ARTICLE SUMMARY:
In medication-resistant cases of neurological diseases such as epilepsy and Parkinson’s, intracranial electrodes are used to monitor and stimulate the brain, separately, via direct contact. Current technology suffers from outdated designs, associated complications, and unnecessarily high costs, due to its size and outdated manufacturing process. NeuroOne, a strategically positioned, Medical Alley-based start-up, is ready to set a new standard for implanted neurological care.
Electrocorticography (ECoG), otherwise known as intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG), has long been a staple of epilepsy surgery, favored for the high degree of spatial and spectral resolution in its signal quality. Entailing an invasive procedure, ECoG electrodes are placed directly on the cortical surface after a portion of the skull is removed, giving neurologists an unimpeded picture of brain activity. The minimally invasive counterpart to ECoG and iEEG is stereoelectroencephalography (sEEG), in which electrodes are inserted into the brain through small burr holes in the skull to scan for signals on all sides and deeper into the tissue.
When epilepsy patients do not respond to anticonvulsant medications, they undergo mapping with ECoG, sEEG, or both to identify the seizure-prone areas of the brain as targets for ablation. In a separate hospitalization and surgery, lasers are typically used to deliver radiofrequency (RF) energy to ablate the identified areas, requiring additional hardware. In addition to its clinical value, over the last decade, the use of ECoG has increased dramatically, including applications in neuroprosthetic research and brain-computer interfaces.
While today’s silicone-encased ECoG electrodes are relatively well tolerated, their implantation beneath the dura mater displaces the cerebral tissue by several millimeters, potentially leading to pain and edema, which in turn can impact signal quality with artifacts. Furthermore, the manufacturing process is laborious and costly, with each electrode requiring the sealing of 64 metal contact discs between two layers of silicone with wires attached to each disc. NeuroOne Medical Technologies, a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: NMTC) based in Eden Prairie, MN, aims to solve both of these issues and more with a full suite of ECoG and sEEG products, along with implanted devices for longer-term spinal cord stimulation.
