Synchron: Giving people with severe paralysis the power to communicate using their thoughts

The need

Over 30 million people experience severe paralysis that prevents them from speaking and using their hands or voice to communicate. Other brain computer interface (BCI) technologies existed when University of Melbourne’s Professor Thomas Oxley and Professor Nicholas Opie began their work. But these BCI devices were large and needed to be directly implanted via the skull, making procedures highly complex and medically risky.

The research

Fired with a mission to find an alternative, safe and permanent solution to traditionally complex, invasive brain surgery, in 2012 Professor Oxley and Professor Opie founded clinical stage neurotechnology company Synchron. Its aim was to help people with paralysis regain their ability to communicate and carry out everyday activities by controlling digital devices.

The Synchron team’s breakthrough was to develop a stent-like device that would allow patients with functioning brains to control external devices with their thoughts.

The device – called a Stentrode – is inserted into the jugular vein via a small neck incision, manipulated into position in a major blood vessel close to the brain’s motor cortex and, once in place, detects and sends neural signals generated by the patient’s thoughts. The signals are transmitted to an antenna inserted under the skin in the chest that connects wirelessly to external devices such as computers and smartphones.

“We have now proven that devices can be left inside a blood vessel and that cells will grow over it, incorporating it into the wall like a tattoo under the skin and protecting the device from an immune reaction in the brain that would otherwise reject it,” Professor Oxley said in a recent TED Talk.

“As a result, our team became the first in the world to receive approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct clinical trials of a permanently implanted BCI.”

Going to market

The first step in the Stentrode’s development was facilitated by a partnership with the University of Melbourne in collaboration with the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health.

“With the initial funding received through the partnership, we set up a laboratory at the University and carried out early-stage research, forming the company at the same time,” explains Professor Opie.

“We were in the fortunate position of being surrounded by supportive innovators within the Melbourne Biomedical Precinct who were also trying to figure out new solutions to old problems,” says Gil Rind, Synchron’s Director of Advanced Tech.

Attracting $217 million funding in its first few years of operation, the Synchron founders were determined to commercialise the Stentrode technology and, in so doing, make it available as widely as possible.

Ongoing and incrementally larger investments enabled the initial US trials to proceed and, ultimately, secure FDA approval to conduct the first study of its kind. Success was consolidated with further high-profile venture investment and backing received in 2022, and from private investment vehicles of billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.

The outcome

Early results from 10 patients showed that patients with a Stentrode implant were able to control a digital device to text and type through direct thought.

“Stentrode’s fully implantable, take home, wireless technology has revolutionised human connection for people living with significant paralysis to live more joyful lives,” Professor Oxley says.

With ongoing research and continuous improvement, Professor Oxley and Professor Opie are working to apply the Stentrode’s applications to other neurological conditions including epilepsy, depression and dementia. In so doing, the scientists have forged a new frontier in medicine for the treatment of neurological diseases called Neurointerventional Electrophysiology.

Professor Oxley and Professor Opie believe their technology holds the promise of autonomy and independence. “What this really means is giving people dignity”, says Professor Oxley.

People

• Professor Thomas Oxley, CEO
• Professor Nick Opie, Founding Director
• Associate Professor Sam John, University of Melbourne Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology under the guidance of Professor David Grayden and Professor Anthony Burkitt
• Professor Clive May, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
• Professor Peter Mitchell and Associate Professor Andrew Morokoff, Royal Melbourne Hospital