Elon Musk’s Neuralink has received FDA approval to begin its “first-in-human clinical study”, the company said Thursday, a key step for the company which is attempting to develop a direct interface between the human brain and computers.
Neuralink says it has received approval from the FDA to begin human clinical trials.
In an announcement on Twitter, the company said the approval was a result of the Neuralink team working in “close collaboration with the FDA.”
The company noted that recruitment is not yet open for its clinical trials, but said it will announce more details about this soon.
The approval means that Neuralink appears to have resolved safety concerns that had reportedly led to the FDA rejecting its request for human trials last year.
Musk, who co-founded the company, reacted to the announcement with a tweet congratulating the Neuralink team.
Neuralink’s brain-computer interface uses thousands of small electrodes embedded in the brain to read signals emitted by neurons and transmit them to a computer.