Researchers and Entrepreneurs Move to Revive BrainGate
by David Pope, editorial director
July 2010 issue
BrainGate, an implanted brain-computer interface that enables direct control of computer or other devices by thought alone, generated a huge wave of publicity worldwide for Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc. of Foxborough, MA, the company that developed the system.
Taking advantage of the good press, Cyberkinetics went public in 2004 and its stock was listed on the OTC Bulletin Board. Initially the publicity pushed up its stock price and Cyberkinetics was able to raise additional capital. But in 2006 the stock price began to fall and in 2007 it dropped to less than 1 cent. Unable to raise the funds it needed from investors, Timothy Surgenor, president and CEO, began selling the company’s assets and winding down its operations.
At the end of the winding down, Cyberkinetics’ BrainGate was split into three components. One company bought the patents and related intellectual property, another company purchased the rights for the hardware and data acquisition system, and the original researcher re-launched the research and development program with federal funds.
The last set of assets sold by Surgenor were Cyberkinetics’ BrainGate patents and related intellectual property, which were purchased in April 2009 for less than $1 million by Jeffrey Stibel, who formed the BrainGate Co. to manage and market the acquisition. In addition, Stibel acquired the BrainGate trademark and the cyberkinetics.com domain. Cyberkinetics suspended operations shortly after the sale.
Stibel says that BrainGate Co. will focus on making the BrainGate software work more reliably. He plans to allow researchers free use of the BrainGate neural interface technology. The IP portfolio acquired by Stibel includes clinical applications of the BrainGate technology, which may or may not have significant value to the BrainGate Co. in the future.
Brown University of Providence, RI, also has rights to the BrainGate system. The original work was done by a group led by John Donoghue, director of the Brown Institute for Brain Science. In 2001, Donoghue became one of the co-founders of Cyberkinetics Inc. In October 2008, after Cyberkinetics had stopped funding BrainGate R&D, he resigned from Cyberkinetics’ board of directors and set out to continue BrainGate research with funding from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Veterans Affairs, and philanthropic sources. The FDA has granted an academically-based IDE for BrainGate2.
A new, expanded clinical study called BrainGate2 has been started at Massachusetts General Hospital under the direction of Leigh Hochberg. A 4x4 mm BrainGate2 sensor will be placed into the motor cortex of up to 15 quadriplegic patients. The BrainGate2 clinical trial will expand on earlier research, and refine the hardware and software that decodes brain signals that can be used to initiate actions. The goals include enabling paralyzed patients to control a computer by moving a cursor, controlling a prosthetic limb or a robotic arm, controlling movement of their own limbs using functional electrical stimulation, and increasing our understanding of how the motor cortex functions.
It is unclear how the new BrainGate2 research at Brown University will impact the patents and IP held by the BrainGate Co. Since clinical applications are costly to develop, Stibel may decide to pursue commercial applications such as thought control of games, computers, and other devices. He already has shown an interest in devices that can detect brain activities. Stibel was a founder and board member of Zeo Inc. of Newton, MA, which has developed a sleep monitoring and personalized coaching system that uses EEGs and REMs to detect sleep stages. He also has an interest in Neurosky, Inc. of San Jose, CA, a small startup that has developed a neural mapping chip and dry sensor system that converts brainwaves and eye movements into signals for controlling electronic games and other devices. Neurosky is using brainwave interpretation algorithms that were developed in Russia.
Stibel has an M.A, from Brown University. He left to start Simpli.com, a service that analyzed user behavior on the Internet. Simpli was purchased by NetZero for $23 million. When Stibel acquired the IP assets of BrainGate from Cyberkinetics, he was president of Web.com, a public company that helps businesses create and maintain their websites. He resigned from Web.com in September 2009, and currently serves as chairman of the BrainGate Co. He intends to have offices in Boston and Los Angeles.
According to Stibel, BrainGate Co. will not be working on the system’s hardware. That development is being done by Blackrock Microsystems of Salt Lake, UT, which acquired Cyberkinetics’ microelectrode arrays and acquisition systems in 2008 for $982,000. Cyberkinetics used most of the cash received from the sale to avoid bankruptcy by paying down a $1.2 million loan from General Electric Capital Corp. Blackrock has a royalty-free license to manufacture and market neural recording arrays, array insertion devices, and data acquisition systems to neuroscience researchers.
A key component of the BrainGate system is a microelectrode array that was developed at the University of Utah by Richard Normann, who founded Bionic Technologies to market the Utah Electrode Array. In 2002 Bionics was merged into Cyberkinetics Inc., and the microelectrode array was incorporated into Cyberkinetics’ BrainGate system. Cyberkinetics also continued Bionics’ manufacturing and marketing activities. Blackrock was founded in 2008 to take over the microarray manufacturing and marketing operations.
The NeuroPort data acquisition system, now made by Blackrock, has FDA approval for short-term, intra-operative and post-operative recording and monitoring of brain electrical activity. In 2009 Blackrock obtained approval from the FDA that allows the NeuroPort system to be used with electrodes from other manufacturers in operation room, outpatient, and research settings. The system simultaneously records signals from implanted electrodes and surface EEG and EMG electrodes.
Although the NeuroPort is cleared for short-term clinical research, future versions could be developed for clinical applications that might compete with products developed with BrainGate and Brown University’s BrainGate2. About the same time Surgenor sold the BrainGate portfolio to Stibel, he also negotiated the sale of the rights for Andara oscillating field stimulator technology to NeuroMetrix Inc. of Waltham, MA. In 2007, NeuroMetrix invested $2.5 million in Cyberkinetics to obtain join venture rights for the Andara neurostimulation device, which promotes nerve fiber regeneration in acutely injured peripheral and spinal cord nerves. NeuroMetrix also agreed to provide $2 million to fund the joint venture for two years. In March 2009 NeuroMetrix acquired the rights to Andara OSF for $350,000 and appointed Surgenor to its board of directors.
