Synergia develops neurostimulation device for epilepsy

Synergia Medical has raised $10 million to develop a neurostimulation device for the treatment of epilepsy. The device uses optical fibers, photovoltaic cells, and a rechargeable battery to address the shortcomings of existing neurostimulation products.

According to Synergia CEO Attila Borbath“The device is smaller than the competition. It’s thinner, it’s lighter, it’s programmable and tunable for therapeutic improvements. It’s fully MRI compatible and finally, it’s equipped with a fast-charging system, which obviously avoids extra surgery.”

Borbath and 10 colleagues met their design brief for a small, rechargeable, MRI-compatible device by deploying technologies that are yet to fully establish themselves in MedTech. The device features optical fibers, not electrical wires, to make it compatible with full-body MRI scans. The light that passes along the fibers is converted to electrical, nerve-stimulating impulses by photovoltaic cells.

Synergia also focuses on battery life. The batteries of existing devices last for years. When they reach the end of their life, the patient must undergo a surgery. This procedure takes less than one hour and can be performed under local or mild general anesthetic, but it is an inconvenience. Synergia’s fix is a battery that is recharged in situ via induction.

In the longer term, Synergia wants to apply its neurostimulation platform to indications other than epilepsy, notably sleep apnea. These efforts will draw on technologies used in the current version of the epilepsy device, and other, more experimental approaches that are yet to make it out of the lab. Synergia’s pipeline of technologies includes a super capacitor capable of near-instantaneous charging.

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