Precision Neuroscience Hires BCI Pioneer John Donoghue as Scientific Advisor
Placing electrodes on the brain's surface rather than inserting them into tissue is the key difference between Precision Neuroscience's approach and the BrainGate approach Donoghue pioneered. The New York-based company develops minimally invasive, safely removable, high-bandwidth BCIs; its first system, Layer 7, is aimed at people with ALS, spinal cord injury and brainstem stroke, a population the company estimates at 315,000 in the US. The company says its Layer 7 cortical surface array has been implanted in nearly 100 patients at several leading academic medical centers, that it has raised $180 million from investors, and that it has received FDA 510(k) clearance. Donoghue, a professor emeritus at Brown University, will advise on device design, signal decoding and clinical strategy as the company pushes ahead with a long-term implant study and commercial launch.