Brooklyn-based brain chip startup Synchron launched a registry Monday to recruit patients and healthcare providers ahead of a planned large-scale clinical trial.
The company, a rival to Elon Musk’s Neuralink, produces a brain implant, known as brain-computer interface (BCI), that helps paralyzed patients control electronic devices like computers and smartphones with their thoughts.
“We are thrilled to launch our community-centered BCI registry,” Synchron CEO and Founder Tom Oxley said in a statement. “There is a grass roots movement happening with BCI. We are creating an avenue for potential users and their physicians to engage and stay connected while we prepare for the next stage of clinical trials.”
Oxley told Reuters that the trial could include up to dozens of participants and that 120 clinical trial centers have already expressed interest in offering to help run the study.
The startup did not provide more details on when it expects regulators to approve the clinical trial.
Synchron vs Neuralink
Synchron, backed by investors that include Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, first received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to test its implant on humans in 2021. Since then, it has implanted its device on six patients. Before that, the company had tested its implant on four patients in Australia.
Synchron’s device is inserted via the jugular vein by a minimally invasive surgery and sits on the surface of the motor cortex of the brain.
Neuralink’s device is implanted by a surgical robot that threads electrodes in the cerebral cortex region of the brain.
Neuralink received approval from the FDA for human testing in 2023. The startup implanted its device on its first human patient this year. He has already used it to play video games like Mario Kart.