rich chang

marketing lead @protocollabs, an innovation network of 600+ teams, projects & movements | prev: @redbull @nytimes

[Jacques Carolan @JacquesCarolan]

super exciting work developing closed-loop gene therapies — led by @gabrilignani and his exceptional team Richard Rosch @JerzySzablowski @mikhailshapiro

[Protocol Labs @protocollabs]

Most neurotech approaches require opening the skull. @ARIA_research's £50m Massively Scalable Neurotechnologies program is asking the field whether high-performance neurotechnology can be delivered to the brain in a 30-minute outpatient procedure without transcranial surgery.

Full conversation with @JacquesCarolan on the @JuanBenet Podcast >>> https://t.co/v18BHbBqA6

[Protocol Labs @protocollabs]

Sonalis, one of the teams funded by @ARIA_research, is working toward read/write of electrical signals anywhere in the brain without opening the skull.

@JacquesCarolan, founding Program Director at @ARIA_research, on the @JuanBenet Podcast >>> https://t.co/WsRPe6zQyA

[rich chang @rschanger]

new google cal tab icon has added 10% more annoyance to my day

[Jacques Carolan @JacquesCarolan]

I had an absolute blast chatting with @juanbenet about the future of neurotech.

For neurotech to reach everyone who needs it, we need treatments that are both more effective and dramatically easier to deliver. That’s the ambition behind the programmes I’m leading at @ARIA_research.

Juan is a super thoughtful host, and this is the deepest conversation I've had about my journey, what it means to lead ambitious R&D, and the future we could unlock if next-generation brain therapies can genuinely scale.

[Juan Benet @juanbenet]

Episode 3 of my new podcast features Dr. Jacques Carolan (@JacquesCarolan), a founding Program Director at ARIA (@ARIA_research), the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency. He directs two neurotech programs aimed at one of the most important opportunity spaces: developing tools and systems to interface, at scale, with the human brain.

One program is built on the idea that brain disorders are circuit problems, and funds tools to target those circuits with molecular precision across the whole brain. The other aims to deliver high-performance neurotech to the brain non-invasively or at most in a 30-minute outpatient procedure.

We dig into the engineering and biology behind both programs, potential scaling unlocks for the field, how ARIA programs drive breakthroughs, Jacques background, the role of media in shaping the future, and much more. I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Other links to this episode and references below.

Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:22 Why 20 years of neurotech breakthroughs haven't reached patients
00:04:08 The two variables that determine whether any medical technology gets adopted
00:09:17 Brain disorders cost the UK £100B/year and we're barely treating them
00:16:15 Using stem cells and gene therapy to build better brain interfaces
00:21:40 Self-regulating gene therapy that helps the brain quiet its own seizures
00:24:03 The non-technical reasons transformative neurotech fail to reach patients
00:31:34 Watching a 30-second brain ablation stop severe tremors
00:38:11 The case for delivering brain implants and therapies without opening the skull
00:50:56 Why high technical uncertainty makes distributed teams better than vertical integration
01:02:55 Why the UK keeps producing world-class neuroscience but not world-class neurotech companies
01:11:04 What AI-driven hypothesis generation means for breakthroughs per pound
01:20:40 From quantum computing to improv comedy to running £119M government brain programs

[Funding the Commons @FundingCommons]

The Internet Freedom Project is live! 🧅

It's been an honor to build this with @torproject and our friends at @cakewallet, @ZcashCommGrants, @Logos_network, and @OctantApp.

Stand with the people building the privacy infrastructure of the open internet. 👇

[rich chang @rschanger]

@kreichard @galendruke a decentralized internet is your friend

[Protocol Labs @protocollabs]

AI twins won’t replace community governance — but they may help test new ways to make deliberation more legible.

An experiment with @dwddao’s Simocracy explored how AI agents could read proposals, surface priorities, and support treasury allocation discussions.

[Funding the Commons @FundingCommons]

What happens when AI digital twins help allocate a treasury?

Our experiment with @dwddao's Simocracy: at Frontier Tower, community leads' AI twins read the proposals, argued their priorities, and deliberated together.

With @hypercerts @OctantApp @ProtocolLabs @GainForestNow

[Protocol Labs @protocollabs]

A BCI that reads the brain without penetrating it. 85 patients implanted. FDA clearance in hand. And why neural data may be the genomics revolution of our generation.

Ben Rapoport, co-founder and CSO of @PrecisionNeuro_, on the @JuanBenet Podcast.

[Molly Mackinlay | momack @momack28]

Precision is the first invasive BCI that I could see *myself* getting, upgrading, & applying to enhancement-oriented use cases (like having my pi agent todo-list bot one thought away) without an underlying medical necessity.

Smooth, non-destructive upgrades are key! 🔑

[Protocol Labs @protocollabs]

Neuroscience is at the edge of an exponential.

Sequencing the first human genome cost millions and rewrote medicine. Once the code was readable, computer science could be applied to biology in entirely new ways.

Brain-computer interfaces are doing the same thing for the brain.

For the first time, BCIs are making brain activity readable at the spatial and temporal scales at which the brain operates, and generating data that modern machine learning can work with.

@PrecisionNeuro_ co-founder & CSO Ben Rapoport on the @JuanBenet Podcast >>> https://t.co/cYsOIeheA4

[Precision Neuroscience @PrecisionNeuro_]

Precision Chief Science Officer & Co-Founder Ben Rapoport joined @ProtocolLabs founder @JuanBenet to talk about what BCIs can do right now for patients and what they signal for the future of how humans and computers interact.

https://t.co/7NOTY4VTLj

[Juan Benet @juanbenet]

Here is Episode 2 of my new podcast dedicated to conversations on the future of neurotech, computing, intelligence, and more.

My guest Dr. Ben Rapoport is co-founder and CSO of Precision Neuroscience (@PrecisionNeuro_), Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Scientific Director at Mount Sinai. Previously, he co-founded Neuralink and Simbionics (acquired by Apple).

Precision is building a minimally invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) that reads from thousands of points on the cortex without penetrating it. The Layer 7 device is implanted through a one-millimeter slit in the skull rather than the larger borehole other approaches require. It is also fully removable.

Precision seeks to help the 5 million people living with severe paralysis in the US (including 800,000 new stroke cases per year). In March 2025, Precision received FDA clearance for a temporary wired version of the system. Over 85 patients have been implanted with and used the device in clinical studies (50 at the time of our conversation). Wireless implants are planned for 2027.

We go deep on the history of Neurotech from the 1980s to the ML inflection points that triggered Neuralink's founding, why surface ECoG was a contrarian bet that's now paying off, the path to treating paralysis and stroke at scale, and why Ben believes neural data is at the same inflection point genomic data was in 2000 — a whole class of biological problems about to become tractable as computer science problems.

Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction
00:04:39 Paralysis as a lens to understand the brain
00:05:36 The 1980s breakthrough: population encoding and the birth of BCI
00:14:36 Google Translate, ML, and the founding of Neuralink
00:23:08 What is the long-term vision of Precision Neuroscience
00:31:56 Layer 7 and why transformative technology looks impossible at first
00:50:21 The surgery: a slit in the skull, not a borehole
00:55:19 The clinical program: who are the patients
01:04:16 FDA clearance and the path to wireless implants in 2027
01:08:32 The patient population: paralysis and stroke at scale
01:16:26 Neural data as the new genomics
01:30:06 BCIs, AI, and the future of the human-machine interface
01:31:22 From medical necessity to lifestyle technology
01:40:36 Precision as a platform — and an optimistic vision

If you're interested in these kinds of discussions, subscribe to the podcast. And if there’s anyone you’d like to see or hear on the podcast, reply with your suggestions.

Full Episode 2 here and in other platforms below.

[rich chang @rschanger]

Wow! Lineup is 🔥🔥🔥

[Protocol Labs @protocollabs]

.@harrygrieve from @gensynai joins @rgvrmdya from @reppo and @PLCapital’s @bholden today at 12 PM ET to discuss AI feedback systems, verifiable intelligence, and the role of trust and reproducibility as AI systems scale.

🛎️Set your reminders.

[rich chang @rschanger]

@fintechfrank if you're earning a paycheck (instead of wealth) you're always living paycheck to paycheck

[rich chang @rschanger]

@sidgandhi_xyz privyayy

[Glow Foundation @GlowFND]

Missed last week's X Spaces with @protocollabs?

Here's your chance to catch up on how Glow is scaling solar while creating token strength.

Featuring Glow's CEO, @DavidVorick, and Chief Scientist, @vik_kalghatgi.

[Glow Foundation @GlowFND]

Last week, @DavidVorick joined @protocollabs for an X Spaces titled:

'What does it take to deploy infrastructure globally, fast?'

Here's a snippet from David about his learnings from his 15-year crypto career.

*We'll post the full Spaces soundbite tomorrow.