Elon Musk said in February that his Neuralink brain-computer interface business has connected up a monkey to play video games with its mind. However, Inbrain, a Spanish startup, was not impressed.
Carolina Aguilar, one of Inbrain's co-founders and CEO, said the company's chips might be better than Neuralink's. Inbrain's usage of graphene, the world's thinnest material, is credited with the chip's superiority to Musk's.
This company has spent the last eight years creating a graphene-based neurological implant.
Materials Indeed Matter
Barcelona-founded Inbrain results from the European Union's €1 billion (that's around $1.186 trillion) Graphene Flagship program. The scheme, which began in 2013, is looking for real-world, commercial applications for graphene, a one-atom-thick substance whose inventors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics three years prior.
Carolina Aguilar, co-founder and CEO of Inbrain said graphene is an ideal choice for brain implanted technology because of its resilience, electrical conductivity, and longevity. According to its official website, graphene is one of the strongest materials ever tested yet.
She said that graphene comes in a variety of forms, some of which are poisonous. Graphene has spent eight years developing and patenting a manufacturing technique. As a result, graphene is exactly how they want it in the brain.
Aguilar said per Fossybites that the material Musk is currently using at Neuralink is a polymer called Pedot. She said the material degrades too quickly inside the brain to be suitable for a brain stimulation implant.
Inbrain's Impact on Brain
Business Wire said Inbrain just raised $17 million in Series A financing to support the company's first human trials using graphene implants.
The first study will evaluate the safety of graphene for human neural implants (the technology has already been tested in sheep's brains), paving the possibility for therapeutic treatments for brain disorders.
The first clinical indication, according to Aguilar, will be Parkinson's disease. There is a lot of current data about the illness which they can compare themselves. The possibilities are unlimited once something is in the market for one application. Naturally, they're interested in Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and memory restoration.
Inbrain's high-resolution implants will be utilized in conjunction with the company's AI-powered data processing platform to continuously analyze patient brain activity. This, according to Aguilar, will allow clinicians to get a full image of a person's brain and tailor treatments for disorders like epilepsy.
They will treat epilepsy by identifying and interrupting the signals. According to Aguilar, patients would receive notifications when they're about to have an epilepsy attack.
Deeptech Capabilities
Aguilar also hopes that improvements in quantum computing may one day be able to help process the massive volumes of brain signal data generated by Inbrain's implants. Blockchain technology will be able to safeguard that data.
She thinks this is special because we're combining industries. So it's not a MedTech project. It's MedTech, DeepTech, and digital health, she said. According to Aguilar, the combination of these industries produces innovation.
Inbrain is one of a growing number of European businesses focusing on brain-computer interface technologies, and it is an example of how the European Union's large public investments in science and technology are beginning to pay off.
So, would Elon Musk be willing to buy the company to help them get their graphene technology to market faster? It's a difficult question, according to Aguilar.
Check out more news and information on Neuralink at Science Times.
