Elon Musk’s Neuralink may start a trial with brain chips in Canada
Canada’s University Health Network said Toronto Western Hospital would be the first non-U.S. site for a trial for a device made by Neuralink Corp., Elon Musk’s brain implant company.
“We are incredibly proud to be at the forefront of these advances in neurosurgery research,” UHN CEO Kevin Smith said in an announcement. He also said UHN would be the “first and exclusive” location for the trial in Canada, but did not say when it would begin.
On Wednesday, Neuralink said it had received approval from regulators in Canada to start clinical trials for its device in that country.
“Health Canada has approved the launch of our first clinical trial in Canada!” the company posted on X, the social media service also owned by Musk. “Recruitment is now open.”
Neuralink added that it was looking for patients with quadriplegia due to ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, or spinal cord injury.
Health Canada did not immediately comment.
Neuralink has been recruiting patients in the US, UK and Canada for months, with links to a registry on its website. Other companies in the field, such as Synchron Inc., are recruiting for their own future trials.
Neuralink’s first product aims to allow patients to control external devices, such as computers, through their thoughts. Neuralink is also working on treating other conditions such as blindness, but that project is even further away. In the distant future, Musk has said Neuralink could work with healthy patients on functions such as increasing memory.
The first human patient, Noland Arbaugh, was implanted with the Neuralink device earlier this year at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix.
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