CNT/PHT Seminar: “The Future of Brain Interfacing” (Philip Sabes, Neuralink, UCSF)

Philip Sabes is a neuroscientist, neural engineer and a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Philip received his PhD from MIT, focusing on machine learning and models of human motor control, and trained as a neurophysiologist during a postdoc with Richard Andersen at Caltech. At UCSF, the Sabes Lab combined neurophysiology, computation, and behavior to discover how sensory feedback drives movement control. The lab also developed technologies for Brain Machine Interfacing (BMI), including the first demonstration of real-time artificial sensory feedback delivered via multi-electrode microsimulation and a novel sewing-machine approach to neural interfacing that allows micron-scale, thin-film devices to be individually implanted in the brain. In 2017, Philip retired from UCSF to help launch Neuralink. While there, the company further developed the sewing machine approach, demonstrating a fully implanted, 1,000 channel device. After leaving Neuralink, Philip co-founded Starfish Neuroscience, a startup focused on Neuromodulation. He currently resides in the Seattle Area.