The U.S. Department of Transportation said Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface company, had shipped contaminated implants removed from the brains of dead research monkeys infected with multiple types of dangerous pathogens. We are investigating allegations of violations of federal transportation regulations. The alleged violations may have put humans at risk of exposure to dangerous bacteria, including drug-resistant bacteria and potentially life-threatening herpes viruses.
Reuters first reported a departmental investigation sparked by allegations filed Thursday by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a medical group that advocates for animal welfare in medical research. The Department of Transportation confirmed to Ars on Friday that it has launched a standard Neuralink investigation in response to PCRM’s allegations.
In a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and William Schoonover, deputy administrator of the Department of Transportation’s Office of Pipeline and Toxic Substances Safety Administration, the PCRM stated, based on a large number of publicly available documents and emails, that the hazardous Evidence of possible violations of material transport regulations was presented. Record your request. Advocacy groups believe that Neuralink’s contaminated hardware was not properly packaged to prevent human exposure, and that Neuralink employees who shipped the materials were unaware of how to safely transport such materials. Evidence suggests that he did not receive the necessary training.
The allegations fit the pattern of allegations against Neuralink, suggesting the company abused animals and undertook a slapstick investigation in an attempt to meet Musk’s rushed product development schedule. Last year, the USDA Inspector General opened an investigation into whether the company violated animal welfare laws. Because current and former Neuralink employees have spoken out about “hackjob” surgeries and the needless suffering of research animals.
“big deal”
The allegation of improper transportation of potentially dangerous brain hardware revolves around an incident in 2019 when Neuralink was moving hardware from the University of California, Davis to the Neuralink facility. At the time, Neuralink was partnering with his UC Davis researchers on an invasive brain-computer interface study using rhesus monkeys.
PCRM’s claims center on a shipment of hardware from two monkeys who collectively had a drug-resistant brain infection. staphylococci and Klebsierra bacteria, Corynebacterium ulceranswhich is associated with a diphtheria-like disease in humans, macacin herpesvirus 1 (Herpes B) can cause severe brain damage and death in humans.
Emails from UC Davis safety officers to Neuralink employees indicated that the staff involved in transporting the hardware had not been properly trained and the extracted implants had not been properly packaged and labeled. suggests that One of her emails to a Neuralink employee said:
The hardware components of explanted neural devices are not sealed and sanitized prior to leaving the primate center, posing a hazard to anyone who may come into contact with the device. Simply labeling it as “dangerous” does not take into account the risk of being infected with herpes type B.
In a subsequent email, a UC Davis employee wrote about another incident in which “uncontained, monkey-infested hardware” was improperly transported by a Neuralink employee.
This is an exposure to anyone coming into contact with contaminated explanted hardware, and we are concerned about human safety, so we are doing this in a big way.
Neuralink ended its partnership with UC Davis in 2020. However, PCRM said Neuralink continued to work with the neurosurgeon who oversaw the experiment at his UC Davis, and may still be working with other researchers whose partnerships have ended, so the violation remains relevant. claims to have sex.
Neuralink did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment. Reuters also reported that the company did not respond to requests for comment.
