US-based neurotechnology company Motif Neurotech has secured funding from the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) to advance its brain-computer interface (BCI) technology for treating cognitive and psychiatric conditions.
The funding, which forms part of ARIA’s Precision Neurotechnologies programme, will help create neural devices to monitor and regulate mental and cognitive states without brain surgery.
Motif’s BCI technology comprises millimetre-sized wireless implants placed in the skull during a 20-minute procedure.
The implants will offer cell-type-specific stimulation and electrical recording, spanning the entire cortical surface to regulate brain-wide circuits, without contacting the brain.
Motif Neurotech CEO Jacob Robinson said: “This funding will allow us to accelerate our efforts to develop a general-purpose platform capable of accurately monitoring and regulating mental and cognitive states.
“The brain is an electrical organ. We believe that mental and cognitive disorders will be best treated by interacting with the brain in its native language.”
According to Motif, its technology could significantly impact the treatment of cognitive, neurological, and psychiatric conditions by regulating brain states linked to mood, attention, and sleep.
The project will make the technology more accessible to patients through simple, rapid, and low-risk implantation procedures.
It will also focus on improving the specificity of brain stimulation by targeting specific cell types, which could enable more effective treatments while reducing side effects.
As part of the award, Motif will collaborate with research partners to develop the technology, including MintNeuro, and The Robinson Lab at Rice University.
MintNeuro is a UK-based startup that will help develop custom integrated circuits for miniature implants, and the Robinson Lab will support system integration and testing.
Also, Rice University’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department associate professor Kaiyuan Yang will help design circuits for wireless data and power transfer.
