US-based medtech company Butterfly Network and Merge Labs have announced a multi-year licensing agreement to develop ultrasound-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Under the agreement, Merge Labs will gain acess Butterfly’s Poseidon family of ultrasound-on-chip technology through Butterfly Embedded, the company’s licensing and co-development business. The collaboration includes upfront and milestone-based license payments, hardware purchase commitments, and technology access fees to Butterfly, with ongoing royalties expected on future commercial sales.
Merge, cofounded by Aflalo, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Alex Blania, Sandro Herbig, Sumner Norman, and Mikhail Shapiro, launched in January with $252 million in seed funding from investors including OpenAI, Bain Capital, Interface Fund, Fifty Years, and Gabe Newell. The research lab is developing brain-computer interfaces designed to connect with neurons using molecules rather than electrodes. It aims to explore deep-reaching modalities such as ultrasound for communication with the brain. Merge Labs stated that the initiative seeks to develop neural-interface technologies that could eventually help restore abilities affected by injury or disease.
Building brain-computer interfaces at a neurotech company
We believe ultrasound has tremendous potential to enable a new generation of neural interfaces. Our goal is to take the fastest and safest path to building the best technology possible, while enabling valuable R&D on downstream applications along the way. Butterfly has built a semiconductor-based ultrasound platform with the performance, flexibility, and commitment to innovation that can help us move quickly toward that goal. Commenting
The latest agreement follows Butterfly’s previous work in brain-computer interfaces. In 2023, the company entered a five-year collaboration with Forest Neurotech to develop a whole-brain neural interface that could use ultrasound to image and stimulate the brain. Butterfly has also been expanding applications for its ultrasound-on-chip technology beyond handheld clinical imaging.
Joseph DeVivo, President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of Butterfly Network, said, “We’re pleased to partner with Merge Labs and proud that they have selected Butterfly as their exclusive platform for research and development. We are committed to supporting their team as they advance this work from research toward commercialization.”
Spencer Kellis leads the applications group in the BCI department at Blackrock Neurotech, which spans neuroscience research with academic partners all the way through developing software platforms and algorithms for BCI systems. In an interview, Kellis highlighted Blackrock’s work with electrode arrays implanted in the cortex to record neural activity and decode signals. He emphasized the complexity of BCI development, comparing it to drilling a tunnel from six or seven sides.
Butterfly Network & Merge Labs Partner to Advance Ultrasound-Based
The longest continuously implanted research participant using Blackrock’s technology has had his BCI for more than 10 years. Researchers at the University of California, Davis recently used Blackrock’s technology to decode the attempted speech of Casey Harrell, who has ALS, restoring conversational communication using a synthesized version of his own voice. At the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, researchers have used it as part of a double neural bypass to help restore movement and sensation following spinal cord injury.
Kellis did his Ph.D. at the University of Utah in VLSI—very-large-scale integration—which is all about integrated circuits. The lab he joined was part of a larger research group funded by the National Science Foundation to build a wireless implantable cochlear prosthesis. Once that prototype was done, the group decided they wanted to build something for the brain. Kellis got an internship at Cyberkinetics, which is now Blackrock, and through the internship met a neuroscience professor at the University of Utah, ending up starting a project with him on micro-EEGs.
Merge Labs is developing brain-computer interfaces designed to connect with neurons using molecules rather than electrodes, aiming to explore deep-reaching modalities such as ultrasound for communication with the brain. Butterfly will serve as Merge’s exclusive chip-based ultrasound partner, providing a foundation for Merge to develop its own personalised neural interface technologies and systems.
For now, the partnership between Butterfly and Merge Labs represents a step toward developing ultrasound-based brain-computer interfaces. As the initiative moves forward, Butterfly Network will support Merge’s team as they advance this work from research toward commercialization.