In yet another major scientific innovative development, tech billionaire Elon Musk's Neuralink company has officially opened recruitment for its first-in-human clinical trial.
The trial seeks to implant a wireless chip into the brain that aims to empower people suffering from paralysis to control bodily movements with their thoughts.
Neuralink took to Twitter and shared that they have received a go-ahead from an independent institutional review board as well as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct this first-ever human clinical trial.
"If you have quadriplegia (paralysis) due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), you may qualify," Neuralink tweeted on Tuesday.
Neuralink calls the PRIME (Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface) trial a groundbreaking investigational medical device study that will explore fully-implantable, wireless BCI.
During the PRIME trial, the surgical robot (R1) will be used to place the implant's (N1) ultra-fine and flexible threads in a portion of the brain that controls movement intention. This implant will then record and transmit brain signals wirelessly to an app that decodes movement intention, the announcement explained.
Apart from examining the safety of the implant and surgical robot, the study will assess the initial functionality of BCI that aims to enable people with paralysis to control external devices with their thoughts.