Carolina Aguilar, INBRAIN Neuroelectronics - Spotlight Interview | LSI USA ‘23

Transcription

Nick Talamantes  0:14  
Carolina, thank you so much for joining me at LSI in the studio. 

Carolina Aguilar  0:17  
It's a pleasure.

Nick Talamantes  0:18  
Tell me about what you're doing it INBRAIN.

Carolina Aguilar  0:20  
Yeah. So at INBRAIN, we are a healthtech company. And we use graphene to decode neural signals into breakthrough medical solutions using a small implant on the brain that has some interfaces that actually read pathological biomarkers and treat them to actually keep those there, those patients restored back to the normal lives.

Nick Talamantes  0:39  
Why graphene?

Carolina Aguilar  0:42  
Graphene is they call it a wonder material for a reason. And it's the thinnest material and non Terminus an atom thick, that is 200 times stronger than steel, and an excellent conductor biocompatible. So it seems like the ideal candidate for the revolution in neuro tech,

Nick Talamantes  1:01  
What type of devices are you developing then using graphene? And how, what are the indications for these devices that you're looking at?

Carolina Aguilar  1:09  
We have two products, the first one is a very simple one for brain mapping in an acute way. So it's an acute interface for brain mapping, where we want to demonstrate the safety but also the potential of this material in in mapping the brain for two more and epilepsy resections. And then the bigger problem, let's say the core product is this platform that has interfaces on the cortex and then so critically, and joined together in a decoding unit and intelligent decoded unit that actually does the signal processing to treat different disease areas. We have three indications Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, but also facial speech synthesis more on the brain computer interface interface side.

Nick Talamantes  1:52  
So are you focused on one specific area right now when you're looking at the chronic neurological diseases? Let's say Parkinson's disease or epilepsy? Where are you guys focus right now?

Carolina Aguilar  2:03  
In these two in the first two, which is brain mapping, and Parkinson's? 

Nick Talamantes  2:09  
I noticed that you guys have a partnership with Merc, as well as this attributed to any of those two products? 

Carolina Aguilar  2:16  
No, we have a separate company actually calling Inervia Bioelectronics that is a fully owned subsidiary of INBRAIN and Inervia Bioelectronics. It's in declaration with Merc in developing applications for the peripheral nervous system. So at the end, we have one nervous system central and peripheral. INBRAIN does central, INERVIA with Merc does peripheral. But the vision is to connect these two in the future, and being able to understand the full nervous system.

Nick Talamantes  2:46  
It's fascinating. What stage are you guys at right now with your technology?

Carolina Aguilar  2:49  
So on the cortical interface, we're going to first in humans is the first time graphene will be placed in the brain of a human being ever. And in parallel, we are developing the Parkinson application, and we are at the preclinical stage.

Nick Talamantes  3:06  
How long will this device once implanted into the brain? How long will it be able to function on its own? Will it need to be replaced? Or is it going to be in use in perpetuity?

Carolina Aguilar  3:17  
We are looking for a solution that has the longest battery reliability possible, I cannot give you right now a time limit. But it will for sure be more than 10 years. Let's say it's more about can we take it to 25 or 30 but the idea is that has the least possible replacements. So we increase the comfort for those patients.

Nick Talamantes  3:45  
Would you consider INBRAIN a BCI company?

Carolina Aguilar  3:49  
Yes we are. We have BCI technology that is applied to both neuromodulation applications. And in the future, as we said with a speech to the more brain computer interface applications, but we thought that we will actually be quite disruptive, applying BCI technology into more conservative or let's say more commercial applications where the comparison with the legacies obvious.

Nick Talamantes  4:17  
So will the device once implanted be able to deliver a stimulation to certain regions of the brain and function as a smaller, more efficient next gen let's say deep brain stimulation or neuro stimulation technology?

Carolina Aguilar  4:32  
Yeah, so that is that is actually the difference that we bring all the let's say the advantage that we bring, not only we bring the super high resolution that already BCI it's known for but we are bidirectional, so reading and writing or recording and stimulating. Usually BCI is actually more on the recording side but not on the stimulation side for different reasons.

Nick Talamantes  4:59  
Is there a challenge then in making those two technologies work together?

Carolina Aguilar  5:05  
Which ones?

Nick Talamantes  5:05  
BCI, The recording, and then the stimulation? 

Carolina Aguilar  5:10  
No, no, that's why that's why we could offer that right away. And that's the advantage that we have with graphene. Typically, in the brain computer interface world, they use more recording, because on the materials that are in that technology, a stimulation degrades the material, in some cases, of course, not, not everywhere. But in our case, graphene is very, very stable. So even with very long stimulation cycles, we we prove to be as stable as stable as platinum, which is known to be very stable in stimulation, actually more stable, because platinum does this further live reactions that actually degrade the material. So hopefully will be equal or better.

Nick Talamantes  5:54  
Is platinum, the material that they're using and other BCIs then Is that how you're distinguishing yourself from?

Carolina Aguilar  6:01  
Yes. 

Nick Talamantes  6:02  
Okay. I'm just curious how you guys are distinguishing yourself. You know, BCI has become a very hot topic in the industry. There are quite a few companies that have raised a lot of money, including your own. I know that you guys recently received a grant from the EIC is that for what you're doing at INBRAIN or Inervia? 

Carolina Aguilar  6:22  
No Inervia is fully funded by Merc. So everything we raised is for INBRAIN. Yes. And, yeah, we were very happy because it was a very competitive process. It was more than 1000 100 companies from all sectors. So receiving the maximum amount was also a great honor, let's say and a big boost in Christmas time.

Nick Talamantes  6:45  
So that funding from that grant from the EIC then is going to drive your initiatives and the first in human trials that you're looking at doing and other future steps. 

Carolina Aguilar  6:56  
Yeah, yeah. That is going to make possible the conversation of the cortical interface and also to the to keep developing the chronic platform to west, another first inhuman on the Parkinson application. 

Nick Talamantes  7:11  
Certainly there are a lot of patients out there that have neurological chronic conditions that are going to really benefit from the work that your company and the other companies in the industry are working on bringing to market. Carolina thank you so much for joining me in the studio.

Carolina Aguilar  7:27  
Yeah, thanks to LSI and everybody that has been involved in making such a successful conference every time everywhere. 

Nick Talamantes  7:36  
It's our pleasure to serve you. 

Carolina Aguilar  7:37  
Thank you