Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions

Today’s guest is Christine Schmidt who is a University of Florida faculty member and former department share who works in regenerative neural tissue engineering. Top 3 Takeaways: "We're trying to create scaffolds that can be templates for the body to repair itself, to grow around, and ultimately become natural tissue, seamlessly integrating with the body's own." "Other faculty were discouraging. This is because academia tends to prioritize scholarly pursuits such as papers and grants, often undervaluing applied work and its real-world applications."  "Our clinical collaborator actively participated in the lab alongside Sarah. Together, they would work on batches, with Sarah creating formulations and providing immediate feedback based on the tactile experience. The collaborator would discern whether a material was suitable for surgical use, offering invaluable insights into the practicalities surgeons face." 0:45 Can you introduce yourself better than I just did? 1:15 What is tissue engineering? 5:00 How did you get into this? 8:30 By focusing on entrepreneurial endeavors you were at risk of not getting tenure, how did you still get it? 14:15 Which was more useful for your career, entrepreneurial or academic? 16:45 How was your technology licensed?  22:15 Do you want to talk about your other startup, Alafare? 32:30 You then moved to Florida and then eventually became department chair, why did you do that? 36:45 How did you do the department chair and research at the same time? 37:45 Is there anything else that we didn’t talk about that you wanted to mention?

Welcome to the Neural Implant Podcast! In this episode, the podcast team presents a live panel recording from the Bio L Conference at the International Winter School on Bioelectronics in Austria in March 2024. Hosted by Ladan, the panel discusses various types of neural implants with esteemed guests: Drs . Jonathan Viventi (LCP neural implants), Tracy Cui (PEDOT electrode coatings), Ellis Meng (parylene neural implants), and Ivan Minev (PDMS neural implants). Tune in as they explore the fascinating world of soft implantable electrodes and brain-nervous system interfaces.   Top 3 Takeaways: “In the next five or 10 years, I anticipate that advancements in human neural implants will resemble those we've observed previously. I don't foresee any radical changes in materials or physical attributes. The neurosurgeons I collaborate with prefer implants that aren't excessively flexible or thin to avoid tearing during surgery.” “The first time we delivered an implant to a clinician, these devices were carefully handled by my students. No one dared touch them; they were like sacred objects entrusted to the grad students. When the surgeons got hold of them, they were shocked – bending them in ways we never imagined. Handling these inconsistencies is a crucial aspect to consider, bridging the gap between expectation and reality.” "Everything new is something old that is well forgotten" 3:15 Do all of you want to introduce yourselves? 10:30 What’s a good way for trainees to stay on top of everything there is to learn? 13:45 What is the ideal neural implant and what is the 5-10 year plan for developing these? 20:00 Each of you has a different favorite material for neural implants, do you want to talk about that? 29:45 What motivates you in this field? 35:30 How do you take clinical translation into account in your research? 40:15 What challenges or embarrassing moments have you had in your career? ***Audience Questions*** 43:30 What is your experience and challenges in patenting your electrodes and research? 46:00 What’s the point in doing research if other companies are able to raise significantly more money than we can? 49:00 How do you address the scalability of manufacturing electrodes? 51:15 How groundbreaking do your ideas need to be to be successful? 54:30 How do you deal with paper submission processes that have gone badly? 58:00 How do you deal with a  double blind review? 59:00 What’s the most difficult aspect of supervising graduate students? 1:02:00 When can we expect neural implants that interface with all of the neurons in our brain? 1:06:15 How do you deal with materials that aren’t certified for clinical translation?  1:07:45 If you had a magic wand / unlimited funding, what would you do? 

In today's episode, we're joined by Carles Garcia-Vitoria, a seasoned pain physician with a unique approach to his work. With extensive experience in regional anesthesia and pain management, Carles shares insights gained from his years of practical experience as he pursues his PhD in Spain.  Top 3 Takeaways: "We believe we have the opportunity to target the site of action more effectively. That's why we've founded Spinally, the startup we're currently leading. Our goal is to pioneer intrathecal spinal cord stimulation." "The Dura Mater is highly elastic, closing approximately 80-90% within the first 30 seconds after trauma. Additionally, with improved intrathecal access and emission capabilities, we can utilize thinner implants—reducing implant thickness from 1.3 to 0.5 millimeters. This minimizes trauma to the meningeal sac even further." "We can leverage new fabrication capabilities to minimize implants and achieve highly effective pain relief. Our models, along with others, indicate that we can stimulate deeper layers of the spinal cord with intrathecal electrode positioning, enhancing our ability to listen to deeper neuronal tracts. This advancement is poised to make significant waves in the pain management field within a year." 0:45 Can you introduce yourself better than I just did? 1:15 What advantages of neurotechnology do you see in the pain market?  3:15 What does the pain treatment process using neuromodulation look like? 6:45 How is closed loop stimulation changing your work? 8:30 You’re involved in a startup to better listen to the spinal cord, can you talk about that? 11:30 Why hasn’t this been done before? 14:00 Where in the startup process are you? 15:30 Where are you getting the leads from? 16:30 You guys are raising money, can you talk about that? 18:30 Crowdfunding for medical devices is new, have you seen these before? 21:00 Is there anything that we didn’t cover that you wanted to mention?  

Steve Goetz is now the Chief Technology Officer at Motif Neurotech which is developing a minimally invasive neural implant for the treatment of depression and mental health issues. Steve was at Medtronic for 26 years before moving over to the startup landscape. Top 3 Takeaways:  "Starting a big program that you don't know how to finish is a very expensive endeavor, and so you want to really shake out all the science risk, all the technology risk,  be pretty sure you can execute a thing before you turn on that big engine because it's expensive once you go" "We know stimulation of the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex is very efficacious in treatment-resistant depression.  Our question is, can we develop a cranial stimulator that can do that in the comfort of a patient's home on demand and with a dosing profile that is matched to that patient's acuity and severity that both treats depression and at some point in the future turns into a maintenance therapy that prevents relapse altogether. And what that looks like to us is a pea-sized stimulator that fits in a minimally invasive burr hole that sits on top of the dura, so not brain penetrating,  that delivers this therapy powered externally from a wearable, like a hat or a headband." "For deep brain stimulation, there's a subspecialty of neurosurgery called functional stereotactic neurosurgery with on the order of hundreds of surgeons in the US. There are more that have the specialization to make a burr hole. You go from a few 100 to several 1000 people in the US who can do a burr hole. Over 200,000 burr holes are made in a given year in the US" 1:00 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did? 3:00 What was that smaller group within Medtronic? 8:30 What does the organizational structure look like at a place like Medtronic? 11:30 What do those teams look like? 16:00 Is each team working on a project? 18:15 CEITEC Nano Ad Sponsorship 18:45 What is Motif all about? 24:15 What is the success rate of TMS and what do you hope to achieve? 25:15 This isn't brain surgery but it is close to it, what's involved in this? 29:15 Could this surgery be done by a lower-skilled person than a neurosurgeon? 31:00 How does insurance reimbursement look like for Motif? 36:15 Why is this technology possible now?  41:30 Your technology seems bikini-ready 42:45 What is the progress of your company? 45:00 What's the small company vs large company life like? 47:30 How long do big decisions take in a big company? 48:45 How is the pace in a small vs small company? 51:00 What is the perfect recipe for working in a meaningful company vs learning in another company? 53:45 Anything else you wanted to mention? 

Dr Eric Daniel Glowacki is a research group leader at the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) located in Brno, Czech Republic. There he studies neural implant fabrication and materials specializing in silicon, parylene, and polyimide devices. He has also started to designs and fabricate devices on a contract basis for other research groups and companies. And, his institute is the one that has been recently sponsoring the podcast! This podcast is sponsored by CEITEC Nano, check out their Neurotech Device Manufacturing Capabilities here Top 3 Takeaways: "You can just buy stuff on the internet very simple red LED arrays. So you don't have to bother with aiming because you just put this this light source roughly over the area of interest and, and you can hit the target without having to try very hard." "Most of the time we're pretty fast. If someone sends us a design we can print photo masks in a day or two. That's the slowest step." "And it turns out that the beat frequency can actually stimulate neurons. So you can use these high frequency carrier waves to get in. And then use this constructive interference to actually stimulate to stimulate excitable tissue." 1:15 "Mr. Sponsor, do you want to, do you want to talk about you yourself? What your institute does?" 3:00 "Photovoltaic, transcutaneous neurostimulation. What are the details of that? " 5:15 "How does this compare to other wireless ultrasonics, magnetics, anything else?" 8:15 "What kind of light density would you need?" 9:15 What was your career arc? 12:00 Do you want to talk about Polyimide, Paryle and these other materials? 16:15 CEITEC Nano Ad Sponsorship 17:00 "Talk about your services a little bit" 19:15 What does the contracting process look like if someone wants you to make them devices? 21:45 "Can you talk about the price differences?" 23:30 "Have you thought about opening it up to neurotech companies?"  25:30 Do you want to talk about your success despite you having moved around to many institutes? 28:00 "What do you see as the future of neurotech?" 32:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"

Dr. Gene Fridman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery and also has appointments with the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research is in the areas of bioinstrumentation and neural engineering. In this episode we talk about his freeform nerual stimulator which allows for DC and any other waveforms without any electrolytic effects on the electrodes. This opens up many possibilities for neural stimulation. We also talk about his startup Aidar which is like a 'tricorder' all-in-one medical diagnostic tool. This podcast is sponsored by CEITEC Nano, check out their Neurotech Device Manufacturing Capabilities here Top 3 Takeaways: "The reason why they have to use pulses at the metal electrodes is that if you deliver electrical current for too long to a metal electrode that is implanted in the body, what you're going to get is you're going to get electrochemistry, the first thing that will happen is you're going to start forming bubbles because you're going to split water. It's electrolysis. So you clearly don't want to do that in the body. They have to use pulses charge balanced by phasic pulses otherwise, you're going to have these electrons jump across and cause chemical reactions" "By introducing hyperpolarizing current to the peripheral nerve what we're seeing is it's affecting the small caliber neurons much more so, which carry pain much more so than the larger neurons that carry other information. And so we're able to block pain at the peripheral nerve. We didn't know about this. It was a surprise to us."   0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?" 3:00 Do you want to talk about your device able to talk to both ions and electrons in neurotech? 7:00 Was a DC bridge rectifier the inspiration for this? 9:15 What is possible with these new waveforms? 15:15 "How big is it? And why does it need to be that size?" 21:45 CEITEC Nano Ad Sponsorship 22:15 Do you want to talk about your startup company, Aidar? 24:30 Are you doing any nerve stuff with the 'tricorder?' 26:30 How are you able to manage the time with the startup? 27:45 How did you get the project's initial data?

Kurt Haggestrom comes on to talk about the latest new from Synchron, which has developed the Stentrode as well as the new Synchron Switch. Kurt talks about his new role as Chief Commercial Officer and where the company is heading. ***This podcast is sponsored by CEITEC Nano, check out their Neurotech Device Manufacturing Capabilities here*** Top three takeaways:  1. "The beauty of this approach is that the blood vessels are an amazing place. To be able to put implants and we've, we're leveraging really decades of science and medical devices in say, the coronary space and the heart space. We know that these types of materials heal very well within the vasculature. It's a very novel approach and really scalable because there's a lot of physicians that can do this type of procedure."  2.   "Syncron is developing we're calling it the Synch Switch. So it is an endovascular brain-computer interface system. This system will allow patients who are suffering from paralysis to connect into the digital world, whether it's banking, communication by using a smartphone or computer.  3. "A key part of, I think these types of novel technologies is to think about "how do people afford this when it does get to market?" And with the patients that we're focused on today, many of them use Medicare to be able to afford these technologies. It's critical that we think about our partnership and in working with CMOs to make reimbursement possible for these type of technologies.   [1:15] "Do you want to give a refresher on what Synchron does?" [3:00]  "What are some exciting news that comes out of Synchron?" [4:15] "So what is Chief Commercialization Officer and why is it necessary, especially for a company like Syncron which isn't commercial yet?" [5:45] CEITEC Nano ad sponsorship [6:15] "What's your story arc?" [8:30] How are you navigating reimbursement? [9:30] What is your timeline for commercialization? [10:45] "What are some security protocols, that you're putting into place?" [12:30] "What are some of your biggest challenges nowadays?"  [16:15] How many patients were in your study? [16:30] How large is the target market? [18:15] Does this have other application potentials outside of locked in patients? [19:15] "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"    

Pawel Soluch is a returning guest who goes over his work at Neuro Device, then his consulting at NeurotechX Services, and now finally he talks about the Medtech Coaching program that he is launching with me! This is a sponsorship for Medtech Coach Top 3 Takeaways: Pawel and I (Ladan) are launching the Medtech Coaching program which will be aimed at helping medical device executives gain success in their businesses Coaching is different from consulting in that we do not generate anything for you but instead help you to become the best medtech executive you can possibly be In addition to group coaching we will also be offering individual coaching and also a retreat in January 2024 0:45 Do you want to reintroduce yourself 2:45 Do you want to talk about Neuro Device? 5:15 Do you want to talk about your work as a consultant? 7:15 Do you want to talk about your experience in my original group coaching? 9:15 What's the difference between coaching and consulting? 12:00 "Who is this for and who is it not for?" 15:00 What was the return on investment for the group coaching that you attended? 19:15 What does the individual coaching look like? 23:00 What does the retreat look like? 24:30 What's the role of trust in the meetings? https://medtechcoach.com/

Dr Mounya Elhilali did the keynote talk at the NER Neural Engineering conference in Baltimore in 2023. I was able to sit down with her and talk to learn more about her auditory processing selectivity research. Top 3 Takeaways:  Nurses especially can get used to beeping and alarms which can be dangerous for patients. "Under anesthesia, you see some basic responses, but they are different than when you engage the, let's say, an animal in an awake state, and then when they are awake and actually behaving and engaging with the system" Audio recordings can be tuned to remove ambient noise but they need to be perfectly calibrated to distances between microphones. 0:45 "Do you want to describe your work a little bit?" 3:00 Can you talk about the Cocktail Party Problem? 4:30 How are alarms and beeping override our attention 8:30 How do you gather your data, what kinds of devices? 10:00 What is the role of awake vs non-awake states in auditory processing? 11:15 How did you get into this? 13:00 How are you involved in the translation of the science? 16:15 Why are recordings harder to hear than in real life? 17:15 Is there anything we didn't talk about?

Suraj Mudichintala is a Senior Associate at Action Potential Capital which is GSK's bioelectronic medicine venture fund. Top 3 Takeaways: "Our fund is different in that we invest actually directly off of GSK's balance sheet. So we're what's called an evergreen fund where we don't actually have a fund size" "The way that I think about it is that a VC is really paid to allocate capital but really is really paid to think. You really have to think about what is the next space or the next technology that could disrupt a space? And because of that, it's a much you often have to take a much more longitudinal view. And it takes a lot of patience and tracking a space oftentimes for years" "When you reach out to a VC having a pitch, first of all, sending a non-confidential pitch deck is mandatory, I think. And that deck is essentially where we're making the first decision as to whether or not to do a call with you" 0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did? 1:15 "Do you wanna talk about Action Potential, what it is, who it was formed by, and the investment thesis?" 2:30 Do you want to talk about the expansion of the AP investment thesis? 4:30 What does traditional Venture Capital look like and how is it different in that you are funded by GSK? 6:15 What do the positions within a VC firm look like? 7:45 How has it been for you going from Analyst to Associate? 8:45 What does your due diligence look like? 11:45 "A lot of VCs have a target size range, be it seed or angel or, maybe larger institutional stuff. But it sounds like you guys don't really have that?" 12:45 "How did you get into this space?" 14:45 "So how does consulting compare to the VC life?" 18:45 "What would you suggest is the best way to get your attention?" 24:00 What are some tips and tricks to reaching out to you? 27:00 What was the worst pitch deck you ever saw? 28:30 " Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"  

Balint Varkuti is the CEO of CereGate which unlocks new capabilities for existing neuromodulation technologies using software. Top 3 Takeaways: "the brain is naturally wired for pattern perception for learning, and that's really what we do. We send signals that the brain very quickly can pick up." "You do not need to exclusively be focused mentally, consciously on interpreting these signals. Rather it becomes second nature. Our favourite analogy is saying it is like braille for the brain." "With hardware, you sometimes have simply the disadvantage that you are married to the time point when you started. So if you started a long time ago, you started with that technology and you have a whole regulatory documentation that's building on that. So fundamentally pivoting in hardware down the road almost becomes impossible." 0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself? 3:00 What is special about the software that hasn't already been done? 11:30 The brain is plastic and the software is changing so how does it work with these two systems fighting? 13:30 How can this approach be used to treat Parkinson symptoms such as Freezing of Gait ?" 14:15 Can you read braille? 15:30 "How fast does a patient learn to use this?" 19:00 " How can a company work with you?" 21:15 You guys have been in stealth mode for 4 years, why did it take 4 years and do you have any success stories so far? 23:45 "Do you wanna talk about the regulatory pathway and how it was how to do a software versus a hardware solution?" 27:00 How did your background in behavioral sciences shape your outlook to the company? 30:15 You didn't mention coding in your background, can you talk about starting a software company without much coding experience? 31:30 You have 25 people involved in the company but doesn't seem that you have raised much money, why such a big team? 35:15 "What does the next four years look like? What's on your horizon?" 37:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"

Kevin Tracey returns to the podcast to give an update about his work at the Feinstein Institutes and the work at SetPoint Medical. Top 3 Takeaways: "Two years we discovered that a drug called Famotidine, which is sold as a generic drug Pepcid AC is actually a pharmacological or a drug-based vagus nerve stimulator. And we proved first in mice that famotidine placed directly in very small amounts placed directly in the brains of mice activates the vagus nerve. And this in turn turned off cytokine storm, which of course is a big problem in Covid 19" "A company that I've co-founded, Setpoint Medical, is currently deep into clinical trials in the United States called ResetRA, which is on clinical trials.gov or on the SetPoint website for rheumatoid arthritis patients. And that trial is enrolling many patients up to, I think 250 patients will be studied according to the websites and we're hoping that goes very well. And we're hoping, I'm hoping that leads to FDA approval for vagus nerve stimulation in the US in the coming days or coming in the coming months" "I think we're very close now to vagus nerve stimulation becoming a reality for millions of patients. And I, I hope, and I see a time when patients have the. Of  choosing vagus nerve stimulation as a simple, safe therapy instead of dangerous, expensive drugs with black box warnings that are minimally effective." 0;30 "Do you wanna introduce yourself and talk about some of your work, especially as neuromodulation pertains to the immune system?" 2:45 "So the last time when we talked it was 2020. So pandemic, everything was upside down. But then you were telling me before we started recording that it was also especially busy for you at that time. So what were you up to around then?" 6:00 What were the quantitative takeaways of the Famotidine Covid trials? 8:15 "Why didn't it become standard practice?" 11:00 "You're saying the famotidine has this effect on the vagus nerve. Does this mean we no longer need vagus nerve stimulators? Can we just take Pepcid, AC?" 15:00 Do you want to talk about the Bioelectronic Medicine Summit? 17:30 What were some of the highlights of the Summit?  19:30 "You mentioned some interesting results. Is that something you can share now or is that something that we should be on the lookout for?" 21:30 "You were also featured recently in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, what was that like and what were the articles about?" 23:15 "So what's exciting you now for 2023 and what's on the horizon for you for the next few years?" 27:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"

Israel Gasperin is the founder and CEO of Zentrela which uses wearable EEG caps to quantitatively measure cannabis experiences. Top 3 Takeaways: "The reason why the government funded us was to use this for safety and law enforcement" "The combination of features that AI is finding is something that we haven't really focused on studying and trying to understand. It's a black box today that, is accurately and objectively characterizing the  psychoactive effects, but we don't exactly know what they mean." "Based on this neuroscience-driven research proving the onset time of the beverage, within two weeks [the company] increased their sales by 7% and they achieved record volume cells after. So what we did, or they did, was to educate the retailers to speak about their product based on this scientific publication, rather than, providing their subjective opinion" 0:45 Do you want to describe yourself better than I just did? 1:00 "We're talking about marijuana, we're talking about getting high. What are you measuring or what's the reasoning behind this?" 11:00 " You're saying that you can tell if people are high or not. What kind of confidence do you have and, what shows up in high people's brains?" 14:15 Do you want to talk about one of your success stories working with a company?  22:45 "How many people have you had come through your labs and run through your system?" 24:00 "Of the 20,000 sessions, how many are yours?" 27:45 "You've been working on this for six years. What do the next six years look like?" 32:15 "What are some challenges?" 35:45 "Is there anything that we didn't cover that you wanted to mention?" https://www.linkedin.com/in/israelgasperin/?locale=en_US 

Colin Kealey is the President and CEO of NeuroSigma which is commercializing the Monarch eTNS System, the first non-drug treatment for pediatric ADHD cleared by the FDA.  Top 3 Takeaways: NeuroSigma is commercializing the Monarch eTNS system, a wearable medical device that stimulates the trigeminal nerve on the forehead, as a treatment for neurologic and neuropsychiatric indications. The Monarch eTNS System is FDA cleared as a treatment for pediatric ADHD, ages 7 – 12. Clinical trials in this population show a response rate of 50% with a only mild side effects observed in clinical trials to date. NeuroSigma is also developing its eTNS technology for other indications including epilepsy and depression and is currently running two large double-blind randomized controlled trials in ADHD to expand the label into adolescents, and for using the device as adjunctive therapy.   0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?"  7:15 What is the efficacy of your device? 8:45 "What are some typical side effects of pharmaceutical ADHD treatments and what are some typical side effects of your guys' treatment?" 16:45 That was the pharmaceutical side effects, how about the neurostimulator side effects? 20:00 How does it work sleeping with a wired system? 21:45 "Were you guys able to cross-reference with any other sleep metrics to see if the quality of sleep diminished or maybe even increased?" 24:30 What's the protocol for using this device? 26:30 Could adults use this also? 28:30 Will college students use this as a study aid? 29:30 "What does your funding look like?" 35:15 How will you prevent Chinese knockoffs? 38:30 " Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"  

Craig Mermel is the President and Chief Product Officer at Precision Neuroscience which is a company looking to commercialize Brain-Computer Interfaces using a minimally implantation method and a soft electrode device. ***This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here*** Top 3 Takeaways "The combination of both the nature of our thin film and the surgical innovations that we bring enables us to bring cortical surface neurotechnology to patients in a minimally invasive fashion." "Having 10 times the amount of money at an early stage before you actually solve some of the key problems can be a problem because it pushes off some of the hard questions you have to ask yourself." "We're thinking ahead to the future where you have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of interfaces. The amount of damage you do will become a limiting factor at some point." 0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did? 1:30 Why did you leave Apple and Google? 2:30 What is Precision and why is it special? 6:00 What's the funding look like? 8:00 "Why hasn't this been done before?" 10:00 Are you thinking about licensing out the technology? 11:15 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship 12:00 What's your role now in Precision?"  12:45 "What are some of your biggest challenges?" 15:30 You guys raised $12M, why specifically this number? 19:00 "What are some, best practices or traps to avoid?" 21:45 Let's do a deeper dive into your work at Google and Apple  27:30 How would you compare working at Google and Apple vs being in a startup? 29:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"  

Lothar Krinke is the CEO and Board Member of Newronika which is an adaptive Deep Brain Stimulator company looking to improve patient outcomes in things like Parkinson's and Essential Tremor. ***This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here*** Top 3 Takeaways: "the one thing we do need to address is really the cost. The cost driver of Deep Brain Stimulation isn't the manufacturing of the system. Now, that's not cheap either it's certainly less than $10,000. How expensive is brain surgery, particularly functional brain surgery? How expensive is it to have all the pre-operation preparation? So I think the field needs to think about how we can lower the cost of Deep Brain Stimulation to make it available to not hundreds of thousands of patients, but literally millions of patients." "I don't think AI or even machine learning has been sufficiently applied in our space. People do it and they talk about it, but if you look at other fields, even EEG, use of AI or machine learning are much more penetrated." "In my mind it is almost unconscionable that only 15% of patients that could benefit from Parkinsons, from DBS do. So somehow we need to have a battle cry. We need to have the responsibility to make this therapy available to more people. And the way to do that is less invasive more automation and lower cost" 0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did? 2:15 "Why is Deep Brain Simulation so exciting for you?" 3:15 "Can explain what Deep Brain Stimulation is and what it's a treatment for?" 5:30 "How did you get into the field?" 6:30 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship 7:15 You thought earlier that DBS was too invasive but now changed your mind, why? 8:15 What are the biggest impediments to DBS? 12:15 Why is the Newronika DBS better than the alternatives? 14:30 Why is adaptive DBS better? 16:30 "What are some of the biggest challenges right now at Newronika?" 20:30 You are in Minneapolis, West Virginia, and Milan, how are you able to travel so much? 21:30 "Why aren't you in Gainesville? I was surprised how big the DBS field is here." 22:15 "For people starting out in the field, do you have any advice?" 25:30 " What's a big mistake or wrong direction that you see researchers or people on your field going down?" 27:45 "Could you explain the beta and gamma waves?" 32:45 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"

Damiano Giuseppe Barone is a neurosurgery clinical lecturer at the University of Cambridge and fellow at The Walton Centre in Liverpool, UK. He is interested in tackling basic and translational challenges for the development of the next generation of neural bioelectronics. ***This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools here*** Top 3 Takeaways: "My favorite procedure is the procedure that works and you see the patient after that is is a changed patient."  "You come out from medical school like age 23 or 24. Then you get to a general medical program which in the United Kingdom lasts 2 years in and then you get to the residency, which is 8 years. And then 10 years after you are age 34 practicing the neurosurgeon. I personally took what is called an 'out of programme for research/. So basically I halted my neurosurgery residency. I stepped out and I stepped in a PhD program while still covering what is called the on-call rota, which is basically doing emergency work in neurosurgery just to keep my clinical skills going." This added a few more years of training to the list. "Quality of life procedures, to be offered to the patients, will have to have a 70 to 80% improvement to justify the risks the patient will have to go through." 0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did? 2:45 You spent 20 years in training for this, did you know this at the outset? 4:00  "What's it like to get only a few hours of sleep for years?" 5:00 Why did you choose to go the PhD route as well? 7:45 What's it like to be digging around in the body? 9:45 Sponsorship by Ripple Neuro 10:00 "What's your favorite procedures and what's your least favorite procedures?" 12:15 "What percentage of patients see improvements?" 14:30 "What are some, risks other than it not working, what are maybe some damage or maybe even death is that a possibility?" 16:45 "It's much more dangerous to have, a large device versus a small device. Is that kinda what you've seen?" 18:45 "Have you been involved in electrode design or device design?" 19:45 "What are you working on now?" 25:00 "What are the next steps?" 28:00 "What would you recommend or what kind of advice do you have for people considering this?"

Jon Sakai is the Head of Commercialization at Cionic, a wearable neurostimulator sleeve for those with neuromuscular disease ***This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here*** Top 3 Takeaways: "There isn't any individualized training that needs to happen. What needs to happen is the identification of which muscle groups need support and have those turned on and programmed in intensity appropriately." "We were able to improve door sub selection and inversion in more than 90% of our participants." "There's nothing like getting an appreciation for a problem like the acuity of a problem when you just watch someone for five minutes struggle with something that's probably unimaginable if it's a condition that you're not familiar with." 0:45 "Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did?" 2:45 "There are algorithms that go behind it and it can actually predict how you're walking. How does that work?" 3:45 "Is there a learning process for the algorithms?" 5:00 "Do you guys use hydrogels as well? And how do you have gels inside of your leggings?" 5:45 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship 6:30 "What kind of improvement is there?" 8:30 How can your algorithm predict the end of a walking cycle before it has started? 9:15 What was it like getting FDA approval? 9:45 What are the next steps for the company after raising your next round of funding? 10:30 How is this going to be sold? In clinics, prescriptions, or normal retail? 11:45 What is Head of Commercialization and how does one get that role? 14:45 "You guys have been around for four years. What do the next four years look like?" 16:30 "What are some big challenges that are facing?" 17:30 "If you had unlimited funding, what would you do?" 18:30 What is some career advice you have? 22:45 " Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"

Hannah Claridge is the Head of Neurotechnology at TTP which is a consultancy that helps neurotech companies create the next generation of medical devices. ***This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here*** Top 3 Takeaways: "I think consulting is really fantastic for the variety that it offers you. Not just in terms of seeing problems, but also working with different types of companies, different types of technologies, and having different day-to-day activities as well" "There have been cases where we've worked with very small companies where the company is composed of two or three founders whose sole role is the concept of the idea and the thinking behind what's the business case, and then gathering in the funding and passing that funding through for us to carry out the product development work. Now that's pretty unusual in most cases." "You need to be able to balance the efficacy of treatment with the side effects that are usually created. And if you go too far in one direction or the other, then that treatment stops being helpful. So if you stimulate too strongly, and the effect might be really effective but if the side effects are too strong, then patients aren't going to tolerate that." 0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did? 1:45 "Let's talk about clinical translation, what does that entail?" 4:45 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship 5:45 "What's a typical contract length and what does it look like from beginning to end?" 9:00 "It really sounds like you guys do everything. You could just take an idea and then bring it almost all the way to market" 10:15 "Do you wanna share the neurotech projects you've worked on?" 11:15 "What's a common problem that you see?" 17:15 "How does a company recover, like from having so much help to not having any help? Is that typical too?" 19:45 "What does your day-to-day look like? What are you usually doing?" 22:30 What's a typical pathway into the career of consulting? 25:15 "If you had unlimited funding or if a company had unlimited funding, what would you do?" 28:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"

Lindsey Jardine is a clinical project manager at Boston Scientific which had acquired Farapulse, a cardiac ablation medical device company she was working in. She runs clinical trials for medtech companies and had done so for neurotech companies as well. ***This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here*** Top 3 Takeaways: "One of the most difficult things that I've found while you're actually running the study, is making sure those devices are getting to the sites, which is depending on where your manufacturer is" Hiring a Contract Research Organization (CRO) or hiring clinical trial specialists in-house depends on what the plan for the company is, whether it will be acquired or do an IPO "My biggest problem with startups is wanting to do too much. Because if you're trying to develop eight things at once, you're not gonna get there and you're gonna run outta money. And that's how I see a lot of startups fail" 0:45 Do you want to introduce yourself better than I just did? 1:15 "What is a clinical trial?" 2:45 "How do medical devices maybe neurotechnology, compare to pharmaceuticals?" 4:15 "What's a timeline?" 6:00 "Where does the time get used up and then where does the money get used up?" 8:45 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship 9:15 "Let's talk about budgets and how they vary, why they vary" 11:30 "What does your day-to-day look like?" 17:45 "How did you get into it?"  21:45 What would be the formal path to get into clinical trials? 26:15 "What's a common mistake for startups?" 29:30 "Do the big guys have a speed advantage?" 31:00 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that, that you wanted to mention?"