The Pulse
OpenAI Startup Fund Backs Coherence Neuro’s Cancer Implant
Coherence Neuro announced a $45 million Series A co-led by the OpenAI Startup Fund and Founders Fund for its cancer-monitoring implant. The company is developing a device to record electrical signals associated with tumors and deliver stimu
AI.info Team · Written with AI · fact-checked ·
“There's nothing in the contracts or arrangements that would mean that we would share, or they would have access to, any brain data or other health data that we're generating.”
Ben Woodington, CEO and cofounder of Coherence Neuro, speaking to WIRED
Coherence Neuro is taking investment from OpenAI’s venture capital arm and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund as it develops a brain implant intended to detect and treat cancer. Coherence’s October 21 announcement describes the $45 million financing as a Series A co-led by those investors; WIRED described it as a seed funding round. Coherence says the device can record electrical signals associated with tumors and is designed to deliver mild stimulation aimed at slowing their growth.
Woodington’s assurance that OpenAI will not receive Coherence’s brain or health data draws a boundary around the funding. The company’s device would collect sensitive neural and medical information, while OpenAI has separately described a collaborative relationship with Merge Labs, another brain-computer interface startup.
Three brief tests, then seven more patients
Coherence tested the implant’s recording ability in three people undergoing brain-tumor removal surgery at Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia this summer. Surgeons removed the device after about 30 minutes; the test served as an initial safety check, not a long-term treatment trial. The company is now testing both recording and stimulation in seven additional patients.
The current human work does not establish that the implant can reliably identify cancer signals or change a tumor’s course. Coherence says it has detected signals in animals that indicate whether cancer is growing, shrinking or recurring, and is working to translate those findings for human research. The company plans to use the new funding to pursue a clinical trial with long-term implants in people with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.
Coherence wants the implant to respond to tumors
The proposed system would monitor neural signals continuously and apply electrical stimulation when it detects patterns associated with cancer. Coherence’s longer-term aim is for the device to learn those patterns and provide treatment in real time. The startup also wants to develop implants aimed at cancers elsewhere in the body.
Those goals remain distinct from what the company has demonstrated so far: animal signal detection and brief, temporary placement during surgery. The investment announcement does not provide results showing that stimulation halts tumor growth in people, or establish how accurately the system can distinguish cancer-related activity from other brain signals.
OpenAI’s second disclosed brain-computer interface bet
OpenAI announced a direct investment in Merge Labs in January. The startup emerged from stealth with $252 million in initial funding to develop ultrasound technology for reading information from the brain. OpenAI said it would work with Merge Labs on scientific foundation models and other tools; Coherence, by contrast, is developing a device with a stated cancer-monitoring and treatment goal.
Ian Hathaway, a partner at the OpenAI Startup Fund, called Coherence’s approach “incredibly innovative” and said the fund was proud to back the company. The proposed medical benefit will depend on evidence from longer-term patient studies, not the size of the Series A round: Coherence has yet to show that its implant can safely deliver a treatment that improves outcomes for people with glioblastoma.