NEURALINK: CJ suffered a spinal cord injury and is ventilator-dependent. A few months ago, he was selected for the Neuralink PRIME Study at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. He recently underwent N1 implant surgery. at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine, with Neuralink co-investigator Dr. Michael E. Ivan, UoM Associate Professor of at the Miller School of Medicine Neurological Surgery and The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.
Per CJ, "In addition to being a stellar neurosurgeon, Dr. Ivan is really quite hilarious. Totally put me at ease even knowing that I was about to get a hole put in my head and wake up a cyborg!"
Right after surgery in the hospital, Neuralink Software Engineer Natalie Cygan stopped by his room, set up the Neuralink laptop, showed the brain waves, and gave his wife her personal cell number for future questions.
Per CJ, "Shortly after my surgery, a Neuralink engineer stopped by my hospital room to show my wife my brain waves. For the purpose of future arguments, Sweetie, this proves once and for all that I do have a brain..."
A day or two later at home, Neuralink's Sehej Bindra visited to assist with the N1 implant setup and training. CJ reached 6.23 BPS on WebGrid according to Sehej and they celebrated the success. Sehej is the the brainchild behind SimpleCell, a platform to integrate and streamline the bioinformatics research.
Per CJ, "Sehej is awesome. Came to my house three days straight to train me on my N1 and still meets with me virtually."
At his 1-month post-op visit, Dr. Ivan confirmed the surgery healed and the N1 implant was in the right place. The CT scan above shows how the implant looks in his skull. CJ called the clinical trial very encouraging because participants recovered tremendous respiratory function and the work of weaning from the ventilator helps keep motor neurons alive.
@SCI_Borg24,
@michaelivanmd