal data sets. In this episode, at the SfN 2019 Conference, they discuss the Flatiron Institute, spike sorting and the various algorithms involved in it, as well as an open-source algorithm the Flatiron Institute has developed for spike sorting and how it works.
Top three takeaways:
- The Flatiron Institute, a division of the Simons Foundation, uses modern computing tools to advance scientific understanding, and they provide open-source code to aid labs in data analysis.
- Spike sorting algorithms take recorded extracellular data and use statistical methods to group it into clusters, from which it determines the number of neurons that are firing. The difference in clustering and sorting depends on the specific type of analysis the algorithm runs.
- MountainSort is an open-source spike sorting software that is distinct in that it doesn’t require as many input parameters as other algorithms do.
[0:40] Ladan introduces the episode and the guests, James Jun and Jeremy Magland, at SfN 2019; Jun gives his background and what he is studying
[3:40] Jun explains how spike sorting uses extracellular recordings to receive signals from different neurons at once
[4:55] Magland gives his background and what he is studying
[8:05] There’s a rainbow
[9:10] Magland and Jun explain some advantages/benefits of the Flatiron Institute, a research division of the Simons Foundation; the institute creates open-source software to help labs with spike sorting
[11:40] Jun discusses the Simons Foundation, how they started, how they created the Flatiron Institute, and the types of projects they fund
[14:10] MountainSort is the open-source spike sorting algorithm developed by Flatiron which clusters spikes by using a statistical method to detect differences in spike densities and separate the neurons accordingly. This doesn’t require adjustable parameters as input, unlike other software.
[16:40] Jun discusses some differences in certain spike sorting algorithms and the type of analysis they use to sort spikes into different clusters and differentiate the neurons
[19:55] Magland and Jun are looking forward to enhanced hardware and computing capabilities that improve the speed and accuracy of spike sorting
Dr. Pablo Celnik is a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Buzz is a spinal cord injury patient who has recently received implants to help him regain sensory and motor control of his body. In this episode, they discuss the project directed by Dr. Celnik that involves the implantation of a bilateral set of implants that has been effective in helping Buzz regain sensory and motor control.
Top three takeaways:
- Buzz’s implants are unique due to the number of implants, and due to the fact that they are bilaterally implanted.
- The future of this project depends on factors such as funding and reapproval, and will likely involve observing how the addition of sensory information will help improve motor performance.
- It is important for spinal cord injury patients to understand that despite their injury, they can live a productive and happy life.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guests, Dr. Pablo Celnik and Buzz, a spinal cord injury patient, at SfN 2019; Buzz gives a background of his injury and condition
[3:30] Dr. Celnik gives a background of his research, his department, and the project he is currently working on in neurorehabilitation
[6:30] Buzz is special in that his implants are bilateral and more numerous; he has arrays in the dominant and non-dominant side, in both motor and somatosensory cortices
[8:45] Buzz discusses his experience with learning to control his body using his implants
[12:45] Dr. Celnik discusses his experience training Buzz with the new implants; they have started with one arm and have progressed to doing more complicated movements with both arms
[16:15] Like any other research project, this project depends on every component’s support, including funding and yearly reapproval. The future for this project includes evaluating how the addition of sensory information helps with motor performance.
[18:50] Buzz has also been involved in patient advocacy, where he has mentored and guided other spinal cord injury patients in a peer mentoring program
[22:00] Dr. Celnik mentions the significance of this type of work to help spinal cord injury patients restore their quality of life
[25:00] Patients like Buzz illustrate how the field of neuroscience can be translated to a practical, significant application
Jennifer French and James Cavuoto are editors and publishers for Neurotech Reports, a news source whose mission is to provide up-to-date information about the field of neurotechnology that impacts research and venture capital. In this episode, they discuss some updates and recent events happening within the last month in the industry of neurotechnology.
Top three takeaways:
- The 2020 North American Neuromodulation Society Annual Conference was a very informative and successful conference, and the Emerging Technologies Forum hosted by Neurotech News had great attendance and presentations
- Companies such as Medtronic are starting to capitalize on the use of glial cells in modulating pain networks
- Neurotech Reports will be hosting the Bioelectronic Medicine Forum which focuses on both the research and financial realms of bioelectronic medicine and neurotechnology
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the two guests, Jennifer French and James Cavuoto, who start by discussing the North American Neuromodulation Society Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV
[3:40] French and Cavuoto discuss how large the event was and that it will likely take place again given the excellent turnout
[4:45] The role of glial cells in pain networks was a very significant discussion according to Cavuoto; Medtronic is capitalizing on this with a startup called Stimgenics that they have recently acquired
[6:45] A recent publication of Neurotech Business Report has discussed some failures of certain neurotech companies
[8:20] The 2020 Bioelectronic Medicine Forum hosted by Neurotech Reports will take place in New York City on April 7, 2020, and it hones in on the bioelectronic medicine aspect of neurotechnology
[10:40] Neurotech Reports has released an updated version of two whitepapers, one of which describes funding opportunities for startups, and one discusses venture capital funding
Charles Lieber, a researcher in the field of chemistry and nanotechnology, has been arrested on charges of making false statements to the US government regarding his monetary ties to China. In this episode, JoJo Platt discusses his arrest, the events surrounding it, and what it could mean for the field and future international collaborations.
Top three takeaways:
- Charles Lieber did not disclose his ties to China while receiving grant money from US government institutions
- The US Senate believes China’s Thousand Talents Program, to which Lieber had a direct connection, was a means to divert US intellectual property
- We shouldn’t cut all research ties to China, but we must be careful how we go about international collaborations; researchers must be open and transparent about all affiliations
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and mentions the recent news regarding Charles Lieber
[2:10] Platt hints at some future implications of Charles Lieber’s arrest, and what it could mean for future collaborations, as well as a bit of the background on Charles Lieber and the events leading up to him getting arrested
[5:30] Platt discusses the timeline of Lieber making arrangements with China to receive grant funding
[8:20] Lieber had failed to disclose his relationships to China while receiving grant money from institutions such as the NIH and the US Department of Defense, which is illegal
[11:00] Chinese Thousand Talents Program recognized by US Senate as a program intended to divert US intellectual property, part of Lieber’s agreement with this program is that he must invite 1-3 international scientists to work as visiting scholars
[14:45] Platt believes not all research ties to China should be cut, but we must be careful about how we do it; transparency about affiliations is key
[17:45] Lab money and personal money are two distinct things; lab money is often spent without as much care as personal money
[19:15] Risk of Lieber leaving the country is low, given that he surrendered his passport when he posted bail
In this episode, Ladan interviews Ritesh Kumar, a poster presenter at the SfN 2019 conference whose research involves restoring bladder functions. Ritesh is a researcher working under Dr. Robert Gaunt in the Rehab Neural Engineering Labs at the University of Pittsburgh.
Top three takeaways:
- The device being investigated and tested is designed to conform to changes in volume in the bladder.
- The electrodes embedded in the device are aligned with specific functional regions of the bladder to generate optimum functionality.
- Isovolumetric evaluations of the bladder provide the basis for future material designs.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and Ritesh Kumar, the guest being interviewed; Ritesh gives some background on the research he is undertaking involving restoring bladder functions
[3:45] The polymer used in the material being discussed is very stretchable to conform to volume changes of the bladder
[5:20] The material is like a sock of electrodes, which is made of silicone that can conform to the shape of the bladder
[7:00] Ritesh mentions he is interested more in science and design rather than patenting the technology
[9:00] The studies the guest is conducting are at isovolumetric conditions, which are being done to make the basis for the design moving forward
[10:30] Ritesh discusses future directions for his research
Note: One additional name for acknowledgement is Maria Jantz
Dr. Bryan McLaughlin is the president of Micro-Leads, a medical device company working on implantable therapy for spinal cord stimulation. In this episode, he discusses his research and investigation into medical-grade technologies to treat spinal cord injury, as well as his collaboration with DARPA in this endeavor.
Top three takeaways:
- The electrodes manufactured by Micro-Leads used for spinal cord stimulation target more fibers and have more electrode channels than other electrodes
- McLaughlin is investigating medical-grade electrode technology for spinal cord stimulation that uses flexible materials
- McLaughlin is collaborating with DARPA as part of their “bridging the gap” program for treatment of spinal cord injury
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Dr. Bryan McLaughlin, at SfN 2019
[1:15] Micro-Leads distinguishes itself from other spinal cord stimulation companies by offering electrodes that reach fibers that couldn’t have been targeted previously, with more electrode channels
[4:45] This technology specifically targets pain, which is a major unmet need
[6:15] Dr. McLaughlin’s research company has devised medical-grade electrode technology using soft, flexible materials that can be used to help patients with spinal cord injury.
[8:50] Dr. McLaughlin discusses collaborating with DARPA to develop technologies for treating spinal cord injury
Brandon Prestwood, an amputee, is a participant in a research program which develops advanced prosthetics and implants to restore sensory function in amputees. In this episode, he discusses his experience as an amputee in this research program, as well as the implanted device he uses to restore the lost functionality of his forearm.
Top three takeaways:
- Medical treatments for amputees can often involve excessive medications, many of which are opioid-based, which can be problematic as it can lead to addiction.
- Current technologies to restore limb functionality in amputees are very beneficial and promising, but there are still limitations to overcome and improvements to make.
- It is important for this technology to be available to all amputees, so that they may restore their limb functionality and improve their quality of life.
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Brandon Prestwood, on the second day of SfN 2019
[3:15] Prestwood gives a background on the accident that led to his injury and amputation
[6:30] Prestwood discusses the medications he was made to take during the course of his medical treatment, and how he believes opioids are overprescribed
[9:20] Prestwood discusses being a participant in a research program which develops implants to restore sensory function in amputees
[12:15] Prestwood discusses the implanted myoelectric device he uses to restore the functionality of his forearm
[15:00] Prestwood discusses the limitations of the device and what he can and cannot do with the device
[18:40] Prestwood discusses the surgery whereby he received the device
[22:15] It is important for every amputee to have the opportunity to restore their limb functionality. This type of technology has the capability to restore an amputee’s quality of life and is incredibly beneficial to mankind.
Dr. Tim Marzullo is an engineer and co-founder of Backyard Brains, which seeks to develop technologies to make learning about neurophysiology easy and fun. In this episode, he discusses some such technologies at SfN Neuroscience 2019.
Top three takeaways:
- Backyard Brains creates scientific technology that can be easily used by high school students to learn more about science (and win science fairs😊)
- Recent technologies have taught us that there is a whole molecular and electrical world within plants that has not been fully realized until recently
- Thanks to technology such as the Arduino microcontroller, one does not need specialized training in Matlab or LabVIEW to learn and investigate neurophysiology
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Tim Marzullo, at SfN Neuroscience 2019
[1:15] Dr. Marzullo gives a background on Backyard Brains and an example of an invention they are developing involving a Venus Flytrap
[4:30] Dr. Marzullo discusses the learning curve of this technology and the level of difficulty involved in learning how to use it
[7:15] The use of this technology by graduate and PhD students is discussed
[10:30] There is a whole molecular and electrical world going on inside plants that had previously been thought of as static beings, and is only now beginning to be explored and appreciated
[12:30] Someone at Backyard Brains had recently attached 9 electrodes to himself and played World of Warcraft, in order to test out muscle-electrode interfaces
[14:00] Thanks to the easy-to-use Arduino microcontroller, it is getting easier to investigate neurophysiology
Dr. Allan McCay is a legal scholar working in Australia, and his work involves legal and ethical issues in the field of neurolaw. In this episode, he discusses the legal and jurisprudential issues behind brain-computer interfaces and how their advent and proliferation could affect how crimes are viewed in legal system.
Top three takeaways:
- Brain-computer interfaces may change the way we will need to think about criminal justice and responsibility for crimes
- Higher courts will need to carefully consider how they respond to the issue of crimes committed by way of brain-computer interface as they will set a precedent for other courts
- The questions being raised in this dilemma are giving us a greater understanding of criminal law overall and its true purpose
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and gives a background of Dr. Allan McCay
[3:30] Dr. McCay explains criminal law in the brain-computer interface world
[5:30] In criminal prosecution, it must be proven that the defendant had a “guilty mind” and intends to commit the crime, and committing a crime by way of brain-computer interface can muddy the waters in the prosecution
[8:00] Dr. McCay gives a specific example of committing a crime by way of brain-computer interface and a “mental” criminal act
[11:00] People cannot control mental acts and thoughts as well as bodily acts
[13:30] Could a neural implants case create a precedent of no responsibility for crimes committed under a brain-computer interface?
[18:15] Dr. McCay discusses how this issue will likely resolve in the future, and how the direction of the law on this issue will likely be set
[20:45] The most likely outcome would consist of courts declaring that a mental act constitutes an actus reus, and this is something that lawyers may need to think about more
[24:40] This whole dilemma and the questions being raised make us think what criminal law is really about, and allow for a greater understanding of criminal law
[26:45] Ladan provides final thoughts on the discussion as well as details of a follow-up discussion with Dr. McCay
JoJo Platt is the founder of Behind the Bench, a Neurotech News outlet, as well as a Platt & Associates where she consulted for places like Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. In this episode, she discusses how she developed her network and formed Behind the Bench, as well as recruiting in the field of bioelectronic medicine and what it takes to get hired.
Top three takeaways:
- Platt’s mission is to help promote and coalesce the field of bioelectronic medicine within the greater field of neurotechnology eventually led her to gain a large network, and to create Behind the Bench as a platform to publish research information and get to know researchers better
- Getting recruited for a desired job is mostly about your skill set and abilities, rather than how well known you are or how much you post on Twitter
- If you want a position in a lab, it is best to personally reach out to the P.I., but make sure that you are a match for the job based on your skill set
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, JoJo Platt
[0:30] Platt discusses her background and new project involving Behind the Bench
[4:00] Platt discusses her role as a strategic development consultant at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research as well as some of her achievements
[6:30] Platt discusses recruiting neurotech consulting clients and learning important names in the field of bioelectronic medicine
[9:00] Having a good set of skills is more important than writing a lot or being well-known in the field
[10:30] If you want a research position, reach out to P.I. personally, but also make sure that you are truly a fit for the position based on your skills and experiences
[13:00] Getting the right person and the right fit takes work, but it pays off in the end
This month's neurotech industry podcast features some highlights from the 2019 Neurotech Leaders Forum that took place November 4-5, 2019 In San Francisco. This is a two -day event focusing on the opportunities, trends and entrepreneur ventures in the industry. Here's what is featured:
- The Neurotech Reports roundtable was a lightning round session of topics with commentary and input from the editorial team. Topics included:
- How should the industry respond to negative press?
- How to ensure reimbursement for new neurotech devices?
- What are some lessons learned from the opioid crisis?
- Featuring the winners of the 2019 Gold Electrode awards. These are people and ventures that have made a significant contribution to the industry and those to watch in the future. The awards are given in 5 categories. Plus, this year the coveted Lifetime Achievement award was given to Elliott Krames.
Avery Bedows and Doug Clinton are part of Loup Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in frontier technology. In this episode, which is the first of a quarterly series on neurotech news, they discuss recent events regarding investment in neurotech companies as well as growths and developments within the neurotech industry.
Top three takeaways:
- Companies can sometimes look at the value of an investment not just in terms of revenue, but in terms of gaining a strong foothold in an upcoming area of development
- The Neuralink presentation gave more of a long-term view of future goals, in an attempt to increase their hiring and rein in excitement
- By 2020, there will be a lot more neurotech startups and overall more capital present within the industry, and lots of opportunities for investors
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and his guests, Avery Bedows and Doug Clinton, who are with Loup Ventures
[2:00] Facebook acquired CTRL-labs for $500 million, Avery discusses the significance of this
[5:00] There is discussion over whether Facebook is more interested in brain-computer interfaces or VR
[8:45] The value of the investment is explored and it is discussed whether Facebook acquired CTRL-labs more for monetary gain or as a way to truly enter the field of VR/AR
[12:00] Thomas Reardon, a co-founder of CTRL-labs and inventor of Internet Explorer, knew that his product reached a lot of people, but wasn’t part of a full-blown platform, so he needed to plug it into a company that provided the full-blown platform
[15:10] Topic switches to Neuralink, Ladan and the guests discuss their thoughts on the Neuralink presentation where Elon Musk discusses the automation of electrode-thread implantation
[18:20] Avery discusses what he found most interesting about the whole presentation and how he interprets it
[21:50] Avery discusses some motivations for being in neuro that he has found in people
[25:45] Doug mentions that the future of interface with which we communicate may be related to VR/AR, beyond that it may tie to direct interface with brain
[27:40] Topic switches to Loup Ventures’ investment in Rune Labs, Avery and Doug provide some background and opinions
[31:30] Big picture for Rune Labs is seeing data platform for intracranial data from the brain, using data to enable other development of medical applications
[33:30] There will likely be more capital in 2020 within this whole field, we will see info about young startups, lots of early stage neuro
Joe Bird is a lawyer specializing in patent litigation, and works for the firm Maynard Cooper & Gale. In this episode, he discusses the current lawsuit between Nevro and Boston Scientific for a high-frequency spinal cord stimulation device, he gives a general overview of patent law and how patents are enforced and litigated, and also discusses what this lawsuit means for the neurotech industry.
Top three takeaways:
- Patent litigation is a very unique field of law, with a lot of special rules and proceedings, and can also be very expensive.
- Patent protection is very important, and can be a driving factor in the success of a company or industry.
- The Nevro vs Boston Scientific lawsuit has vast implications for the field of neurotechnology (particularly for spinal cord stimulation). Those in this industry should be aware that this could be a very costly part of entering the industry.
Show notes:
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Joe Bird, a lawyer who specializes in patent litigation.
[1:27] Bird mentions that he is a lawyer working for a firm in Birmingham and specializes in patent litigation, and discusses his previous experience working in law.
[3:54] Bird discusses the emerging neurotech industry and how patent litigation in this industry is emerging.
[5:37] Bird lays down the groundwork for understanding the lawsuit between Nevro and Boston Scientific
[6:45] Bird gives an overview of how patents are administered and how patent litigation is carried out
[8:00] Bird discusses high-frequency stimulation and how it makes the product unique
[9:40] Bird discusses how Boston Scientific is challenging Nevro’s patent and discusses the prior art involved. Prior art serves a very important purpose in patent claims.
[12:00] Bird discusses patent claims, how they are made, what the rules are behind making them, and how they are unique
[14:30] Bird discuss claim construction and how patents are enforced
[15:45] Bird discusses the patent claim in the Nevro litigation and what it says
[17:10] A problem found with the patent claim is: the phrase “an implantable signal generator configured to generate a signal” is ambiguous.
[19:45] Another problem with the patent claim is: “to generate a non-paresthesia producing therapy signal” is a phrase that is an area of indefiniteness. Bird asks, “Can you patent something that doesn’t create an effect?”
[21:50] Two things important in the process of getting a patent claim issued are saying a product has a certain structure/composition, or function. Uses chainsaw as example
[22:40] Bird states how the court did not like how Nevro’s claim pertained to the claimed effect of the product, rather than an aspect of the product itself.
[23:45] There are two kinds of patent claims: article of composition or structure of device (device claim), and method claims. Bird mentions how court found that wording of Nevro’s patent claim was not indefinite for a method claim.
[25:40] Strategy to enforce structure-based claim is different (and easier) than enforcing a method claim
[28:00] Some patent clients conceal information about the process/products, some info does not go into patent. Bird says it is important to include all information possible in the patent.
[30:13] How patents are distinguished, and how patents are checked to make sure there is no “patent overlap”
[31:25] What does this Nevro vs Boston Scientific lawsuit mean for the neurotech industry? (specifically, for spinal cord stimulation)
[32:00] Bird talks about how more successful products are more susceptible to patent litigation
[33:00] This “war” is just beginning, and those in the spinal cord stimulation industry should be aware that litigation such as this could be a very costly part of entering the market
[35:30] Bird is working on getting his yacht, and Ladan can visit him 😊
[36:00] Bird says “follow the money and you can tell where the controversies are going to be”. He says the more revenue goes toward a product and patent, the more counsel they need.
[39:00] The investment occurring in this industry would not occur without patent protection. Investors do not want to put money in a company unless the products can be protected.
[40:35] Bird discusses non-practicing entities, which include research institutions, but also companies that simply acquire patents and instigate lawsuits
[41:45] Be kind to your patent lawyer.
Top 3 takeaways
- Developments in the spinal cord stimulation market for pain heat up with regulatory approval of 2 new devices for the treatment of chronic pain.
- Medtronic faces competition as Axonics enters the market with their sacral nerve stimulation device for fecal incontinence.
- Two major announcement for the treatment of paralysis due to SCI; one from DARPA and the other from European start-up venture, GTX medical
This is the first episode of a new monthly series of the neurotech industry round-up. If you don't have time to scan the headlines every day, listen to this podcast to get a summary of the news over that last month. Joining Ladan is Jen French and Jim Cavuoto from Neurotech Reports to review what is drawing attention in the neurotechnology industry. Some of the headlines focused on regulatory approvals of devices in the areas of heart failure, sleep apnea, migraine, and Parkinson's disease, as well as the passing of the reign of NeuroPace from Frank Fischer to Michael Favet. We also highlighted the market of obesity and the variety of neurotechnology approaches for the treatment of this condition.
3 Takeaways:
- Several neurotech devices gain regulatory approval of the last month as the neurotech competition heats up.
- The research and commercialization of devices for the treatment of obesity explands with an array of approaches.
- Recent development from the company Humm who is marketing a non-invasive tACS device and research from the University of Houston in the area of PTSD.
Doctor Henry Greely is a professor of law at Stanford University. His primary focus surrounds discussing the ethics of biological innovation and their implications to society. He is the president and founder of the International Neuroethics Society. In this episode, he delves into the complications associated with developing ethics in the similarly developing fields of biotechnology.
Top Three Takeaways:
- There are gaps in the ethical standards surrounding new biomedical advancements.
- Researchers should treat patients in their best interest once they are implanted with biomedical devices.
- Is there a moral difference between implantable devices and external smartphones?
Show Notes:
[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and Doctor Henry Greely who will be speaking about Neuroethics.
[1:50] Greely explains how he is a law professor and delves into the different areas of law he has worked in.
[3:00] Greely also explains the different subjects associated with the ethical arguments in biomedical advancements.
[5:30] There are gaps in the ethical standards surrounding new biomedical advancements; Greely specifically mentions the recent experiment of keeping a sheep brain alive.
[6:15] Greely looks at the social, legal and ethical consequences of new advancements in technologies emerging in the next twenty to thirty years.
[8:30] Stem cell research has followed ethical guidelines created in 2005 that are not forced by law; they give a piece of mind to institutions and researchers.
[11:00] It is much harder to make differences in subjects that are highly politicized.
[12:00] Greely looks at bioethics as a way to do research in safe and acceptable ways; he then goes into detail of ostracization cases where people went against ethics.
[15:00] Greely and his colleagues seek ethical guidelines for patients who finish their clinical trials and continue with life afterward.
[16:30] Researchers should treat patients in their best interest once they are implanted with biomedical devices.
[19:30] A grant would be useful to draft a set of guidelines when it comes to biomedical advancements.
[21:30] Greely makes it clear that enhancement occurs in our world all the time through activities such as teaching.
[23:00] The letterbox region activates when someone learns to read and sees the writing.
[24:30] The internet serves as a major human enhancement; Greely poses the question between the moral difference between internal and external human enhancements.
[28:30] Neural implant enhancements are not a very big concern for ethics right now because they require electrodes to be placed in the brain.
[31:30] The smartphone has been adopted extremely quickly considering they are only eleven years old.
[33:30] Greely does not see a moral difference between implantable devices and external smartphones.
[36:30] Social etiquettes emerge according to the masses with new technology; these social reactions are hard to predict.
[38:30] Wearable technology may be helpful, but it opens up a problem with data security.
Doctor Takashi Kozai, or Doctor TK Kozai, is currently an assistant professor at the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. He currently works in his own laboratory and researches in-vivo calcium brain imaging. He also has a background in research concerning carbon electrode development. He has been offered to work with the Neuralink Team associated with Elon Musk, but turned down the offer to focus on the innovational aspects of neural implant development.
Top Three Takeaways:
- In-vivo brain imaging seeks to map the generation of brain signals and realize how humans detect these signals.
- Though Kozai expresses his amazement at the work of Elon Musk’s team, he shares that he declined the offer to work with Neuralink because it did not necessarily focus on his interests.
- Innovation in any field lasts forever and influences the development of future technology.
Show Notes:
[0:00] Ladan introduces his guest TK Kozai that he met at the Neural Engineering Conference in San Francisco that he recently attended; he works with in-vivo calcium imaging and turned down Elon Musk’s offer to work on the Neuralink team.
[1:45] Kozai describes his interests as understanding the materials and designs of neural implants, as well as the biological degeneration and regeneration around the interfaces.
[2:20] In-vivo brain imaging seeks to map the generation of brain signals and realize how humans detect these signals.
[3:05] Kozai reaffirms the importance of glial cells and other molecules that support the functioning of neurons.
[4:15] Modulating the stiffness and designs of electrodes often has many unintentional effects.
[5:25] Kozai’s research has shown that higher frequency stimulation leads to decreased antidromic activation over time.
[7:10] Kozai confirms that there have been struggles in the path of his research development that had to be dealt with in order for progression.
[7:30] His team has been excited to use two-photon microscopy to study how degeneration tissue reaction nucleosis evolves over time.
[7:45] Challenges include head-capping and packaging of the neural interface.
[9:30] Kozai shares how his advisor initially had doubts concerning his research in carbon electrodes.
[10:30] Kozai explains how he set the research for his paper into motion from an idea.
[12:00] Though Kozai expresses his amazement at the work of Elon Musk’s team, he shares that he declined the offer to work with Neuralink because it did not necessarily focus on his interests.
[14:00] Academia explores the innovation and progression in neural bioelectronic development that is often exciting.
[15:00] Kozai’s lab is now focusing on how to treat different types of neural degeneration with engineering.
[16:40] Technological health developments can be developed from studying how injuries affect people genetically prone to certain neurodegenerative diseases.
[18:30] Kozai explains how is high-school biology teacher influenced his interest in biology.
[21:30] He hopes that technology in brain-machine interfaces will build-off and develop from his work.
Doctor Alejandra Gonzalez is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas-Dallas that works in the fields of neurotechnology. She currently focuses on how she can develop graphing fibers that have better electrochemical properties for implantable devices.
Top Three Takeaways:
- Her team is creating graphing fibers without good electrochemical properties and good mechanical properties to use as electrical interfaces in peripheral nerves.
- Conventional electrodes have charge capacities that range from 0.05-0.2 mC per centimeter squared, and conventional graphing fibers have one of 300 mC per centimeter squared.
- She mentions how it sometimes is difficult to combine the fields of neurology and engineering.
Show Notes:
[00:00] Ladan introduces the episode from a recent neural engineering conference he attended in March of 2019.
[1:15] Alejandra Gonzalez introduces herself from University of Texas-Dallas as a postdoctoral fellow. The poster covers the fabrication of high performance of graphing electrodes for the use of interfaces.
[1:45] Her team is creating graphing fibers without good electrochemical properties and good mechanical properties to use as electrical interfaces in peripheral nerves.
[2:10] Conventional electrodes have charge capacities that range from 0.05-0.2 mC per centimeter squared, and conventional graphing fibers have one of 300 mC per centimeter squared.
[2:35] Metallic coatings have been added to the fibers to improve their charge capacities to 940 mC per centimeter squared.
[3:00] The design of Gonzalez’s fibers reduce impedance and improve electrical flow.
[3:25] The fibers can be in thinner than 20 micrometers in diameter.
[4:00] Gonzalez pictures this technology being used as cuffs around peripheral nerves.
[4:30] She mentions how it sometimes is difficult to combine the fields of neurology and engineering.
Ian Baumgart is a Biomedical Engineering Master’s student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He currently conducts research in Doctor Kip Ludwig’s Neural Engineering Laboratory. Baumgart’s current project focuses on the Injectrode, which is an injectable pre-polymer that can act as a conductor throughout the body along with nerves.
Top Three Takeaways:
- The Injectrode is basically liquid pre-polymer with conductive particles that are completely injectable.
- The benefits of this procedure involve the fact that it is minimally invasive—it can be injected into deep structures relatively easily. The injectrode is softer and conforms better than a wire.
- Baumgart’s team hopes to develop insulation for the injectrode; he would also like to increase the shelf-life of the injectrode and characterize its composition.
Show Notes:
[0:00] Ladan introduces the NER Conference he attended in March of 2019 and explains how he conducted interviews at the poster sessions.
[1:15] Ian Baumgart introduces himself from the University of Wisconsin-Madison working in Doctor Kip Ludwig’s Neural Engineering Laboratory.
[1:30] Baumgart introduces the Injectrode which is basically liquid pre-polymer with conductive particles that is completely injectable.
[2:15] His team eventually hopes to further develop the surgical aspect of the procedure to better administer the Injetctrode.
[2:30] Baumgart goes into the details concerning the setup of the experiment and the similarities observed throughout testing.
[3:40] The benefits of this procedure involve the fact that it is minimally invasive—it can be injected into deep structures relatively easily. The injectrode is softer and conforms better than a wire.
[4:45] The physical properties have yet to be characterized in the Injectrode.
[5:25] Baumgart’s team hopes to develop insulation for the injectrode; he would also like to increase the shelf-life of the injectrode and characterize its composition.
[6:00] His paper is currently in the Bio Archive and will be published soon; its name is A Truly Injectable Neural Stimulation Electrode Made from an In-Body Curing Polymer/Metal Composite.
Doctor Cary Kuliasha is a postdoctoral research associate working with Doctor Jack Judy’s research laboratory at the University of Florida. His team focuses on the potential effects the body’s environment could have on biomedical devices over time through accelerated aging. Kuliasha’s work currently focuses on how Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive technology could be applied to bioelectronics since it is currently used in computer technology.
Top Three Takeaways:
- The point of the project is to mimic a chronic inflammatory environment with oxygen species that could potentially affect an implantable device.
- The Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive and the silicon packaging experienced failure relatively quickly in the aging environment.
- There is a correlation between the RA environment and how the body affects bioelectronic devices; the strength of the correlation is unknown.
Show Notes:
[00:00] Ladan introduces the episode from a recent neural engineering conference he attended in March of 2019.
[1:10] Doctor Cary Kuliasha introduces himself from the University of Florida where he works with Doctor Jack Judy; he presents his poster as “In-Vitro Accelerated Aging Assessment of Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive and Implantable Packaging for Bioelectronic Interfaces”.
[1:50] His project mimics the physiological environment for a bioelectronic device in the body over time.
[2:30] The point of the project is to mimic a chronic inflammatory environment with oxygen species that could potentially affect an implantable device.
[3:20] The poster focuses on the backend packaging that implantable devices need; Kuliasha explains how this topic is often neglected.
[3:55] The poster focuses on the connector technology that the backend packaging needs to connect to the neural interface of implantable devices.
[4:30] Kuliasha goes into detail concerning the new Microflex technology that uses a golden ribbon.
[5:15] Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive technology commonly used in connecting different kinds of computers together is now being studied in the body for biomedical devices.
[6:15] The Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive technology was encapsulated in silicon and then put into an environment similar to the body at 77 degrees Celsius to see how it changed over time.
[6:45] The Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive and the silicon packaging experienced failure relatively quickly in the aging environment.
[7:45] Kuliasha explains how failure leads to improvement in the field of engineering.
[8:30] There is a correlation between the RA environment and how the body affects bioelectronic devices; the strength of the correlation is unknown.
[9:00] A ten degree Celsius increase in temperature in the RA environment doubles the time of aging.
[9:45] Kuliasha plans to test other manufacturers and possibly other connectors that do not involve Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive.
Andrew Trask is currently a student at Oxford University and Author of Grokking Deep Learning performing his Ph.D. concerning anonymizing data. He discusses the facts concerning deep and machine learning and their possible benefits to society. Trask also discusses privacy securing techniques that would further benefit the field. Finally, Trask discusses his connection with Open Mind, which is a company that uses machine and deep learning to overcome the barriers in adoption.
Top Three Takeaways:
- Machine Learning is a set of algorithms that allows for a system to learn while deep learning is a subset of Machine Learning techniques that are inspired by the human brain.
- Research in Deep Learning and Machine Learning to bring down sample complexity; more data is always better but cannot always be managed.
- Different types of privacy securing techniques are used to further propel the fields of Machine and Deep Learning.
Show Notes:
[0:00] Ladan introduces Andrew Trask who will discuss deep learning. He currently is performing his Ph.D. at University of Oxford concerning anonymizing data.
[1:10] Ladan mentions how Trask wrote his book Grokking Deep Learning. The book seeks to teach the fundamentals of deep learning; the term “grokking” comes from the idea of an innate understanding.
[2:25] The book fills the void for an intuitive guide in the subject of deep learning.
[3:20] Trask was not a Ph.D. student when he started writing the book; he found an implementation of the deep neural networking and removed as much unnecessary information as possible.
[5:55] Machine Learning is a set of algorithms that allows for a system to learn while deep learning is a subset of Machine Learning techniques that are inspired by the human brain.
[6:30] The Deep Learning’s parametric algorithm would construct a hierarchical view of the world by recognizing lines and edges; the second part of the algorithm would take this information to form shapes, textures, and shadows.
[8:20] Machine Learning includes Deep Learning and other learning techniques as subsets.
[10:00] Trask disagrees with those who claim that all forms of Machine Learning and Deep Learning as artificial intelligence; Machine and Deep Learning focus on finding patterns.
[11:50] Sample complexity relates to how many data points an algorithm needs to learn a pattern.
[12:40] Research in Deep Learning and Machine Learning to bring down sample complexity; more data is always better but cannot always be managed.
[14:00] There is much more unlabelled data in any field than labeled data; large amounts of labeled data is preferable.
[16:00] Hospitals are not willing to share useful information for the development of algorithms in safe ways.
[16:30] Research in this field concerns sharing private and intelligent information in a secure way.
[17:40] An example of useful Deep Learning would be to find trends associated with aging in the brain that could lead to the reversal of its effects.
[19:00] Federated learning is a new tool that replaces approaching different data providers with sending statistical models into someone's organization that only reveals the results needed.
[21:30] Differential Privacy is a set of formal proofs to prove that statistic leaving an organization has no private data.
[22:40] Patterns that are not unique to someone should not be considered private information.
[24:00] For example, brain cells firing in response to certain information that is generalizable would not be considered personal information.
[25:15] Secure Multiparty Computation refers to how the statistical model that is used for Machine Learning is put at risk.
[27:50] AI models and data sets are just large collections of numbers.
[28:30] To learn more, study a deep learning framework; fast.ai is a very helpful website for this.
[29:00] Open Mind serves as an open-source community that utilizes privacy securing technologies to lower the barriers of adoption.
Cory Inman is a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University School of Medicine who studies the effect deep brain stimulation has on the emotional experience of humans. He seeks to treat depression in patients and potentially improve their memories through the effects of deep brain stimulation. In this episode, he explains how his team studies deep brain stimulation and navigates the ethics associated with the rising technology.
Top Three Takeaways:
- The exact areas of brain stimulation determine if the patient experiences a change in emotion.
- Rat and other animal models lead to inferencing in order to see the results of deep brain stimulation.
- The ethics of deep brain stimulation and research must always be realized in order to prevent the technology from being abused.
[0:00] Ladan introduces Cory Inman and explains how he studies deep brain stimulation and its effects on the emotional aspect of someone’s personality. He also invites listeners to the 2019 Bioelectronic Medicine Forum in New York. To register, follow the hyperlink or call (415) 546-1259. If you mention the Neural Implant Podcast Channel, you will receive a free ebook written by Jennifer French and published by Neurotech Press.
[2:30] Inman explains how he has tried to enhance memory through deep brain stimulations.
[3:15] His team studied how stimulating the amygdala could affect depression.
[4:30] Patients who are having their brains monitored by implantable electrodes monitoring for seizures are asked if they would like to participate in research on deep brain stimulation and emotion.
[6:20] Inman goes into detail about the conversations occurring surrounding the ethics of deep brain stimulation.
[8:00] It is explained how Inman’s research institution sees 30-45 patients a year which is much more than other ones focusing on deep brain stimulation.
[8:45] The stimulations in the brain are very localized; very specific nuclei in the amygdala can be stimulated.
[10:00] Neurologists agree that certain areas of the brain are not normal in epileptic patients; these areas of the brain could be removed if they are redundant in other parts of the brain.
[12:00] Out of sixty patients, only about two patients experienced emotional changes with amygdala stimulation.
[13:30] The exact areas of brain stimulation determine if the patient experiences a change in emotion.
[14:00] Most of the human cognition occurs unconsciously; different areas and amounts of stimulation to the neural circuit could lead to awareness of emotional differences.
[15:15] Inman explains that staying aware of the ethics of deep brain stimulation poses the largest challenge to his team. Another challenge involves the lack of knowledge in the area.
[17:00] The amperage and frequency can be altered in stimulation; another challenge involves a large number of variables that can be altered with deep brain stimulation.
[19:30] Animal models provide more flexibility to modify parameters that can be later applied to humans.
[20:15] Stimulation of the amygdala is dose-dependent—increased and stronger stimulation leads to more of a response.
[21:00] Rat and other animal models lead to inferencing in order to see the results of deep brain stimulation.
[22:00] Implications of this research involves helping people suffering from disabilities and diseases.
[23:50] Inman shares how one can easily lose a sense of self when suffering from memory loss.
[25:00] Inman hopes to use deep brain stimulation to help people remember the memories that create a sense of self.
[26:00] Inman expresses his concern for the use of deep brain stimulation to control the emotions of other people; he says that it is our job to make sure the dark side of this technology never emerges.
[27:30] Ladan explains how this technology is very controlled and would be hard to take advantage of.
[29:00] With unlimited funding, Inman would gather all of the world experts in various neural technologies to create an augmented reality for patients that would help improve memories.
[30:40] Inman wants to test the real-life memories of people outside of controlled experimental settings.
[32:00] The NeuroPace RNS is placed in epilepsy patients that get seizures from multiple areas of the brain at one time.
[33:15] The device monitors areas of the brain known for causing seizures and stops them via stimulation.
[35:30] Inman wants to create a virtual reality that could help test people’s memories and help increase their retention.
[37:00] Inman expresses his gratitude for the Neural Implant Podcast Channel because it creates an outlet for developments in neural technologies.
[40:00] Ladan describes his interest in how deep brain stimulation could affect people’s emotional states.
Jim Cavuoto runs Neurotech Reports where he seeks to educate the industry and public concerning neurotechnology and neuroprosthetics. Cavuoto studied at Case Western University as a biomedical engineering student and began writing about neurotechnology as an undergraduate student. His organization serves as an information source for four fields of neurotechnology: neuromodulation, neuroprosthetics, neurosensing, and neurorehabilitation; a yearly growth report and weekly newsletter is provided by Neurotech Reports. His website can be found at www.neurotechreports.com.
Top Three Takeaways:
- Neurotech Reports seeks to educate the field of neurotechnology to inspire innovation.
- Several very promising early stages of biotechnology are emerging, such as retinal implants.
- Neuromodulation for psychiatric needs have not been met and require more funding.
Show Notes:
[0:00] Ladan introduces his guest Jim Cavuoto from Neurotech Reports; he also invites listeners to the 2019 Bioelectronic Medicine Forum in New York. To register, follow the hyperlink or call (415) 546-1259. If you mention the Neural Implant Podcast Channel, you will receive a free ebook written by Jennifer French and published by Neurotech Press.
[1:50] Cavuoto introduces himself as running Neurotech Reports with Jennifer French (listen to her episode here) as partners; he describes the purpose of the organization as educating the neurotechnological field.
[5:10] They hope to leave people better about technological trends, government regulations, and reimbursement trends.
[6:20] Cavuoto describes his background from Case Western University where he wrote articles about technology in his undergraduate career.
[9:10] Cavuoto describes how Warren Grill brought him back to the biomedical engineering field after time away.
[10:45] He describes the difficulty associated with starting a company in September of 2001.
[13:45] Cavuoto describes several moments of excitement in the field that motivated development.
[15:45] The possibilities of treatment to spinal cord injuries are revealed and discussed.
[18:15] Several early stages of biotechnology offer promise to the future.
[19:15] Cavuoto predicts that the development of biotechnology will mirror Moore’s law in technological advances.
[20:45] Awareness and funding are still needed to drive biomedical engineering.
[22:45] Cavuoto explains how the amount of development in neurotechnology that cures disease and provides insight on brain activity.
[23:20] Bionic Pioneers is a true account that highlights the challenges and triumphs of 10 people who participated in trials of neurotechnology.
Jennifer French of Neurotech Reports received a spinal cord injury in 1998 and became the first woman to receive the Stand and Transfer neural implant system. A silver medalist in sailing at the 2012 Paralympic Games, she sits down to discuss her experiences with her implantable device and how it has affected her life. During this discussion, she mentions her struggles and successes with her device along with her concerns and hopes for the technology.
If you like this episode then come to the Bioelectronic Medicine Forum in New York on April 4th. To register, follow the hyperlink or call (415) 546-1259. If you mention the Neural Implant Podcast Channel, you will receive a free ebook written by Jennifer French and published by Neurotech Press.
Top Three Takeaways:
- Body sensors in neural implants have unknown lifespans; their potential failure induces a sense of stress.
- The implantation of electrodes involves invasive surgery and long recovery time; the development of more reliable electrodes and less invasive procedures is necessary.
- There is a large risk concerning cybersecurity and tapping into wireless devices, such as pacemakers.
Show Notes:
[0:00] Ladan introduces Jennifer French from Neurotech Report; he also invites listeners to the 2019 Bioelectronic Medicine Forum in New York. To register, follow the hyperlink or call (415) 546-1259. If you mention the Neural Implant Podcast Channel, you will receive a free ebook written by Jennifer French and published by Neurotech Press.
[3:00] It is mentioned how sensor failure associated with closed-loop diabetes treatment induces stress.
[4:20] Different kinds of sensors in the body have unknown lifespans; they may or may not last very long.
[5:40] The developers for the original pacemaker created in the 1960s and 1970s by Medtronic relied on guessed parameters.
[8:00] Describing muscle stimulation, it is noted that muscles do not act in isolation; once one muscle is stimulated, another will act differently.
[9:25] Machinomite IST uses two channels to allow someone to stand and adds ankle movement as well.
[11:10] Network Neural Prosthesis (NNP) looks to build a network into the body in order to create modules and provide other functions.
[12:30] Jen French describes the controls of her neural prosthetic implant.
[14:55] The controls use buttons to activate muscles; there is usually a three-second delay for ramp-up.
[17:10] French describes the first implant she had in 1999 that included eight electrode channels.
[18:40] Many factors can lead to the failure of electrodes.
[20:10] French has gone through four major surgeries for her electrodes.
[22:10] When one gets electrodes put in, two major aspects are needed: the electrodes must be effective and they cannot shift.
[23:40] Doing research on higher mammals and moving towards minimally invasive procedures will improve the field of electrodes.
[25:10] Cuff electrodes use less power and allow for more flexibility.
[27:10] Black boxes for the electrodes often overheat.
[29:40] There is a large risk concerning cybersecurity and tapping into wireless devices, such as pacemakers.
[32:40] Society is getting to the point where it will soon be able to monitor implantable devices on mobile phones.
[37:10] French does not know her expectations concerning her implants because she is still participating in a clinical trial.
[40:10] Coming up with systemic ways of funding is necessary to ensure no patients are forgotten in clinical trials.
[42:10] Patients in failed clinical trials should be granted new opportunities.
[43:00] French constantly must stimulate her muscles via several techniques to prevent atrophy.
[45:10] French explains how the stimulation has affected her autonomic system.
[48:10] Autonomic systems are very much affected by spinal cord injuries.
[50:40] Aiming for easier targets in neural implant function may allow for more easily acquired secondary functions.
Apologies! The wrong episode audio was incorrectly uploaded previously
Dr. Francisco Delgado, or Frank, has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University Florida under Dr. Kevin Otto’s laboratory for a little over two years. As he plans to move on and pursue his career with the Food and Drug Administration, he reflects back on what he received as working in the Otto lab. Not only does he offer advice to future postdoctoral researchers, he also points out how they can receive the most from their experience as well.
Top Three Takeaways:
- Postdoctoral careers are necessary to become an academic but less necessary to work in industry.
- Candidates should try out possible postdoctoral laboratories before making a commitment to ensure it is what they want to do.
- Mistakes are not failures but ways to view gaps of knowledge to improve upon.
[0:00] Frank explains how he feels odd on his last day and explains how everything is ending and coming together.
[2:00] Frank describes how he is going to the Food and Drug Administration with two offers: one from the Center for Tobacco Products and one from the Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
[3:45] Frank and his girlfriend agreed to move on and find new positions as soon as a clear endpoint arrived in their work.
[5:30] Frank explains how working as a postdoc, he had to put his papers and publications on hold in order to work with DARPA; he was also able to help many people get their projects started.
[7:15] A postdoc career often takes one in may unexpected directions.
[9:00] Frank recommends for postdoc students to volunteer in whatever lab they may choose to work in for a week to ensure it is a good option for them.
[11:30] Frank shares how sometimes he feels postdocs are not helpful because they are irrelevant to many industries; one needs to do a postdoc if they wants to become an academic.
[12:40] Frank’s postdoc gave him more confidence in what he could do than his PhD program.
[14:00] Frank describes the pressures of possibly making mistakes in someone else’s laboratory.
[15:30] Frank had to apply his past experiences from his graduate career to be able to learn new tasks quickly.
[18:00] Franks shares his viewpoint that people need to be willing to make mistakes in order for progression.
[20:00] Frank strikes down the notion that mistakes are equivalent to failure.
[21:30] Scholarly papers should move towards publishing the mistakes along with the positive results.
Thomas Hughes, JD works as the senior principal advisor for The Regulatory and Clinical Research Institute based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His organization works to assist medical device companies pass regulatory steps to sell their product and find paths for reimbursements necessary to fund the medical devices. He stresses that one of the most critical steps in developing a device involves focusing on the reimbursement process.
Top Three Takeaways:
- Medical device companies must consider the reimbursement process when passing their devices through the regulatory process.
- Reimbursement is a three legged stool: coding pathway, the payment attached, and coverage are all necessary.
- The Regulatory and Clinical Research Institute works with a variety of companies—not just startups.
Show Notes:
[00:30] Ladan introduces his guest Thomas Hughes as a medical device consultant who has travelled through many parts of the world—check out Travel Wisdom Podcast to learn more about his travels.
[1:20] Hughes explains his role as senior principal advisor at a clinical research organization called The Regulatory and Clinical Research Institute (RCRI).
[2:40] Hughes describes how he helps organizations get through the regulatory period for their medical devices.
[3:10] Hughes spoke at the forum to explain to medical device companies about how to not only get their devices through regulations, but also acquire reimbursement for them.
[3:45] Startup medical device companies must prove to purchasers that their products should be purchased.
[4:30] Hughes aids companies in understanding how to implement health economics into their products.
[6:00] The design features are critical for a product because it must work well and be disruptive—the medical device must be proven valuable.
[7:15] Medical device companies must research and cater to the financial aspects of their products.
[8:30] Reimbursement is a three legged stool: coding pathway, the payment attached, and coverage are involved.
[10:45] The target groups and codes certain medical technologies must be researched for depends on the type of device.
[13:00] Multiple codes for reimbursement may exist for a medical device.
[13:45] The first step for reimbursement it to look for existing codes; if this does not work, the company may need to take steps in order to create a new code.
[15:00] RCRI does not work with just startups; they work with several large companies still seeking help.
[16:20] Hughes has worked with many startups recently because investors seek to know the landscapes for new medical technologies.
[18:00] Companies may have a great design for their product, but they must think how they will pay for it.
[19:30] Check out Tom Hughes article from October of 2018 in Medical Outsourcing Magazine.
Doctor Frederic Gilbert works at the University of Tasmania in Australia and studies neuroethics. A major theme is how Deep Brain Stimulation affects personality disorders. In a very limited amount of research, studies have indicated that some patients have experienced strong personality changes inclining them to depression, addiction and sometimes even suicide. Gilbert paints the importance of medical ethics when making medical innovations in order to protect patients. He argues that medical ethics must involve informing patients and their families of all risks associated with treatment.
Top Three Takeaways:
- Deep Brain Stimulation may cause personality disorders to occur in some patients.
- Medical Ethics is important to prevent any unnecessary harm to a patient.
- Though neuroethics may seem to threaten sciences, they actually aid the progression of helpful innovation.
Show Notes:
[0:00] Frederic Gilbert introduces himself and begins to discuss the effects of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS).
[2:00] Gilbert ensures that DBS is safe and effective even though some patients experience personality side-effects.
[4:00] In respect to Parkinson’s Disease, DBS is better than nothing because the positive effects outway the risks.
[6:00] Gilbert explains how an exaggeration on ethics must take place to prevent patient harm.
[9:00] Gilbert points out how no studies studying how DBS affects personality disorders held a control group.
[11:30] It is described how 400,000 patients use DBS for a broad range of treatments.
[13:30] Neuroethics is described as the ethics of neuroscience that puts patient safety first.
[16:00] Neuroethics may be seen as a threat to science even though it actually helps ensure safe progression.
[19:30] Gilbert describes how he works with a group at the University of Tasmania that develops electromaterials; his group works at developing artificial intelligence that predicts epilepsy.
[22:00] Gilbert makes clear how the ethics of neurotechnology must involve informing patients and families of all effects and risks.
Robert Gaunt is in the field of biomedical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation focusing on sensory neuroprosthetics. His research aims to assist patients who suffer from afflictions that range from amputations to bladder control. He recognizes the challenges the development of neuroprosthetics faces and urges that more funding and research be put into solving these dilemmas. Gaunt makes clear the importance of group collaboration in the field of neuroprosthetics in order to ensure the progression of the field.
Top Three Takeaways:
-
The goal of his work is to make usable sensory prosthetics for people that need them in a reasonable time period.
-
There are a number of technical issue in neuroprosthetics; delivering commercial quality systems that pass regulations needs funding.
-
Patients often dedicate the most to any clinical trial by offering most of their time.
Show Notes:
[0:00] Gaunt describes the panel from the conference meant to describe patient perspectives on clinical trials.
[2:00] Gaunt makes clear that the patients have dedicated very much of their time to the trials.
[2:50] Gaunt introduces himself formerly and describes how he is from the University of Pittsburgh.
[4:10] Gaunt describes his work with the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Alberta on brain/bladder control.
[6:00] Gaunt describes how the bladder control is a highly sensory function.
[7:50] It is explained how fully implantable wireless system would be a very strong stride for neurotechnology.
[9:40] Usable prosthetic arms can benefit people in doing everyday tasks.
[11:00] Gaunt explains how there are a number of technical challenges in the neuroprosthetic field—delivering commercial quality systems that pass regulations needs funding.
[12:00] Gaunt goes into detail on projects for amputees and control for their prosthetics.
[14:00] Anyone interested in the field of neuroprosthetics should love it and find a problem they wish to solve.
[17:40] People wishing to start a business in this field must have a good business plan and funding.
[19:00] Gaunt points out how collaboration and team science is very important for innovation.
Roberta Goode started Goode Compliance International to assist companies in the industry of biomedical engineering facing the scrutiny of regulations instilled by organizations like the Food and Drug Administration. Goode explains the purpose of her company and the path she took to ensure its success through years of experience and learning. She later began Altrec LLC as a second career to assist clients to break down the complexities associated with starting a company and promoting a service or product.
Top Three Take Aways:
-
Goode Compliance International moves in and works with companies needing assistance for their products passing regulation by taking a personal approach of collaboration.
-
Goode ensures that innovational products often need to be created regardless of experience; service based ventures often require much more experience.
-
Ensure a valid and strong plan is present when starting a company with the necessary investors, patents, and team; do not confuse action with traction.
Show Notes:
[0:00] Ladan introduces Roberta Goode as the founder of Goode Compliance International which serves as a consulting firm that assists medical devices pass regulation.
[2:00] Goode explains how innovation and ideas must be born immediately concerning products.
[3:00] Consulting businesses and providing services requires experience.
[4:10] Goode explains how Goode Compliance International helps medical devices receive the approval of the Food and Drug Administration.
[7:00] Goode's organization sends consultants to help companies to alter and improve their products.
[8:30] Goode shares how her business model received success because her team would move in and create a plan of collaboration.
[11:00] Goode's team would be deployed for months for 9-18 months.
[12:00] Many underlying issues often become revealed when assisting a company.
[15:00] When hiring her employees, Goode would hire the top three or four performers in her classes through interviews spanning weeks.
[16:00] Goode mentions how important it is for her employees to pay attention to detail.
[18:00] Experts in the field of consulting with Goode Compliance International would be assigned as mentors to the graduates.
[20:00] Goode really enjoyed the field of biomedical engineering but found no life/work balance.
[22:30] Goode decided to start her own organization and enjoyed having a connection helping others.
[25:00] Goode began her venture by attaining several important jobs to gain experience before starting her own company.
[27:30] She ensured she returned something to the companies she learned from.
[29:30] Altrec LLC was started to assist clients to break down the complexities associated with starting a company and promoting a service or product.
[32:30] Goode ensured she had time for her own life through the flexibility of her second endeavor.
[34:00] Goode Compliance International fulfilled every contract and ensured the future for its employees in order to wind down the company by December 2017.
[36:30] Goode did not sell her company because she did not want to sell her reputation or name.
[39:00] Goode did not have the time to trust the investors to use her name.
[41:30] Investors, patents, and a strong team provide the route necessary in starting a company and making a product available.
[44:00] It is important to have a five year plan and an exit plan when starting a company.
[45:30] Just because one is doing many actions does not ensure they are making progress in their company.
Founded by Martin Bak in 1983, Microprobes for Life Science seeks to provide a unique electrode model that uses Parylene-C as an insulator. This company aims to sell customizable products to neuroscientists studying electrophysiology. All products are handmade, tested for precision and quality, and made by request of the customer. The company has experienced steady growth at 6-8% since its conception and uses its handmade approach as its business model.
Top Three Takeaways:
-
Microprobes for Life Science creates customizable neurotechnology focusing on electrodes.
-
All products are handmade by highly trained technicians and experience extreme testing.
-
The company has experienced steady growth at 6-8% and seeks to enter the clinical market.
Show Notes:
[0:00] Martin Bak introduces himself as the founder of Microprobes for Life Science.
[3:50] Nicolas Alba introduces himself as the Chief Operating Officer of Microprobes for Life Science.
[5:00] It is explained how the company uses traditional hand-manufacturing techniques to make customizable products.
[8:00] It is described how the products must be precise and flawless—most technicians have been trained for more than ten years.
[10:00] All products must go through extreme testing; the products envelop the forefront of new techniques.
[15:00] Microprobes for Life Science uses the skills of technicians to take the long route and make products that emulate quality.
[17:00] Their business approach takes advantage of hand-making products and training technicians.
[18:30] The company focuses on electrodes to be able to support the neuroprosthetic community the best way possible.
[20:00] Microprobes for Life Science has experienced 6-8% steady growth since conception.
[22:00] The company seeks to enter the clinical market which may be more stable.
[23:00] The field has an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurship and has many interesting people that will help humanity.
As the Chief Executive Officer of Nia Therapeutics, Dan Rizzuto and his team are currently developing a neurological implant that increases the memory of patients suffering from Alzheimer’s diseases and traumatic brain injury. By using deep brain stimulation (DBS) to increase high frequency functions and decrease low frequency functions in areas important to memory, such as the frontal lobe, Nia Therapeutics has successfully improved memory
capability by 18%. Though this is only the beginning for a new neurotechnology, Rizzuto and his team provide hope for patients suffering from debilitating diseases to be able to fully function
again and experience healthy aging.
Nia Therapeutics is currently recruiting hardware engineers. The listing for this profession is
available at:
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/principal-electrical-engineer-at-nia-therapeutics-993933469/
Important Research Concerning Topic:
Burke et al. (2014) Human intracranial high-frequency activity maps episodic memory formation in space and time. Neuroimage, 85: 834–843.
This paper from our group identifies the intracranial biomarkers of human memory. High-frequency activity in specific brain regions during the encoding of new memories predicts whether subjects will remember the information at a later time.
Ezzyat et al (2017) Direct Brain Stimulation Modulates Encoding States and Memory Performance in Humans. Current Biology 27(9):1251-1258.
This paper illustrates how direct brain stimulation can be used to modulate memory performance. In 36 patients with implanted electrodes we demonstrated both positive and negative effects on recall performance, depending on the timing of stimulation relative to the patient's ongoing brain activity.
Ezzyat et al (2018) Closed-loop stimulation of temporal cortex rescues functional networks and improves memory. Nature Communications, 9(1):365.This recent paper from our team shows how precisely timed and targeted brain stimulation was used to reliably improve word recall performance in 25 patients with implanted electrodes.
Top Three Takeaways:
1. Biomarkers for high memory capability include increased high-frequency activity and decreased low-frequency activity in certain areas of the brain.
2. An 18% increase in memory compounds over time greatly increasing the capabilities of a person.
3. No major side-effects have been noted as of now; the potential for memory improvement still continues to grow for those suffering from traumatic brain injury.
Show Notes
[0:00] Nia Therapeutics seeks to improve memory for patients suffering from traumatic brain injury through an implant.
[2:00] The company developed in January of 2018 as part of the Restoring Active Memory Project funded by DARPA.
[4:00] There are clear biomarkers that indicate good or bad memory.
[7:00] With the known biomarkers, the brain can be stimulated into a mode of good memory.
[8:45] The biomarkers of good memory encoding in the brain mirror the biomarkers of good retrieval.
[10:15] This technology is specifically meant for those suffering from traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases.
[12:30] There was a documented 18% increase in memory from the implantable device; this would move 25% of memory-impaired individuals from disabled to nondisabled.
[14:30] Memory increase compounds over time.
[16:00] There are still surgical risks associated with this treatment.
[19:30] No major side-effects have been documented.
[22:00] Rizzuto recently closed Nia’s first financing of over one million dollars.
[24:00] The funding will be enough to design a platform; extensive testing through the FDA is still necessary.
[28:00] Patients are the unsung heroes of the clinical trials.
[30:00] Many of the patients who volunteered suffered from epilepsy which is an effect of traumatic brain injury.
[32:00] Some patients experienced 30-40% memory improvement; the idea of this technology is to restore memory.
Jack Judy is the director of Nanoscience Institute for Medical and Engineering Technologies at
the University of Florida He serves to bridge the divide between engineering, medicine, and the
sciences through the work he does with neurotechnologies and neural implants. He has focused
on peripheral nerve interfaces and how stimulating these could help amputees in the Wounded
Warrior Project. He has worked with DARPA for several years where he has revolutionized
biotechnology and biomedicine to confront issues many in the field were ignoring.
Top Three Takeaways:
1. Biomedicine and biotechnology provide an avenue for innovation in the future of neural
implants that could provide alternative forms of treatment for certain treatments.
2. Many issue concerning neural implants are not being discussed openly which thwarts
improvement in much for the field.
3. The field of biotechnologies and biomedicine has potential but very strong challenges
that include funding, research, and over excitement without delivery.
Show Notes
[0:00] Jack Judy Introduces himself
[2:50] Ladan asks about the approaches Judy and his colleagues are taking in building physical
objects that will work with neural tissue.
[6:30] Judy explains how higher channel counts in neural implants could compromise good
electrical connection.
[11:30] Judy explains how he got involved in the field of neurotechnology through DARPA.
[16:00] Judy explains the problems he perceives in neurotechnology.
[22:30] Judy explains how he worked with DARPA to serve the nation and assist the defense.
[26:00] Judy explains how DARPA chose to shed a light on the reliability issues
neurotechnology has.
[29:05] The hype cycle concerning MEMS technology is discussed; the relationship between the
hype cycle of neural implants is also explained.
[37:00] Judy acknowledges the excitement in the field of biomedicine, but he advocates for
research and funding.
[43:00] Judy explains how the field does face obstacles but the strong engineering school and
strong medical school in close proximity at the University of Florida provides a good
environment for progression.
This is the first of our Neural Implant roundtable where we talk with former guests Doug Clinton of Loup Ventures, Manfred Franke of Neuronoff, and Avery Bedows who founded the neural implant blog, the Substrate.
This podcast focuses on the relationship between the public and the neurotechnology in the modern world. The key questions concerning the podcasts involve what, when, how and why
should neurotechnology be discussed in public.
~0min - introductions and explaining their experiences that could provide perspective to the
discussion.
~7min - how neural stimulation can promote healing similar to a pill in medicine.
11:30 - the participants discuss increased investment in neural technologies.
~20 min - Discussions of the difficulties of getting answers from brain scans and transition to regulations posed by the FDA. They agree that people must gain trust through witnessing other people consume neural technologies for the idea to gain popularity.
This was a great show and the format went well. I think there will be more of these types of shows in the future.
I talked to Christopher Thomas today about his job as a Science Writer at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). How he went from being a graduate student to working as someone in media for the government. Since this is a new career path on this podcast we talk about the steps to get there and what others can do if they are interested in doing something similar.
In this second part of the great interview, I was able to have with Jennifer French in her hometown of St. Petersburg Florida, we talked about the futures of many of the Brain Machine Interface technologies. Since she works for a reporting journal on the developments of the field, she knows everything about what is going on and the potentials of each of the technologies. I found this to be one of the most interesting conversations I have had because I also like to learn about the financial side of the science that we all do.
I had the great pleasure to meet with Jennifer French of Neurotech reports in St. Petersburg....Florida!!! In this first part of the episode we talk about her C6-7 spinal chord injury that has left her tetrapalegic for the last 20 years. But just as her accident was epic, so was the rest of her story with not taking no for an answer as being one of the defining themes in her story.
Tomorrow we will be publishing the second part of the interview.
I've actually been in contact with Doug Clinton for many months but only now have done an episode. He is a managing partner at Loup Ventures which has recently invested money in companies such as Neurable and former guest Paradromics. In this episode, we talk about why their firm invests in companies which have a longer time horizon like medical device companies rather than software companies like in Silicon Valley. He talks about what he looks for in a company when investing and why their companies don't worry about FDA approval and even see it as a benefit.
Doug is also the host of the Neurotech Podcast which covers many similar things in the field of Neural Implants but with a eye more towards the investment side of things.
In this last episode from my interviews from the 2018 Neural Interfaces Conference in Minneapolis I talk to Dr Jacob Robinson about his idea to image potentially millions of neurons in parallel using a lensless imaging technology utilizing diffraction interference. Using this, it could be possible to get highly developed off-the-shelf products from other fields to make parallel processing more powerful.
Apologies for the audio quality, the audio recorder data somehow got corrupted and I had to use the external microphone from the cameras which were filming the interview
I've been in contact with Lowell Thompson of the Learning with Lowell podcast for some time and have become a fan of his work. He also covers many things Biotech and Science sometimes even touching upon the Brain Machine Interface space. In this joint episode which is being published on both shows, we talk about some of the cool interviews and technologies we have learned about on the show. This may be a recurring episode with Lowell coming on once in a while to share what he has learned.
I was able to sit down with Robert Shannon to talk about his pioneering role with Cochlear Implants. It was an honor to talk to him. Unfortunately, there were technical difficulties with some of the microphones so we tried to salvage the audio as much as possible
At the 2018 Neural Interfaces Conference in Minneapolis Loren Reith talked about how he improved the Utah Slant Array
Joost saw a problem with data management in the scientific space so he set out to fix it. He also helped made cloud storage and sharing much easier with Blackfynn
At the 2018 Neural Interface Conference the first person I talked to during the poster session was Gene Fridman of Johns Hopkins who was presenting on the ability to block small nerves using direct current. Since they used ions there were no disadvantages compared to if they used metal electrodes
At a poster session at the 2018 Neural Interfaces Conference, I talked to James Eles about his poster on the in vivo imaging of calcium activity during electrode implantation. They were able to image the firing of calcium neurons many times higher than their usual levels which is a sign of damage
In vivo imaging of neuronal calcium during electrode implantation: Spatial and temporal mapping of damage and recovery JR Eles, AL Vazquez, TDY Kozai, XT Cui - Biomaterials, 2018
At the Neural Interface poster session, I was able to talk to William Huffman of the Warren Grill lab at Duke University about the reduction of invasive surgery using ultrasound guiding. This reduces the need for larger and more invasive surgeries which are of course much less damaging to the animal or the patient
Christopher Heelan presented a poster at the 2018 Neural Interfaces Conference in Minneapolis on one of the biggest problems in BCI research, data processing. This device is able to handle up to 6500 channels at one time and can be used in parallel. They have formed a company to help solve of data processing labs
At the 2018 Neural Interfaces Conference poster session, I met with Bin Feng of the University of Connecticut where he talked about the increased nerve conduction velocity using ultrasound. Ultrasound apparently can increase the speed of the nerve transmission even taking out such factors such as increased thermal energy from the inputted ultrasound
Jack Whalen of Platinum Group Coatings talks about the coatings that they offer for different electrodes. They offer these electrode coatings which offer improved electrical properties with hopefully good biocompatibility as well.
At the 2018 Neural Interfaces Conference Thaddeus Brink of Medtronic talks about being able to sense and modulate bladder fill levels in sheep. Using an API they were able to detect voids and apply stimulation externally
University of Tübingen postdoc, Ujwal Chaudhary, and I talk about some of his techniques to unlock patients who are locked in. Those who are paralyzed and cannot move their hands or eyes can have a small non-invasive Near Infrared device placed on their head to be able to decipher binary yes and no answers. The technique measures the level of blood oxygenation in the brain which can signify what a patient might be thinking. With this technology, they are able to be correct about 70% of the time. The technology is essentially an fMRI which is much more portable and less costly.
Joke: In this solo episode, I talk about some of the unpublished work which you can expect out of the Otto lab here at University of Florida. The Turbo Encabulator will be some of the most revolutionary work that will have come into the field of neuroscience:
This original machine has a base plate of prefabulated amulite, surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the two main spurving bearings are in a direct line with the panametric fan. The latter consists simply of six hydrocoptic marzlevanes, so fitted to the ambifacient lunar waneshaft that side fumbling is effectively prevented. The main winding is of the normal lotus-o-deltoid type, placed in panendermic semi-boloid slots within the stator. every seventh conductor is connected by a nonreversible tremmie pipe to the differential girdlespring on the "up" end of the grammeters.
For those of you that did not understand all of this I recommend brushing up on your neuroscience vocabulary using Memrise. I especially recommend the Brain anatomy: Areas, Pathways, and Endocrines course which goes over everything from what tanycytes are, the location of pituicytes, what the arachnoid is, the role of the tegmentum or the difference between dorsal, ventral, caudal and rostral.
UPDATE: I may not have been clear enough that the Turbo Encabulator is not a real device. You should not have understood anything I talked about in my description! It was just a way to show that learning necessary vocabulary is important.
In this episode, we do our first Journal Club style episode where we go over a paper. We hope this can be useful to those who haven't read the paper as well as those who have and wanted to hear some outside opinions about the work.
This first week's paper is "Long-lasting increase in axonal excitability after epidurally applied DC"
Thanks to Ian Malone, Savannah Dewberry and Lauren Lester for presenting this paper
After many months of travelling my plans got cut short a bit and I returned to the US. I took a position here at the University of Florida working on peripheral nerves despite my skepticism about the size of the city. Now after about a month of working here I have to say that I am very happy with Dr. Otto, the labmates, the project, and even the city!
I hope to be expanding the podcast to include 'Journal Club' episodes which will deep dive into individual papers. This was something that I had been thinking about for a while and I was happy to find out that the Otto group already does an excellent job with their weekly Journal Clubs. I hope to also start making explainer videos which will go over some of the fundamentals of neuroscience and neural engineering.
So the point of this episode is to say that I am happy and that the quality of this podcast will be going up thanks to outside help!
In this interview with Dr Cindy Chestek of the University of Michigan, we talk about her projects ranging from neuroprosthetics for amputees all the way to Carbon Fiber implants on the order of 10 microns. We also talk about some of the disagreements that neuroscientists have versus the neuroprosthetics people have on signal fidelity versus high channel counts. She sees a split coming up in the field since devices can't be made to do both things.
In this interview, I sat down with Sherman Wiebe of Blackrock Microsystems. We had a short talk during the Society for Neuroscience in November in 2017 where we talk about the benefits of the Utah Electrode Array (UEA). We talk about their arrays which have up to 1000 channels. The UEA is also the only electrode which has been FDA approved in humans. Blackrock arrays also last a long time with multiple years being relatively normal.
I caught Andre Snellings on the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) floor and grabbed him quickly to do an interview about NeuroNexus and Michigan Electrodes. We quickly talk about some of the advantages of the Michigan array which has the advantage of being a 3-dimensional electrode. The electrodes are also customizable, "if a customer can draw it on a piece of paper, we can make it"
Andre has since left to work as a fantasy basketball writer at ESPN. Let's wish him the best of luck!
One of the coolest demonstrations during SfN in November 2017 was that of Actuated Medical. Ryan Clement was kind enough to sit down with me to talk about some of the amazing reductions their company is able to deliver using ultrasound vibrations. They are able to insert the implants using about half the force and preventing dimpleing as well. This means that the electrode goes exactly how deep you want it to without having a pin cushion effect.
I was able to sit down and talk with Pasha Takmakov during SfN after seeing his poster on accelerated neural interface testing. He talks about the research where he could simulate years of degradation in only a week. This could one day speed up the iteration cycles of electrode designs leading to better designs.
This recording had a bit of clicking which I tried to minimize.
It was really fun to talk to Greg Gage during SfN in November 2017. During our interview, he demonstrated some of the new neural educational toys from Backyard Brains. We were able to read neural activity, send that neural activity into his arm, and finally send his into my arm. I didn't like the last one, it worked but it felt like electricity in my arm. Regardless, the work they are doing to teach children about neuroscience is great!
It was a pleasure to talk with Danny McDonnell of Ripple Neuro which is also based in Utah. In this episode we talk about the beginnings of the company and growing organically. He talks about some of the advantages of some new experimental experimentation such as being able to upload your own code and having the data acquisition system be portable.
I had trouble with the audio in this file. I was only able to salvage one of the audio files and tried to improve it as best as I could
I have been secretly posting the audio versions of the podcasts on YouTube for a while now.
But now I finally put together the videos interviews from the 2017 Society for Neuroscience conference. These in-person interviews allowed me to make videos and to use up to 3 camera angles (wow, so cool!)
I've had fun putting it together and I would be happy to do this for further conferences/in-person meetings to help promote them.
So check out the most recent episode with Theo Zanos and be sure to subscribe if you find YouTube to be an easier medium to consume information.
I think one of my favorite posters during SfN was with Theo Zanos and the work at the Feinstein Institute involving the vagus nerve. They were able to read insulin, glucose, and cytokyne signals going from the body to the brain. This is the first step in bioelectronic medicine, being able to read and write the information coming from the body. In this interview, we talk about the specifics in being able to read what the body is telling the brain.
It was an honor to meet with Ian Burkhart after hearing so much about him. This show has had at least a half-dozen researchers that had published papers based on his implanted array. Ian is a quadriplegic patient that volunteered to have a Utah Electrode array implanted in his brain so that he could move his fingers. Now it has been implanted in his brain for almost 4 years and it is still doing fine. Through the process, he was able to learn to move his own fingers using his thoughts. He even got so good he could play Guitar Hero.
This was my first interview during SfN and was still learning how my equipment worked. The beginning of the recording has some background speaking but that goes away after the first few minutes.
Dr Joern Rickert is the CEO of Cortec and I had a chance to sit down to talk with him during the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) in November 2017. In this episode we talk about a bit of what SfN is like and then we continue on to Coretec's technology. Their goal is to make the human brain connectable to Artificial intelligence. They specialize in making soft electrodes and even have made electrodes that can connect to peripheral nerves. They are very versatile and can make many modifications based on what the partners need.
Although I enjoyed this interview very much, I am a bit low energy because I had a bit of a fever during the interview.
I love Isaac Arthur's Science and Futurism Youtube channel and podcast. So when he covered the topic of Mind Augmentation I asked him if I could share the show on this channel as well. It is a bit different than what this podcast usually is about since it deals with the more science fiction possibilities 100 years in advance. Nonetheless, I think it is very interesting and I had never heard some of these ideas. It should be a fun thought experiment and hopefully, it can spark some new ideas of what is possible.
Matt Angle is the CEO of Paradromics which aims to make broadband for the brain possible, massively parallel brain interfaces and realtime decoding. They use off the shelf electrode wires which were previously ignored to cheaply create a neural interface that can have 50,000 channels. With a recent $18 million DARPA grant they are poised to start selling implants soon.
In this episode we not only talk about the technology but also the behind the scenes look of starting a company in the biotechnology space. We talk about raising money and how it differs from an academic path.
I had a great time at the Society for Neuroscience conference in Washington DC and it was great to hear that the podcast is so well received!
"You came out of nowhere but are doing a great job!" Was the general sentiment from many talks with fans of the podcast
Straight from DC I went to Mumbai India and I will be travelling here for the next 6-8 months. Therefore my podcasts will be released on a slower schedule due to time and internet bandwidth constraints.
I did 9 video interviews and will be slowly working on getting the audio and video up. The thing is, the video side Is 120gb which I have to upload into the video editor... lets just say that's about 119gb more than I can upload per day here on Indian internet!
So thanks so much for giving me so much verbal support at the conference! I'm glad you like it and it really motivated me to continue!
Dr David Friedenberg works at Batelle which is an interesting company with a kind of profit/nonprofit model. In this episode we talk about some software and hardware changes they made in order for a patient to have gradual muscle control. That way if the patient wanted to grip an egg he would be able to do more than simply crush the egg or to drop it.
We were able to have this interview in person at the Human Brain Project Conference in Glasgow, Scotland. It was the first of my in person video interviews I hope to make and it was a new medium. You can watch the video here
In this interview Dr Mitra talked about his previous work with electronically selectable neural probes. These probes had about 1500 electrodes which could be turned on or off depending on the quality of the connection. He also worked on CMOS electronics which could be put at the end of the probe which could reduce the data transmission (and heat) by 10x.
I got invited as a media representative to the Society of Neuroscience meeting in Washington DC. This conference will have over 30k attendants and I hope to do many interviews with leaders in this field.
I hope to meet everyone in the Neural Implant field who will be attending and maybe even do some in person interviews!
Sign up for a time to do it here
www.calendly.com/ladan
I will also be hosting an event at a nearby pub on Saturday the 11th at 7pm at the Tap House Brewery.
Sign up for the event here!
Dr Kevin Otto is an Associate Professor at the University of Florida where he maps the neural networks of central and autonomous neurons. There he realized that the body's rejection of these implants is a huge issue and has been working on ways to allow the body to accept the implants for the long term.
James Giordano PhD, MPhil., is Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Biochemistry, Chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, and Co-director of the O’Neill-Pellegrino Program in Brain Science and Global Health Law and Policy at the Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington DC. As well, he is Distinguished Visiting Professor of Brain Science, Health Promotions and Ethics at the Coburg University of Applied Sciences, Coburg, Germany, and was formerly Fulbright Visiting Professor of Neuroscience and Neuroethics at the Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany.
He currently serves as a member of the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Council for Human Research Protection; and has served as an appointed member of the Neuroethics, Legal and Social Issues Advisory Panel of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and as Senior Science Advisory Fellow of the Strategic Multilayer Assessment Group of the Joint Staff, Pentagon.
Dr Harbi Sohal is a rising star in the field of Neural Implants. He recently won the Forbes 30 under 30 for scientists. At 29, he has also recently become an Assistant Professor at the Feinstein Institute in New York. He has worked with previous guests Dr Andrew Jackson and Dr Ed Boyden and is now working with Dr Chad Bouton. He is working on all the big things in this field: Glial scarring reduction, optogenetics, and bioelectronic medicine.
Dr Sohal also generously provided his Feedly subscriptions. Feedly is an RSS feed which delivers daily news to you on the news in the Neural Implant field.
Hopefully this is easy to download, otherwise, send me an email at neuralimplantpodcast@gmail.com and I can send it to you
Dr Douglas Weber has recently come back from a program manager position at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) which lasted 4 years. Now he is back to being an associate professor at University of Pittsburgh where he works with haptics in neuroprosthetics. By giving feedback from pressures back into the body the patient does not have 'phantom limb' pain. He is also interested in Electrical Prescriptions where an implant could bypass many medications with electrical signals in the Vagus nerve.
Dr Bradley Greger is an associate professor at Arizona State University where he is interested in helping the blind see. The blind person would have implants which go directly to the brain, similar to a Cochlear Implant, which would transmit what a camera saw. In this way vision could be restored, even it if is only 7 x 7 pixel vision.
Dr. Slawomir Nasuto is a professor of Cybernetics and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Reading in England. He researches computational neuroscience and neuroanatomy. However, in this interview, we were both in a philosophical mood and talked about how to avoid blind spots in experiments. Any experiments in the brain inherently produce research biases of the experimenters and we talk about how to minimize this.
Dr. Edward Boyden has co-invented optogenetic tools which allow control of neurons using light. This discovery has won him a prize, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences which came with $3 million dollars (and he promised to donate $1 million to the Neural Implant podcast!). He also has worked on expansion microscopy which 'freezes' the biomolecules and expands them up to 100x. In this way it is possible to visualize the parts of the brain using more conventional microscopy. He has done many great things but is not resting on his laurels!
Dr Tim Marzullo is the Cofounder of Backyard Brains which uses simple (and cheap) technology to demonstrate neuronal activity to those without labs. It's aimed at high schools and Universities to show kids how brain activity works to hopefully spark their interest. We talk about the difficulties in doing a startup but the aid that grants can have along the way.
Be sure to check out their TED talk, it's really funny!
Dr Steve Potter used to be a professor at Georgia Tech but now consults. But many years ago he was a pioneer in the field of Brain Machine Interfaces especially in the area of cultured neurons. He was one of the proponents of the Two Photon Microscopy system which is in common use today. He is also a huge proponent of open source knowledge and works hard to spread it far.
Dr Ioan Opris along with previous guest Dr Mikhail Lebedev as well as Dr Casanova had won a $100k grant to have a conference in Switzerland in 2018. This was from the Frontiers Spotlight award.
We also talk about his work with memory implants in which choices and memories can be transmitted between animals. They were able to get decision making up from about 50% chance to 70% and 80% using these implants.
Dr Ranu Jung is a professor and chair of Biomedical Engineering in Florida International University and recently was FDA approved for an investigational neural-enabled prosthetic device system. We also talk about the future of bioelectronic medicines and she will be on the editorial board of the upcoming Bioelectronics in Medicine journal.
Dr Cristin Welle is an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado where they work on a tattoo-like EEG which can help measure whether or not a concussion has occurred. In this way, in sports or battlefield situations you can measure it and see whether you need to treat the patient. We also talk about some of the basics in Neural Implants so this is a nice refresher course for this field.
Dr Mikhail Lebedev is a Senior Research Scientist at Duke University where he has worked with prosthetics and Brain Machine Interfaces in primates. Even 15 years ago he was able to demonstrate a primate controlling a robotic arm with minimal effort using only its thoughts. Now they do a little bit more 'sci-fi' experiments where they link up many brains to help solve problems together using telepathy.
Dr. Manfred Franke comes on again to explain some of the pros and cons to different educational approaches. We then talk about what we couldn't talk about last time: the approval of his neurostimulator device through the FDA. This device naturally stimulates a tear response in the eyes instead of adding artificial solutions. The device was approved by the FDA in about 4 years which suggests that the future of neurostimulators may be more nimble than pharmaceuticals.
Robin wrote a book, The Patient as CEO, where she talks about the future of healthcare. She has taken her background as a Crohn's disease sufferer with dozens of major surgeries to help raise investment money through speaking. She literally created this job herself and this year is on track to raise $250 million for the 3 companies she represents. One company will help reconnect severed connections through Virtual Reality. Virtual Reality may be a better way to see Neural Implants and brain enhancement come to the masses.
Dr. Bolu Ajiboye of Case Western University recently released the results on the success of the Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) team about helping a paralyzed man to eat and drink using the help of a brain implant.
Dr. Andrew Jackson of Newcastle University talks about some of the advantages of using Local Field Potentials instead of measuring neuronal spikes. by using 100x less bandwidth you can reduce the energy required by an implant which would make wireless devices much more feasible.
Dr. Tom Mortimer of Case Western University looks back on 50 years of Neural Control and hopes to teach future generations the basics of his research. He is currently putting together his course on Applied Neural Control which is free for now.
Jens Naumann was the first person to be able to see using bionic eyes after he lost his vision in both of his eyes. After proving his usefulness he was hired by the team of Dr. William Dobelle as a technical person with first hand (or first eye) experience. He was able to see 19 pixels using this brain implant and with this was able to drive a car which got him on the cover of WIRED magazine. After Dr. Dobelle suddenly died a year into the experiment, Jens was able to pick up the pieces using his technical knowledge of the project and write the book Search for Paradise: A Patient's Account of the Artificial Vision Experiment
Dr. Jit Muthuswamy of Arizona State University hopes to be able to make neural implants more flexible by being able to adjust the depth of the probes. In doing this it would be possible to individually control the electrodes to get the best possible signal. He also teaches many courses and this shows in his presentation style.
In this long episode, Dr. Manfred Franke simplifies many of the concepts behind neural modulation as therapies for many ailments. These can range from phantom limb pain to organ control. He also talks about some of the tricks that are used in order to decrease pain sensations instead of using drugs. These same frequency modulations can be also used to give pressure sensations in prosthetics as well as reducing fatigue by using finer muscle control.
Today's guest is Dr. Marco Santello who studies complex hand movements and how they are learned. This is especially useful in stroke victims to be able to help regain control of their limbs. In collaboration with the Mayo clinic, they noninvasively test patients to bring them back to normal.
In this episode, I personally went to meet Dr. Kevin Warwick in Prague for a personal interview. We talk about how he became the world's first cyborg when he implanted a RFID capsule in his arm in 1998. With this, he was able to control the smart doors in his building as well as to play a personalized greeting when he entered his office.
Then in 2002 he had the Utah Electrode Array implanted in his arm and was the first person to receive signals directly into his nervous system.
We had a funny conversation about how these events occurred as well what it was like to be able to be the first to communicate telepathically. There are many people who say he was not the first cyborg but that is just a technicality. We can all agree that these two studies were groundbreaking in some way!
Dr. Memming Park is a researcher from Stony Brooke University in New York whose research is on the programming to decode neuronal activity read by neural interfaces. We talk about the limits of this code as well as what would be needed to improve it further.
Dr. Maria Asplund is a researcher in Freiburg, Germany who works mainly in PEDOT. She talks about the benefits of PEDOT as a coating for neural implants. It allows for functionalization of the surface as well as a better connection to brain cells. It has a porous surface as well as good conductance which means that you have a better signal. We then talk about the differences with carbon nanotube electrodes and the benefits of both.
Dr. Dominique Durand has main research in deep brain stimulation, conductible nanoyarn in Neural Engineering, and global electric fields in the brain. We talk about the early days of Neural Engineering back when the terminology wasn't created back in the 70's and 80's. Then we talk about the breakthroughs with nanotube yarn and the possible benefits of this. Finally, we talk about his research with global electric fields in the brain and what this means.
Dr. Kip Ludwig is a researcher who deals with the nervous system as it relates to the rest of the body. His dream is that it would be able to bypass medications which can be ineffective as well as dangerous. It would be possible to directly control the behavior of particular organs. This field is advancing at an incredible pace and even he is surprised by some of the things he hears about.
Welcome to the introductory episode of the Neural Implant podcast. I talk about the goals and aims of this podcast, to interview the leaders in the Brain Machine Interface field. The idea is to bring together the field of neuroprosthetics (brain machine interfaces? brain implants?) in an understandable conversation about the current topics and breakthroughs.
I hope to replace needing to read scientific papers on new research in an easy to digest way so people can share thoughts or ideas to facilitate 'idea sex.'
This will make the field of brain implants a smaller and more personal space
About me, Ladan Jiracek:
I am a recent Masters graduate in the field of Nanobiophysics with an undying passion for brain implants. I did an internship at Blackrock Microsystems many years ago and saw the potential in this field. My ultimate goal is to facilitate incredible learning like in the 'Matrix' so that people can download skills. I am also the host of another podcast, Travel Wisdom, about how travel can be more than a vacation but a learning experience. Through this I learned about the power of podcasts to meet and connect people in amazing ways!
Dr. Walter Voit is a Wunderkind of a professor being so young and having been able to secure so much funding in his groundbreaking work. He works mainly with 3D printed materials as well as temperature dependent materials which can be used in brain implants. We talk about entrepreneurship and spinoff companies from this growing lab which now has 100+ members.
Dr. Chad Bouton is an award-winning researcher who was recently able to bypass the damaged area of a paralyzed patient to allow him to play Guitar Hero again. Complex movements like this require intricate control of the fingers which have not been possible in the past. We also talk about the methods used by his team in order to embrace glial scarring and instead of listening to neurons at a farther range. In this way, it is possible to pick up many more neurons per electrode and get more information.