Neurotech Notables #36: July 16-31

🌡️Hot Neurotech Summer ☀️

Greetings, Neurotech Fam.

Another fortnite, another fortune Nudged forward by the latest 9-figure funding deal. From crypto lords to national governments, millions continue pouring into neurotech, even as the funding climate changes quickly amidst a torrid flurry of market activity:

• Neuralink’s newest participants and projections. A first-in-human brain implant. Many strategic partnerships. FDA milestones. Reimbursement decisions. Commercial data. New hires. Global expansion.

• A ream of exciting new results published by startups across implanted BCI and peripheral nerve stim, photobiomodulation, wearable EMG, cognitive testing, and wireless EEG.

• Timely discussions, papers, initiatives, resources: Brain-on-chip. Mind uploading and its limits. NeuroAI RFI. BCI security. Patient registry. Landscape map. Vision implants. More focused ultrasound than you can focus on.

• Ongoing seismic activity across the US federal government is rumbling through the industry and far beyond. It is altering funding timelines, influencing regulatory submissions, and reshaping strategies for everyone, from international students to companies, investors, founders, trade groups, and global governments.

😎 A Special Thanks to NeuroNYC for inviting me to their stellar midsummer midtown mixer. I enjoyed time with NY’s coolest founders, funders, and friends. And air conditioning. And the tiniest tacos imaginable. Recap below.

🤓 Students & Young Professionals: I’ll be speaking at Dana Foundation’s 3rd Annual Virtual Career Fair in Neuroscience & Society on Sept 8th. Register here and send me questions about writing your way into a Neurotech career.

😅Stop me if you’ve heard this one: “New stuff coming soon!” I’m slowly preparing a batch of fresh articles, analysis, and other exciting collaborations with partners and contributors around the world. Watch. This. Space.

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👋🏽 Hi, I’m Naveen. I believe brain health is human health. You are one of the 2,690 readers of my biweekly reports on emerging neurotech markets.

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Interested in Becoming an Ecosystem Partner? Inquire today.

NANS

• Submit an abstract for the NANS 2026 Annual Meeting, Jan 22–25 2026, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Submission Deadline: Aug 14, 2025

TTP

• Rewiring healthcare: an interview with TTP’s Hannah Claridge on how neurotech is unlocking new frontiers in treatment - Watch now

Datwyler

• From AWE EU 2024 - Wearable Sensors & AR: Paving the Way to Mass Adoption by Dr. Michel Wälti - Watch now

Card79

• Meet the Designer Behind Neuralink’s Surgical Robot - Read in Wired

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Funding

• Nudge announces $100M Series A Led by Thrive Capital and Greenoaks (Nudge)

• NeuroEM Therapeutics® Closes Initial Rounds in $5 Million Equity Raise to Commercialize Drug-free Alzheimer's Treatment (NeuroEM)

• Neurable gets funding from Accelerate Blue Fund in latest round (LinkedIn)

• New startup Axo Neurotech wins £20,000 in 2025 Entrepreneurship Prize (Kings College)

• Virtuleap expands VR brain training with new games (Portugal Startup News)

  • “Virtuleap, which has raised $4.1 million to date, developed the tool in collaboration with Lusíadas Saúde and Roche Portugal to detect cognitive disorders such as dementia at an early stage, enabling timely intervention and improved health outcomes.”

• Government of Canada and partners invest $44.8 million to support healthy brain aging (Government of Canada)

  • Canada Brain Economy Declaration (Canadian Brain)

• UPitt and Michigan State University collaboration awarded 5-year, $3.4M NIH R01 to develop a new class of wireless diamond-based electrodes for brain stimulation (LinkedIn)

Commercial

• CorTec Announces Neurotech Milestone: First Human Implantation of a Brain-Computer Interface made in Germany (MorningStar)

• CVRx announces Medicare win for Barostim therapy (MassDevice)

• Nalu Medical Achieves National Payer Milestone with Aetna Coverage for Peripheral Nerve Stimulation Therapy (LinkedIn)

• Globus Medical Announces Kieth Pfeil as CEO, alongisde Preliminary Second Quarter 2025 Sales Results (Globus)

• Axoft expands to Europe with new subsidiary in Grenoble, France (LinkedIn)

• Omniscient and The Jacobs Institute, Inc. Announce Strategic Partnership to Pioneer Clinical Connectomics (Globe Newswire)

• Epitel and Espinosa Neuroscience Institute announce collaboration with REMI remote EEG (LinkedIn)

• Zeto Selects Clinical Trial Sponsorship Recipients Advancing EEG in Critical Care, Stroke, and Concussion Research (Newswise)

• NeuroOne further boosts its brain electrode IP with new patent (MassDevice)

• Neuros Medical Announces First Commercial Implant of the Altius® Direct Electrical Nerve Stimulation System, a Breakthrough Non-Opioid Treatment for Chronic Post-Amputation Pain (PR Newswire)

• Constant Therapy Announces Collaboration with Burke Rehabilitation to Offer NY's First AI-Driven Post-Acute Outpatient Speech Therapy (Globe Newswire)

• CareONE Concierge Now Accepting Candidates for Alzheimer's Device Study (PR Newswire)

• Helius Announces Positive Outcome of the Portable Neuromodulation Stimulator PoNS® Stroke Registrational Program and Upcoming Submission to FDA Under Breakthrough Designation (Globe Newswire)

• Fujitsu and Acer Medical trial AI service that assesses future disease risk in elderly patients through gait pattern abnormality detection (Fujitsu)

• Expertise of UPMC Enterprises Guides Implementation of BrainCheck’s Cognitive Assessment Platform (UPMC)

• Ametris and Modality.AI Announce Strategic Partnership to Expand Remote Measures in Neurodegenerative Clinical Trials (Ametris)

• Alzheimer’s Deals Surged 780% After Leqembi, Kisunla Broke Approval Stalemate (Biospace)

• Vivani updates shareholders on plans for Cortigent spinout (SEC)

  • “Specifically, although neither Vivani nor Cortigent has received FDA approval to market our products, upon completion of the spin-off Cortigent will continue to develop brain implant medical devices and systems to help patients recover critical body functions and Vivani will focus exclusively on developing miniature, ultra long-acting GLP-1 implants for chronic weight management and type 2 diabetes with once or twice-yearly dosing.”

• Firefly Neuroscience issues S-1 filing (SEC)

• Neuralink completes implants in patients 8 and 9 (X); DJ Seo: “Our goal is at least 20 before the end of 2025” (X). And in case you missed this one:

• Neuralink Sees $1 Billion of Revenue by 2031 in Vast Expansion (Bloomberg)

  • “By 2029, the company expects to gain regulatory approval in the US for its Telepathy device, and it hopes to perform 2,000 surgeries a year and generate at least $100 million in annual revenue, according to the documents. Then by 2030, Neuralink sees the launch of its sight-restoring chip Blindsight, expanding to 10,000 surgeries a year and bringing in over $500 million. The figures assume “a conservative reimbursement of $50k per surgery,” the documents show.”

Regulatory & Policy

• Bioventus wins FDA nod for duo of next-gen peripheral nerve stim products (MassDevice)

• Exclusive: Neu Health gets FDA 510(k) for tremor measurement app for Parkinson's (MobiHealthNews)

• AI-based brain-mapping software receives FDA market authorization (WashU)

• From March: FDA Grants Breakthrough Device Designation for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation Device to Treat Depression (UNC)

• Organ-on-a-chip: Upcoming US FDA Guidance Could Help Flesh out Roadmap (Citeline)

• MHRA announces proposals to improve access to medical devices and to boost economic growth in Britain’s med tech sector (Gov UK)

• White House Office of Management & Budget halts all NIH grants, then reverses course next day (STAT)

  • NIH cuts spotlight a hidden crisis facing patients with experimental brain implants (AP News)

• FDA TAP Leader Departs (MedTech Strategist)

  • In March, Doug Kelly, CDRH’s deputy center director for science and the leader of the TPLC Advisory Program (TAP) departed the agency.

• FDA Authorization of Therapeutic Devices Under the Breakthrough Devices Program (JAMA Internal Medicine)

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🧠Recap: NeuroNYC’s Neurotech Summit🗽

Images courtesy of NeuroNYC

On Tuesday night, I joined over 60 leaders in Manhattan for NeuroNYC’s Neurotech Summit, hosted at Solomon Partners’ Midtown offices with support from Boston Consulting Group.

• Charles Rodenkirch, PhD, founder and CEO of SharperSense was an energetic emcee, kicking off the evening with an overview of NYC’s burgeoning bonafides as a neurotech capital: $750M+ invested annually, 54+ investors, 44+ startups. 63 labs. 16 universities. 3k papers a year. 58 clinics across 10 health systems.

• Greg Kubin from Psymed moderated a panel, “Scaling Neurotechnology to a $400B+ Market: Why and How New York can Lead the Way, ”with Adam Caplan from Jumpspace, Chad Bouton from Northwell and Neuvotion, and Paul Sajda from Columbia and Optios, and Tom Oxley from Synchron.

• Discussion ran the gamut: Fundraising challenges, past, present, future; NYC’s pros & cons, device abandonment, read vs read/write BCI, consumer adoption, needs-based neurotech, and of course Neuralink.

Highlights: Amy Kruse’s views on Neurotech versus Medtech. Tom Oxley’s funding history lesson. Jacob Robinson articulating the tension between capitalization and valuation. Helen Mayberg’s vision for a research Borg. Asking Conor Russomanno about his EEG-fiction-videogame origin story. Sartorial twinning with Paul Le Floch. And a juicy bit of gossip that (almost) got me in trouble.

Shout out to Charles and the hardworking, brilliant NeuroNYC team: Saar Lively, Louis Zhao, Nayanika Biswas, Noam Nitzan, and Cindy Rentala.

For all New York firms looking to invest in ecosystem development: As a newly incorporated non-profit, NeuroNYC is ready for sponsor support.

To get involved visit their website and LinkedIn page for resources and opportunities like jobs, partnerships, and upcoming events.

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Industry

• INBRAIN Neuroelectronics Reports Interim Analysis of First-in-Human Study of Graphene BCI (BusinessWire)

• Nyxoah: Bilateral hypoglossal nerve stimulation for obstructive sleep apnea: a nonrandomized clinical trial (JCSM)

• Cognito Therapeutics Presents Clinical Trial Data at AAIC 2025 (BusinessWire) & completes study enrollment (MassDevice)

• Reach Neuro, SynchNeuro, and Sinaptica among startups chosen to drive technology-driven improvements in women’s heart and brain health (American Heart Association)

• Epitel’s REMI: Comparative analysis of signal quality and usability for a novel wireless, wearable EEG sensor (Clinical Neurophysiology Practice)

• AAIC 2025: Linus Health Powers Alzheimer’s Research with AI-Driven Insights Across Cognition, Meaning, Motor (CityBiz)

• DNAKE Emerges as a Global Innovator in Brain-Computer Interface Technology (PR Newswire)

• Cover Story: A Page from Ray Cohen’s Playbook: Scaling, Exiting, and Winning in Medtech (LSI)

• Therapeutic BCI: neural devices to help everyone (Motif)

• Meta Unveils Wristband for Controlling Computers With Hand Gestures (NYTimes | Nature)

• Cortical Labs: The CL1 as a platform technology to leverage biological neural system functions (Nature)

• Feinstein Institutes Explores Noninvasive Bioelectronic Medicine to Manage Insulin, Blood Sugar After Surgery (BusinessWire)

• Vietnamese startup unveils AI-powered wearable to track mental health (VOV)

• Reach Nuro: Treating stroke patients with neurotechnology (LinkedIn)

• The brain tech revolution is here — and it isn’t all Black Mirror (Vox)

  • Meanwhile: "Our sole purpose is to digitize the brain” (Founder of Duality Nexus).

  • On the other hand: Breaking the jar -Why NeuroAI needs embodiment (The Transmitter)

• There’s Neuralink—and There’s the Mind-Reading Company That Might Surpass It (Wired)

• A Playbook for Human Evidence (CompoundVC)

• Neurotech Map (Topology)

• Cyber Risks to Next-Gen Brain-Computer Interfaces: Analysis and Recommendations (Neuroethics)

• Toward the Clinical Translation of Implantable Brain–Computer Interfaces for Motor Impairment: Research Trends and Outcome Measures (Advanced Science)

  • More context, with a link to a new iBCI patient registry resource here

• August 13 - Virtual Roundtable on Novel Addiction Treatments (PsyMed & OneMind)

Neurotech.TV

• Bryan Johnson's Neuralink competitor - with Kernel CEO Ryan Field (XEIA)

• New types of treatment for depression: What makes SAINT different from other therapies? (AMA)

• MTV Studio ASPN | Dr. Krishnan Chakravarthy (Med Tech Voice)

• How Wearable Technology Is Shaping the Wellness Industry (Bloomberg)

• Martin Sliwinski, PhD - Managing Cognitive Impairment – From Early Diagnosis to Supportive Care (a2 Collective)

Society

• Disabled Americans Fear What Medicaid Cuts Could Do to Them (NYTimes)

• States pass privacy laws to protect brain data collected by devices (CBS)

  Neurotechnology and Children’s Rights: Preparing for the future (Unicef)

• Quiz: Do You Know These Books That Predicted Current Technology? (NYTimes)

  • Bonus: What books influenced your neurotech career? Send me your sci-fi, non-fic, literary influences.

• The Growing Case for Music in Dementia Care (NeuroArts)

• Babies, bees and bots: On the hunt for markers of consciousness (The Transmitter)

• Rewiring the Brain: How deep brain stimulation is giving new hope to patients with Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders (NIH)

Research

• Speech sequencing in the human precentral gyrus (Nature Human Behavior)

  • Ed Chang is prolific when it comes to publishing papers, but not about discussing his startup, Echo Neurotechnologies. The obvious guess is it’s a speech BCI…but is that really a viable commercial strategy? Your insights or perspectives welcome.

• Tellurium nanowire retinal nanoprosthesis improves vision in models of blindness (Science)

  • From a Q&A with Dr. Jiayi Zhang “Our immediate focus is continued development and validation in the academic setting, but we are open to startup pathways as opportunities arise.”

• RFI: Neuroscience & the Path to Safe AGI - Due August 29 (Amaranth Foundation)

• Kickstarter: Spiker:bit – Turn Body Signals into Creative Inventions (Backyard Brains)

• Wearable ultrasound technology (Nature)

• A human brain network linked to restoration of consciousness after deep brain stimulation (Nature)

• Gastrointestinal neuromuscular interfaces: Bioelectronic device design for gastrointestinal motility (Cell)

• Direct carotid sinus nerve stimulation in anesthetized human subjects (Nature)

• Holographic transcranial ultrasound neuromodulation enhances stimulation efficacy by cooperatively recruiting distributed brain circuits (Nature BME)

• Focused Ultrasound Enhances Glymphatic Transport Robustly Across Anesthesia Levels (Newswise)

  Scalable production of human cortical organoids using a biocompatible polymer (Nature)

• Johns Hopkins APL Develops Innovative Platform for Traumatic Brain Injury Research (JHUAPL)

• A functional neuroimaging biomarker of mild cognitive impairment using TD-fNIRS (NPJ Dementia)

• New Study Reveals Subclasses of Autism by Linking Traits to Genetics (Simons Foundation)

• Ultra-high gradient connectomics and microstructure MRI scanner for imaging of human brain circuits across scales (Nature BME)

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