Thursday Synchron reported upon completion of a funding round that raised $75 million to continue work on the company’s brain implant. Among other investors, Bezos Expeditions and Gates Frontier, respectively, well-known billionaires Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates have invested in Synchron. Both praise the achievements of Synchron, which competes directly with Elon Musk’s Neuralink.
Image source: Synchron
According to Pitchbook, an analyst firm, Synchron has become the third largest American company developing brain implants, more precisely brain-computer interfaces, in terms of investment. Synchron’s funding has reached $145 million, far outpacing other competitors, and has been tacked right behind Elon Musk’s Neuralink and Science Max Hodak (former partner of Musk, who created his own company).
Synchron has deservedly received new investment. Contrary to Elon Musk’s year-long promises that he is “almost about” to start installing brain implants in humans, Synchron has already installed implants of his own design on four patients in Australia and has received permission for clinical trials due to this success. on patients in the United States. Two of them already are installed. New operations are in preparation.
All of this is under the control and protocols of the US Food and Drug Administration. In fact, the developers are running a test program, after which they can count on participation in health insurance programs in the United States. This is such a big money that it will fetch almost any investment, which is well understood by Gates and Bezos.
At the same time, Elon Musk’s Neuralink is having some technological difficulties with an implant of his own design. It has not yet received approval for human clinical trials and is conducting experiments with pigs and with monkeys. Also, some of the animals died. On this occasion, Neuralink was launched earlier this year. guilt in animal cruelty and in early December become knownthat US federal authorities have launched a formal investigation into these complaints.
The Neuralink interface involves some pretty serious surgery in the patient’s skull and brain. Sensor wires, a control unit, and a wireless communication unit are implanted into the brain tissue. All of this requires many procedures for implantation and subsequent rehabilitation of patients. The Synchron Switch interface is inserted without much effort, similar to the installation of a coronary stent – “like a mosquito bite”.
The Switch sensor, slightly larger than a normal match, is inserted into the jugular vein and travels along it to the motor cortex of the brain, from where it reads the impulses responsible for controlling the upper limbs. Information is transmitted through the thinnest wire to a small implant built into the chest. This block is responsible for processing signals and wirelessly sending information to the nearest device – a smartphone or computer. Special software allows, for example, to transform nerve impulses into cursor movement.
According to international medical organizations, at least 100 million people worldwide suffer from the inability to control their hands. Interfaces Switch, Neuralink and the like can make life easier for such patients, and as they get better, and in case of other diseases or brain damage.
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