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Elon Musk’s neurotech startup Neuralink will begin recruiting patients for its first in-human clinical trial, the corporate announced in a blog post.
Neuralink said within the post Tuesday that its study, called the PRIME Study, is officially in search of patients because it received approval from an independent institutional review board and a hospital site. It’s the following step on Neuralink’s long road to market, and it comes after the startup recently received approval from the Food and Drug Administration in May to conduct its first in-human clinical study.
Patients who take part in the trial may have to undergo invasive brain surgery. Neuralink is constructing a brain implant that goals to assist individuals with severe paralysis control external technologies using only neural signals. This implies patients with severe degenerative diseases like ALS could eventually regain their ability to speak with family members by moving cursors and typing with their minds.
“The initial goal of our BCI is to grant people the flexibility to regulate a pc cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone,” the corporate said within the blog post. Neuralink didn’t immediately reply to CNBC’s request for comment.
Neuralink is a part of the emerging brain-computer interface, or BCI, industry, which centers on systems that decipher brain signals and translate them into commands for external technologies. Several firms have developed promising systems that they hope to bring to market, but Neuralink is perhaps the best-known name within the space as a consequence of Musk himself, who is CEO of each Tesla and SpaceX.
As of September, no BCI company has managed to clinch the FDA’s final seal of approval. But by receiving the go-ahead to recruit for a study with human patients, Neuralink is one step closer.