Science Corp prepares first human brain implant

Max Hodak’s Science Corporation says it is preparing to place its first neural sensor into a human brain, moving a well-funded brain–computer interface (BCI) startup from animal work and prototypes into clinical reality. According to TechCrunch, Yale neurosurgeon Murat Günel—chair of Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Neurosurgery—has joined as a scientific adviser to help guide the first U.S. human trials. The company, founded in 2021, raised $230 million in a recent Series C round that valued it at $1.5 billion.

Science Corp is trying to differentiate itself from the now-familiar BCI approach that uses penetrating electrode threads inserted into brain tissue. Hodak and his team argue that chronic performance may be limited by the damage caused by metal probes and the body’s long-term response to foreign objects inside delicate neural tissue. Their stated alternative is a “biohybrid” interface: a device that ultimately embeds lab-grown neurons alongside electronics, aiming to create a more biologically compatible bridge between the brain and computing hardware.

The near-term plan is more incremental. TechCrunch reports that the first human step will test an “advanced sensor” without embedded neurons, implanted inside the skull and resting on top of the brain rather than penetrating it. That positioning matters for both risk and regulation: it may reduce direct tissue injury, but it also shifts the device toward a category of implantable hardware where safety, stability, and signal quality can make or break the clinical case. Science Corp says it does not plan to seek FDA approval for these initial trials, arguing the device’s characteristics place it outside that pathway—an approach likely to draw scrutiny in a field where the line between research oversight and medical-device regulation is often contested.

The company’s most mature product is not a brain-computer interface at all, but a retinal implant called PRIMA, aimed at restoring vision for people blinded by macular degeneration and related conditions. Science acquired the technology in 2024 and says it has advanced it through clinical trials, with plans to expand availability in Europe pending regulatory approvals—possibly this year.

That split—an actionable vision-restoration device on one side, and a longer-horizon “neurons plus electronics” platform on the other—shows how BCI companies are trying to finance ambitious neuroscience with nearer-term medical products. The market for invasive BCIs remains small and clinically narrow, even as demonstrations in ALS and spinal injury patients have shown that implanted sensors can translate thought into cursor movement or text.

Science Corp’s first human implant will not add “new senses,” as Hodak has publicly imagined. It will test whether a sensor resting on the brain can deliver durable signals without turning the interface itself into the injury.