From Neurons to Technology: Our Latest Research
How foundational neuroscience becomes intelligent health technology.
6 minute read
Moored boats along Sydney harbourScience fiction vs fact
Combining high-tech engineering with the human nervous system is a recurring theme in many sci-fi films. Think The Matrix, Terminator, or Blade Runner where neurotechnology blurs the line between biology and machine. Bodies and minds are augmented and humanity always loses control to an advanced intelligence.
In reality, combining neuroscience and technology produces something far more interesting than dystopia. People with Parkinson's disease carry implanted devices to deliver electrical pulses deep into their brains, quieting tremors that previously made daily life unmanageable. Children born deaf can have sounds routed through an electrode threaded into the inner ear, finally being able to hear their parents' voice. Someone paralysed from the neck down can have the electrical activity in their motor cortex translated in real time by a computer to move a cursor across a screen.
At its core, neurotechnology isn't about building cyborgs, replicants, or evil overlords. It's about producing meaningful, lasting change in how the body functions.
But where does neurotechnology come from? Like any technology, it’s built on decades of foundational research. Modern day agriculture has roots in 19th century studies of soil ecosystems. The computers and digital infrastructure we rely on today grew from early physics discoveries, the invention of the transistor, and the semiconductor industry that followed.
Neurotechnology is no different. The deep brain stimulation breakthrough that transformed Parkinson's treatment in the 1990s was built on a long history of academic and clinical neuroscience – early experiments stimulating brain regions in the 1930s, studies of pain and psychosis in the 1950s and 60s, and decades of incremental progress before a treatment finally reached Parkinson’s patients.
From neuroscience to neurotech
Before Antelope, we spent a combined twenty years in academic neuroscience labs, building and inventing neurotechnology to better understand the brain. That work included developing ways to visualise and map neural circuits (how neurons connect to one another to drive behaviour), methods for delivering genes precisely to a single type of neuron, and tools for dialling the activity of specific neurons up or down to observe changes in behaviour. Some of these technologies are now used in labs around the world, and some are being commercialised and brought closer to patients.
As neuroscientists, we were able to contribute to decades of existing research. As co-founders, we can use that knowledge to build new kinds of technology and take it somewhere that matters most, to people. That's the neuroscience-driven foundation of Antelope's intelligent health technology.
One of our recent academic projects has just been published as a peer-reviewed paper. It focuses on a small, previously inaccessible part of the brain called the efferent vestibular nucleus, or EVN.
The smallest remote control in the brain
Have you ever wondered why you can't really tickle yourself? When you move your hand toward your own skin, your brain sends a signal in advance, a heads-up to your sensory system that something is coming. By the time contact is made, the sensation has already been dampened. Tickling only works when the sensation is unexpected.
In neuroscience, this kind of anticipatory signalling is called efferent communication — the brain priming and preparing the body before anything has happened. It occurs across virtually every system in the body. For our “sixth” sense, balance, this anticipatory signal originates in a tiny cluster of neurons called the efferent vestibular nucleus.
The EVN is one of the smallest neuron populations in the brain. Like the movement signal that primes our skin, it sends signals from the brain to the balance organs in the inner ear. Despite being discovered in the 1950s, its function has remained largely a mystery. When does it activate? What role does it play in balance? Does it sharpen coordination, or act more like a noise filter?
For decades, scientists couldn't study EVN neurons directly. They are buried deep within the brain and look identical to their neighbours – a needle in a haystack. It wasn’t possible to precisely switch them off, or push them into overdrive and test their capabilities, without affecting everything around them.
Building on earlier work characterising the molecular profile of EVN neurons, we engineered a gene delivery system that enters only cells carrying that specific molecular signature. We found a way to target and control these neurons while leaving the surrounding tissue untouched. This is a first in the field.
Our main finding was that the EVN receives signals from across the brain, from regions handling vision stability to those coordinating complex movement. This makes the EVN a multimodal integrator: a hub that draws on multiple streams of information to keep you stable. It uses this to tune the inner ear in real time, something like a volume knob. It's the brain telling the inner ear: I know we're moving because I'm choosing to walk, so don’t overreact to the motion.
This technology is now available for use to other scientists, giving them a precision tool for studying these hidden neurons. In the longer term, it opens the possibility of isolating and targeting ultra-specific clusters of brain cells based on their molecular signatures, and perhaps developing therapies for conditions like chronic dizziness that can act with far greater precision than anything currently available.
At Antelope, our goal is to create intelligent health technology, including wearable health technology, capable of meaningfully engaging the nervous system at scale. In place of Hollywood’s dystopian future, we believe our neurotechnology will allow people to understand, treat and engage with their own health more precisely than ever before.
The Fifth of Many
This blog series is our behind-the-scenes window into Antelope. We promise candour and honesty.
Perhaps something here resonates with you. Perhaps you have insights that could help shape what we’re building. Or perhaps you simply want to follow the journey of two founders working to create intelligent health technology designed to optimise performance, health, and wellbeing for every body.
Whatever brings you here, we are grateful to have you.
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