Investing in the endovascular brain computer interface to unlock the brain

The brain has a will to move. But the body can’t receive or act on that message.

Imagine harnessing this will to move and reconnecting these patients to the digital world.

Synchron designed its BCI to allow people with paralysis or loss of motor function to use their thoughts to control a digital device. This could enable everyday tasks like scheduling a medical appointment, texting a friend, or purchasing a special gift. It’s an opportunity for these patients to redefine independence and social connection.

The Stentrode^TM, an electrode-sensing array, is delivered endovascularly and implanted in the blood vessel just above the brain’s motor cortex. Synchron’s implant procedure avoids open brain surgery, providing patients with a minimally-invasive alternative to receive an untethered BCI system.

Synchron technology and research have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Journal of Neurointerventional Surgery, and other peer-reviewed publications. Patients are actively participating in clinical trials in the U.S. and Australia with enrollment set to expand in the coming year.

While these trials focus on the ability to record the brain from inside the blood vessels, Synchron is developing a minimally invasive brain computer interface platform for today and tomorrow. The Stentrode is at the heart of this innovation. The Stentrode is a stent, similar to the millions of stents that are implanted in arteries of the heart & brain every year. However, this stent is unique in that it houses an electrical circuit and electrodes. This minimally invasive “endovascular” design platform that Synchron are developing can be modified, scaled up and or scaled down to reach multiple brain targets via this extensive highway of blood vessels. This is the Stentrod for tomorrow.