Neuralink is rumoured to be approaching a US neurosurgery centre as a potential human clinical trial partner.

After the US Food and Drug Administration rejected an application for human trials in 2022, Neuralink is working to address the FDA’s concerns.

According to six people with knowledge of the situation, Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink has approached one of the largest US neurosurgery centres as a potential clinical trials partner as it gets ready to test its devices on humans once regulators permit it.Since 2016, Neuralink has been developing brain implants in the hopes of eventually developing a cure for intractable conditions such as paralysis and blindness.

It was dealt a setback in early 2022 when the US Food and Drug Administration denied its application to proceed to human trials, citing major safety concerns, according to Reuters earlier this month.

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Since then, the company has been attempting to allay the agency’s worries, but it is uncertain if and when this will be successful.According to the sources, Neuraliank has been in contact with Barrow Neurological Institute, a centre for the treatment and study of neurological disorders with offices in Phoenix, Arizona, to assist with the execution of the human trials.

The discussions might not produce a team-up. The sources added that Neuralink has also talked about collaborating with other centres but asked for anonymity to discuss the private discussions.

The most recent status of the negotiations was unknown to Reuters. Requests for comment from representatives of Neuralink went unanswered.

Francisco Ponce, director of Barrow’s Center for Neuromodulation and Neurosurgery Residency Program, declined to comment on Neuralink but noted that due to its extensive experience in the area, Barrow was well-suited to carry out such implant research.

Regarding Neuralink’s search for a collaborator for its clinical trials, the FDA declined to comment.Neuralink’s most recent initiatives coincide with two known US federal investigations into its procedures.

The Inspector General of the US Department of Agriculture started investigating possible animal welfare violations at Neuralink last year. Concerns about the company’s hastily conducted animal experiments that caused unnecessary suffering and deaths have been expressed in detail by current and former employees to Reuters.

The US Department of Transportation has stated that it is looking into potential mishandling of hazardous pathogens during the company’s animal trials partnership with the University of California, Davis between 2018 and 2020.According to Ponce, Barrow has helped standardise brain implant surgeries in which the patient can remain asleep, which is a critical step in making it more acceptable to a wide range of people.

This is consistent with Musk’s vision for the brain chip from Neuralink. The brain implants developed by Neuralink will be as commonplace as Lasik eye surgery, according to the billionaire CEO of Tesla and majority owner of Twitter.

Barrow’s implants are not the same as those used by Neuralink. Barrow uses deep brain stimulation devices, which were approved by the FDA in 1997 to help reduce Parkinson’s tremors and have since been implanted in over 175,000 patients.

The implant from Neuralink is a brain computer interface (BCI) gadget that connects directly to computers using electrodes that either pierce the brain or rest on its surface. A BCI implant has not yet been approved for sale in the US by any company.

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