When We All Get Together

by James Cavuoto, editor

The month of January is generally a busy month for the neurotechnology industry and 2026 was no exception. Neurotech Reports’ editors participated in a number of events during and collected enough news and background information for a whole year’s worth of coverage, or so it seemed.

The year began with a trip to Las Vegas for the CES show, where this editor and senior consulting editor Jeremy Koff surveyed numerous new product offerings in wearable and noninvasive technologies. The number of companies pursuing sleep diagnostics and interventions was particularly striking this year.

Back in Northern California, NBR senior contributing editor JoJo Platt and this editor participated as panelists in an investment forum in wine country produced by Bullpen, a member-led club of life sciences professionals and investors. The group sponsored social activities and other sessions—including a neurotech roundtable—at the Golden Gate Yacht club during the week of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference, which brought thousands of life sciences professionals to San Francisco.

Kicking off that week, this editor participated in a session devoted to neurotechnology at the Sachs Neuroscience Investment Forum on January 11. The session was moderated by Diana Saraceni of VC firm Panakes Partners and Jeffrey Cohen of Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Other panelists included Ken Mariash, CEO of Sinaptica Therapeutics, Rotem Kopel, CEO of Ability Neurotech, Cassandra Snipes from Click Therapeutics, and Christos Papadimitriou, CEO of Tessara Therapeutics.

On Monday the 12th, the Neurotech Reports editorial team, including contributing editor Sharena Rice, participated in an intriguing salon event put on by the BrainMind organization called “Bending the Arc of Neuroinnovation.” Breakout discussions will explored how to bring ethical neuroinnovation from principles to practice.

The startup showcase featured entrepreneurs working across the full translational arc, from molecular-scale brain modeling to implantable and wearable neurotechnology, including Taufik Valiante from SIGNL Neurotech, Rommie Amaro from NovoDyn, Justin Sanchez from Battelle, Blake Gurfein from Fareon (no longer called Humanity Neurotech), Robert Spitale from Savanna Bio, Ludovica Labruna from Magnetic Tides, Takufumi Yanagisawa from ivec inc, Eric Leuthardt from Aurenar, Inc, Ben Woodington from Coherence Neuro, Simon Bachmann from IDUN Technologies, and Jamie Heywood from Alden Scientific.

Later that week we each attended sessions at the Biotech Showcase and at RESI, which each featured panel discussions and presentations from firms in our space.

Then on January 15, we headed back to Las Vegas for the 2026 North American Neuromodulation Society meeting. Our staff, with the help of Nandan Lad from Duke University, produced the content for the i3 preconference workshop. The scientific sessions began the next day and we had the opportunity to meet with a number of our neurotech industry colleagues on the show floor.

While we catch our breath from January’s events, we’re preparing for more meetings this year, including the LSI USA conference in Dana Point, CA in March, our ninth annual Bioelectronic Medicine Forum in New York City on April 14, the International Neuromodulation Society meeting in Lisbon in May, and then our second annual European Neurotech Leaders Forum at imec headquarters in Leuven, Belgium on June 23-24. We’’ll also be holding our Neurotech Commercialization Workshop on August 3 during the NYC Neuromodulation Conference before returning to San Francisco for our 26th annual Neurotech Leaders Forum in November.

While the schedule of events keeps us very busy, it also helps us keep in touch with you, our readers, and stay on top of developments in this rapidly changing industry. We look forward to meeting with as many of you as we can in the months ahead.