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

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?
13:303 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?"