ABILITY Neurotech Runs First BCI In-Human Test at TUM

ABILITY Neurotech, a clinical-stage brain-computer interface (BCI) company, has conducted the first-in-human test of its BCI technology at Technical University of Munich (TUM) University Hospital Rechts der Isar. Announced on 29 July 2026, the procedure marks the first real-world validation of ABILITY’s neural signal acquisition in a live surgical setting, formally moving the company into the clinical stage of BCI development for people with severe neurological impairment.

The study is led by Drs Wagner, Meyer and Jacob at TUM University Hospital’s Department of Neurosurgery, and will involve up to five individuals undergoing brain tumour surgery, with 20 to 30 minutes of intraoperative neural recording per patient. Initial patients underwent end-to-end system validation and signal acquisition under general anaesthetic. Later stages of the study will target neural decoding, with conscious patients engaging in speech and motor tasks. Simon Jacob, Professor of Translational Neurotechnology at TUM, framed the work as allowing the team to benchmark ABILITY’s signal quality against established clinical electrophysiology systems.

ABILITY’s fully implantable BCI is designed to capture raw, high-resolution brain signals and transmit large volumes of lossless data at significantly higher bandwidth than standard Bluetooth-based systems, with a minimally invasive design engineered for long-term implantation. Rotem Kopel, PhD, CEO of ABILITY, framed the milestone as a key step towards safe and ethical long-term BCI implantations, and towards restoring communication, movement and autonomy for those living with paralysis and speech loss. The company plans to follow this early feasibility work with its first long-term implantation study.

The commercial signal is a rapidly heating brain-computer interface category as multiple players move into human clinical validation. ABILITY Neurotech’s high-bandwidth lossless data architecture positions it as a differentiated European entrant. Expect Neuralink, Synchron, Precision Neuroscience, Blackrock Neurotech, Paradromics and Motif Neurotech to accelerate their own clinical timelines as the BCI competitive landscape continues to consolidate through 2026 and 2027.

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