Motif’s “pea-sized” Digitally programmable Over-brain Therapeutic (DOT) requires 20 minutes to implant and can be activated at home with a wearable to “lift the fog” for people with depression. Motif CEO Jacob Robinson believes data captured by brain-computer interfaces and continuous monitoring will eventually be able to identify key biomarkers that enable psychiatrists to head off mental health crises.

Move toward decentralized trials means sponsors may be working with naïve clinical investigators who lack experience, Greenleaf’s Cynthia Schnedar says; DoJ’s Gustav Eyler urges drug sponsors to look for oddities in clinical trial data and to voluntarily report potential misconduct.

Synchron has high hopes that after successfully implanting the first minimally invasive neural brain-computer interface device in a human, it will eventually be able to give a "voice" to patients, including paralyzed individuals, who are unable to communicate. The company is conducting clinical trials and is hoping to use the data to apply for US FDA approval of the Stentrode device.

In this month's issue of Start-Up, we profile 4Tech, Advanced Cooling Therapy, Enumeral Biomedical Holdings, MiNDERA, PeptiMimesis and Synchron.