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Join us as we introduce each of the teams participating in our 2024 Summer Launchpad accelerator!
Synaptrix Labs is a neurotechnology startup building non-invasive brain computer interfaces and novel AI models to restore mobility and communication in paralyzed individuals. Its flagship device, Neuralis™, allows for wheelchair movement through brain activity and eye movement.
Team Members: Aryan Govil (CAS ‘24), CEO, and Eric Yao (CAS ‘24), CTO
In the US, around 750,000 people suffer from a stroke each year, while about 5,000 people are diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) annually. With these medical conditions being two of the nation’s leading causes of long-term disability, there is even a greater number of family members and loved ones affected by the intricate life adjustments they bring.
This is where we meet Synaptrix Labs, founded by Aryan Govil and Eric Yao. The co-founders have seen firsthand the challenges their relatives faced with modes of mobility after medical emergencies. One of the team's members, who brings a medical research background working in clinical trials for Alzheimer's non-invasive neural interfaces at NYU Langone, personally witnessed the long-term effects his uncle faced after suffering a brainstem stroke.
While assistive technology has made leaps and bounds in recent decades, it still has a long way to go to help people with neuromuscular conditions live and communicate comfortably. Current wheelchair control mechanisms are often cumbersome, inconvenient, and even unsafe.
Govil and Yao are looking to close the gap with Neuralis, their innovative brain-computer interface (BCI) & EGI headset engineered to restore mobility and independence for individuals grappling with severe neuromuscular conditions. Neuralis swiftly translates users’ movement intentions into seamless wheelchair maneuverability via powerful cloud compute architecture. The technology is currently in the beginning stages of clinical trials.
Below, Govil shares more about his team’s inspiration and entrepreneurial journey. (Responses have been edited for clarity.)
What first sparked the idea for your startup?
AG: We saw the struggle that our own family had to go through with current modes of mobility on the market and those available to current patients. Frankly, they just weren't good enough. So we thought of what the end technology would be. There are joysticks and eye tracking and all kinds of things, but the best solution is really to take the signal straight out of your brain and allow people to interact with the world around them. From there, we started to develop that tech.
How did you establish your core team?
AG: Eric and I lived together for two years before starting the company. He is great at mathematical modeling with machine learning, specifically a subfield of machine learning called deep learning, and he has a very intuitive sense of creating models from scratch. A lot of the work that we do is in the software. Our team thought, “What are the limitations of the AI that exists right now, and how can we improve them?” In the process of exploring that question, Eric brought on two other co-founders from UC Berkeley who do AI research specifically with neurotech. They work with brain signal manipulation, denoising features, and extraction, which have been super helpful with the product and company.
How did you initially find NYU’s entrepreneurial community?
AG: It's interesting. I only came to the Leslie eLab my senior year of college because I thought it was a computer lab. Then I started a company and realized, it's not a computer lab — it’s an entrepreneurial institute. Then I started going there for all the events. I met Frank, Rebecca, and Darren. All of the folks at the Leslie eLab guided me through the process of the early stage and they were super helpful. Over time, a lot of my friends and I would hang out and do work there.
What’s the biggest business challenge your startup has overcome so far?
AG: The biggest issue with our industry is regulatory compliance. Working with the FDA, Medicare, and clinical trials is very challenging. Interestingly, Frank introduced me to the director of the FDA for medical devices. The director and I have been talking, and he introduced me to his whole team, and they've been super super helpful. As young first-time founders, running a biotech company is pretty daunting and it's easy to get wrapped up and thrown off the rails in the regulatory environment, so the Leslie eLab has been super helpful there.
What has been the most rewarding moment of your founder journey so far?
AG: Working with patients. I'm the only one on the team with a clinical background and I have worked in hospitals. So for me, working with patients, having them wear the device, and seeing the data being collected — it’s pretty inspirational. I try to bring my team up to see patients at the hospital as much as I can. We're not selling medical devices, we're selling outcomes. It's really rewarding to see patients actually use the device that we've been working so hard on and seeing a positive outcome from that.
How do you envision your startup's current place in society and in the future?
AG: The great thing about creating devices that patients use at home is that it reduces the necessity of constant trips to the clinic or constant communication with insurance and providers. When the patient has access to their own care right there at home, that's the kind of future that we imagine. Past that, we want in five or six years to create consumer devices that you and I may use. [While] we're having this conversation right now, I could be texting an email or typing an email to my friend through mind control. This is something that's absolutely possible, and we're developing some of these algorithms right now. They don't quite work, but we're developing them. That's the world we envision, where everyone is tapped into the technology around them — the lights in the room, thermostats, computers, phones, tablets, your car — through the signals that are in your own head.
What three words would you use to describe your founder journey?
AG: Challenging, Resilience, Rewarding
What’s the biggest piece of advice that you’d give to aspiring student founders?
AG: Use the resources that are available. I really wish someone had told me before my senior year that the Leslie eLab was not a computer lab. There's a lot of resources available and events. There are great speakers and top companies in New York coming to the Leslie eLab. Learn as much as you can because we're always learning. To have all those resources readily available is such an opportunity that I don't think many people take advantage of. I used to go to every talk. In August, September, and October, I think I went to every single event on the calendar.
What is your best college experience (academic or social) at NYU?
AG: I don't know if I could name one, but maybe that's just an NYU thing where you just have the chance to do anything you want. Synaptrix started because I was sitting in a biochemistry class and I was really bored. So, I decided to fill out and submit a grant application just for fun. And then I got the grant. That allowed us to buy our first chips and electrode wires and build the first prototype. I don't think I could have done that in a normal college town.
Favorite NYU spot to spend time?
AG: The 7th floor of the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center on the South Side park. There's a reading room that was built in the old Bell Tower.
What type of startup celebration party would you have?
AG: At the top level of the Eiffel Tower with 30 people max, full of our closest friends. Us in the craziest place in the world. Or something like the clock tower at Madison Square Park with all the gears inside.
