Neuralink, the brain-chip startup company of Elon Musk, has announced that it has gotten approval from an independent review board to commence recruitment for the first human trial of its brain implant for paralysis patients.
Neuralink said patients with paralysis due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis may be eligible to participate in the study but did not state how many participants would be enrolled in the trial, which will take around six years to complete.
Neuralink said under the study, a robot to surgically place a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) implant in a region of the brain that controls the intention to move and added that its initial goal is to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard with their thoughts alone.
Even if the BCI device is safe for human use, it would still potentially take over a decade for the startup to secure commercial use clearance for it, according to experts.
According to United States reports, Neuralink had earlier hoped to get approval to implant its device in 10 patients, but was now negotiating a reduced number of patients with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after the agency raised safety concerns.
The ambitions of Musk for Neuralink are speedy surgical insertions of its chip devices to treat conditions like obesity, autism, blindness, paralysis, depression, and schizophrenia.
The company revealed in May it had received clearance from the FDA for its first-in-human clinical trial when it was under federal examination for its handling of animal testing.
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