▶Max Hodak's company, Science, is systematically advancing its retinal prosthesis toward commercialization, having completed a large European clinical trial, published results in the New England Journal of Medicine, and submitted the device for market approval [22, 25, 28].Apr 2026
▶Hodak advocates for a multi-faceted approach to neurotechnology, simultaneously developing hardware like retinal implants and bio-hybrid interfaces alongside complementary biological tools like a state-of-the-art optogenetic gene therapy [21, 23, 29].
▶He identifies significant business opportunities in addressing the economic and logistical bottlenecks of advanced medicine, such as the high cost of organ perfusion systems and ICU care, which his 'Vessel' project aims to solve [3, 4, 15, 17].Apr 2026
▶He believes the advancement of implantable neurotechnology was significantly enabled by the 'smartphone dividend'—the development of small, low-power electronics for the consumer market [26].
▶Hodak contrasts his company's retinal implant, which stimulates 100 million bipolar cells, as a superior approach to the prior Second Sight device that stimulated only 1.5 million ganglion cells after significant data compression [14, 24].Apr 2026
▶He posits that the BCI field will evolve into a diverse ecosystem of many specialized companies, similar to the pharmaceutical industry, which contrasts with a potential future where a single company dominates the market [5].Apr 2026
▶Hodak argues that the direction of influence has reversed between AI and neuroscience, stating that neuroscience has learned more from AI in the last decade than the other way around [13].Apr 2026
▶He contrasts the high cost and marginal benefit of an existing million-dollar gene therapy for blindness with the potential of device-based solutions like his company's retinal prosthesis [8].Apr 2026
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