InBrain Neuroelectronics is building graphene brain-computer interfaces to treat Parkinson's and epilepsy
Key Points
- InBrain Neuroelectronics is targeting a $400 billion neuromodulation market with graphene-based implants for Parkinson's disease, positioning graphene's signal precision as a hardware advantage over devices that have remained largely unchanged for years.
- The company's semi-chronic epilepsy platform with 100 graphene contacts is closest to commercialization, while a fully implantable Parkinson's device anchors the long-term strategy in an underserved $1.8 billion market.
- InBrain designed its devices to fit existing neurosurgical workflows rather than requiring new infrastructure, with brain implantation taking one to two hours and vagus nerve procedures taking roughly 45 minutes.
Summary
Read full transcript →InBrain Neuroelectronics is building graphene-based implantable neural devices to treat conditions like Parkinson's disease and epilepsy. Carolina Aguilar, CEO and co-founder, argues that graphene's ability to read and write neural signals at micrometric precision is what justifies the material's complexity and regulatory risk.
“We are a graphene-based brain computer interface therapeutics company developing the most intelligent interface between the neural system and AI to restore health for billions. The Morgan Stanley report stated the market at $400B. We have three product verticals: a semi-chronic platform for tumor and epilepsy resection nearing commercialization, an implantable platform for Parkinson's disease, and a vagus nerve sensor for organ-targeted therapeutics.”
Three-product strategy
InBrain is pursuing three product lines against what Morgan Stanley has sized as a $400 billion market.
- A semi-chronic, non-implantable platform with roughly 100 graphene contacts, targeting tumor and epilepsy resection. Aguilar says this is the closest to commercialization.
- A fully implantable brain device for Parkinson's disease, targeting an $1.8 billion market she describes as underserved by existing deep brain stimulation technology.
- A vagus nerve sensor that decodes signals traveling to individual organs, creating a therapeutic pathway for multiple conditions through a single point in the neck.
The Parkinson's implant is the strategic anchor. Aguilar chose therapeutic applications over assistive BCI explicitly because she saw the existing neuromodulation market as large, established, and beatable with better hardware.
Surgical deployment
Aguilar spent ten years at Medtronic in neuromodulation before co-founding InBrain, and that background shapes the company's go-to-market approach. Rather than requiring new surgical infrastructure, InBrain designed its devices to fit existing neurosurgical workflows. Brain implantation takes one to two hours; the vagus nerve procedure takes roughly 45 minutes. She expects micro-robotics to eventually compress implantation timelines further, but InBrain isn't waiting on that development.
The core bet is that graphene's signal fidelity gives InBrain a hardware advantage in a market where the incumbent devices — Medtronic's own systems among them — have changed little in years.
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