For decades, companies and researchers have been researching implantable devices that can make the physically impossible a reality. These devices have been a game-changer for people like Rodney, an Australian patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS gradually impairs all movement, including the ability to communicate.
Rodney was able to communicate with me using a stent-loaded device, which is a small electrode that converts brain signals into physical actions. In other words, the device reads your mind by allowing you to type without moving your hands at all.
Stentroad was developed by Synchron, a neurotechnology company backed by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. And that's just the beginning.
Technology companies like META are building on neurotechnology advancements in the medical world, which could lead to more consumer neurotechnology products in the future.
If you want to future-proof your portfolio, you need to know what's next in the business of neurotechnology. In this series, Yahoo Finance features stories that offer a glimpse into the future, showing how companies are making the big moves that matter today and tomorrow.
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video transcript
Was it scary to undergo stent loading for the first time?
not much.
cool.
That takes quite a bit of courage.
This is Rodney. He has atrophic lateral sclerosis, or LS A disease, which progressively inhibits all movement, including the ability to communicate.
But Rodney is now talking to me all the way from Australia using special technology implanted in his brain that takes signals from the brain and translates them into commands for external devices such as computer keys. .
In other words, it means reading his mind.
The technology, called Strode, was developed by Synchron, a neurotechnology company backed by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
Synchron has only implanted the device in a small number of patients, but believes its ease of implantation will allow for significant expansion.
This is not 20 years from now, or even 10 years from now.
I think it takes less time than that.
