The fourth issue of astrocyte* newsletter is here. It covers:

My neurotech reading list
a) Tech Stack: BCI materials, graphene, hydrogel; hybrid stimulation - ultrasound/optical + genetical; other themes;
b) Data Science: EEG cleaning and DL applications review.
Startup/Corporate news
a) Investments: invasive BCIs, an app store of brain data, CES.

My interpretations/comments are in italic.

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Thanks!

Peter

***

I. Reading List

Tech Stack

Elon Musk’s Neuralink is being outperformed by this Spanish graphene startup - a bit punchy headline but a great article that highlights the importance of different industries coming together for making progress in neurotech.

Innovations come from everywhere, so happy to see a European startup working on neurotech. Also, if you do a neurotech startup try to learn as much as you can about adjacent fields - materials science, quantum computing, etc. Progress in these industries will affect your progress.

Tim Smith @timmpsmith

This Barcelona startup says its neural implant technology is better than @elonmusk's Neuralink, outperforming it on one key performance test. If the technology gets to market it could transform the lives of millions living with brain diseases

sifted.euElon Musk’s Neuralink is being outperformed by this Spanish graphene startupInbrain’s neural implants will be used to treat conditions like epilepsy, and says graphene is a far better material than Neuralink’s polymer.

Another take on materials for BCIs and an attempt to solve the foreign body response - Adaptive and multifunctional hydrogel hybrid probes for long-term sensing and modulation of neural activity

Hyunwoo Yuk @HyunwooYuk

The project I started with my friend around 4 years ago finally published today. This was the first project on bioelectronics for me. The publication process alone took slightly over 2 years. While had a tortuous path, the work is still very interesting!

nature.comAdaptive and multifunctional hydrogel hybrid probes for long-term sensing and modulation of neural activity - Nature CommunicationsNeural probes for experimental studies can cause tissue damage. Here the authors describe a probe incorporated with a hydrogel structure for adaptive bending stiffness to enable insertion to the rodent brain while minimising tissue damage.

New tool activates deep brain neurons by combining ultrasound, genetics - sonothermogenetics - noninvasive, cell-type-specific activation of neurons in the brain of mammal by combining ultrasound-induced heating effect and genetics.

That feeds into my previous comment on neurotech and adjacent fields. I’ll not be surprised if a successful neurotech startups will not only combine imaging modalities, but combine them with genetics, or other forms of interacting with the brain.

McKelvey Engineering @ WashU @WashUengineers

The research, by @ChenUltrasound, is the first to show that sonothermogenetics can control behavior by stimulating a specific target deep in the brain.

engineering.wustl.eduNew tool activates deep brain neurons by combining ultrasound, geneticsIt is the first work to show that sonothermogenetics can control behavior by stimulating a specific target deep in the brain.

Another interesting work on nerve cells modification -Viral-mediated transduction of auditory neurons with opsins for optical and hybrid activation. ‘This work examines optical activation of auditory neurons following optogenetic modification via AAV injection in two species (mouse and guinea pig)’.

James Fallon @jbfal1

Pleased to share our latest work on hybrid stimulation in the cochlear. Viral-mediated transduction of auditory neurons with opsins for optical and hybrid activation

disq.usViral-mediated transduction of auditory neurons with opsins for optical and hybrid activation - Scientific ReportsScientific Reports - <ArticleTitle Language="En" OutputMedium="All" xml:lang="en">Viral-mediated transduction of auditory neurons...

Wireless Power Delivery Techniques for Miniature Implantable Bioelectronics - a great overview of wireless power options for implanted bioelectronic devices.

We need neurotech to be wireless if we expect it to be adopted by consumers

Rice Neuroengineering Initiative @RiceNeuro

For several years, @app_rice graduate student & @JTRobinsonLab member Amanda Singer has been working on new ways to wirelessly power bioelectronic implants. In this #MondayMinute, check out how a pacemaker battery compares to the tiny neural stimulator she built!

These are great examples of what kind of tech allows a very high resolution - Microscale Cortical Activity Recorded for the First Time & Large-scale neural recordings with single-cell resolution in human cortex using high-density Neuropixels probes

MassGeneralNeuroscience @MGHNeuroSci

Researchers Angelique Paulk, PhD, , PhD, and Sydney Cash, MD, PhD, of @MGHNeurology and @MGH_CNTR, identify three distinct classes of cortical activity, never described before in humans, that are not locked to ongoing natural brain rhythmic activity advances.massgeneral.org/neuro/journal.…

Gold - Technology of deep brain stimulation: current status and future directions.

Nir Lipsman @DrNirLipsman

True international collaboration made possible by world society stereotactic and functional neurosurgery #wssfn and brilliant dbs colleagues around the globe, @andreashorn_ @UofTNeuroSurge @MRCBNDU

Andreas Horn @andreashorn_

New review on technological advances of DBS now out in @NatRevNeurol: https://t.co/AZS5D2Xs00 @MRCBNDU @DrNirLipsman @leaddbs https://t.co/Fll5wxAyms

Data Science

Cortical response to naturalistic stimuli is largely predictable with deep neural networks. ‘Naturalistic stimuli, such as movies, activate a substantial portion of the human brain, invoking a response shared across individuals. Encoding models that predict the neural response to a given stimulus can be very useful for studying brain function… We demonstrate how incorporating this joint information leads to remarkable prediction performance across large areas of the cortex, well beyond the visual and auditory cortices into multi-sensory sites and frontal cortex’. Here’s a tweet.

Deep learning applied to electroencephalogram data in mental disorders: A systematic review - This article reviews how DL techniques have been applied to electroencephalogram (EEG) data for diagnostic and predictive purposes in conducting research on mental disorders.

Automated EEG cleaning - A comparison. - ‘… four algorithms that are actually easily available and simple to use with MNE-Python, which are AutoReject, the Riemannian Potato, ASR, and xDAWN’.

Dirk Gütlin @DirkGutlin

You want to apply automated cleaning to your EEG preprocessing but don't know what algorithms exist, what they do to your data, and where you can get them? Maybe this notebook could be a start: digyt.github.io/automated_EEG_… It's still far from complete, so suggestions are welcome!

digyt.github.ioAutomated EEG Cleaning - A ComparisonA collection, explanation, and comparison of various automated EEG cleaning algorithms.

II. Startup/Corporate News/Other Announcements

Investments

Elon Musk’s brain computer start-up raises $205 million from Google Ventures and others (🇺🇸) - interestingly Google Ventures participated and supported this invasive tech, while Facebook canceled its support of an invasive BCI research at UC San Francisco. Also, notably, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund invested, while Thiel earlier invested in Blackrock Neurotech, a competing company.
Paradromics Raises $20MM in Seed Funding Led by Prime Movers Lab to Advance Brain Computer Interfaces (🇺🇸) Here’s why Prime Movers Lab invested:
Prime Movers Lab @PrimeMoversLab
Prime Movers Lab is proud to announce that we are leading a $20M seed round for @paradromics. The company's brain-computer interface could transform the lives of millions of people suffering from paralysis and speech impediments. #neuroscience
bit.lyWhy We Invested in ParadromicsIf you think about the core things that make us human — that really define us as a species — our ability to communicate through spoken and written language, our facial expressions, gestures, voices…
4:21 PM ∙ Jul 22, 2021
8Likes3Retweets
Omniscient Neurotechnology raised $30 million to create brain maps to aid surgeries and therapeutics (🇦🇺). The vision is to go further than connectome - ‘We want to be the Google or app store of brain data’ - says Stephen Scheeler, the CEO, who previously led Facebook in Australia & New Zealand.
Belfast-based Neurovalens raises £5.1 million to treat conditions such as anxiety, obesity and insomnia (🇬🇧) - ‘the Northern Irish company is developing technology that influences the brainstem and hypothalamus in a non-invasive way to cure or treat neurological diseases, without the need for implanted electrodes’.
Tech.eu @tech_eu
Belfast-based @Neurovalens raises £5.1 million to treat conditions such as anxiety, obesity and insomnia tech.eu/brief/neuroval… by @annieMusgrove @IQCapitalGroup @TechstartVC @AngelCoFund #FutureFund #neurotech #medtech #UK #neuroscience
tech.euBelfast-based Neurovalens raises £5.1 million to treat conditions such as anxiety, obesity and insomnia - Tech.euNeurovalens, a Belfast-founded healthtech company, has raised £5.1 million in funding to advance medical device approvals of its neurostimulation technology and also explore applications to other neurological conditions. Led by […]
9:23 AM ∙ Jul 20, 2020
2Likes1Retweet

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Neurotech Monthly / July 2021