Dr Angelique Johnson on starting a Medical Device Outsource Manufacturer, MEMStim
Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
Release Date: 10/12/2022
Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
is the President and Chief Product Officer at which is a company looking to commercialize Brain-Computer Interfaces using a minimally implantation method and a soft electrode device. ***This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services Top 3 Takeaways "The combination of both the nature of our thin film and the surgical innovations that we bring enables us to bring cortical surface neurotechnology to patients in a minimally invasive fashion." "Having 10 times the amount of money at an early stage before you actually solve some of the key problems can...
info_outlineNeural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
Lothar Krinke is the CEO and Board Member of Newronika which is an adaptive Deep Brain Stimulator company looking to improve patient outcomes in things like Parkinson's and Essential Tremor. ***This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services Top 3 Takeaways: "the one thing we do need to address is really the cost. The cost driver of Deep Brain Stimulation isn't the manufacturing of the system. Now, that's not cheap either it's certainly less than $10,000. How expensive is brain surgery, particularly functional brain surgery? How expensive is it to...
info_outlineNeural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
is a neurosurgery clinical lecturer at the University of Cambridge and fellow at The Walton Centre in Liverpool, UK. He is interested in tackling basic and translational challenges for the development of the next generation of neural bioelectronics. ***This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools Top 3 Takeaways: "My favorite procedure is the procedure that works and you see the patient after that is is a changed patient." "You come out from medical school like age 23 or 24. Then you get to a general medical program which in the...
info_outlineNeural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
is the Head of Commercialization at , a wearable neurostimulator sleeve for those with neuromuscular disease ***This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services Top 3 Takeaways: "There isn't any individualized training that needs to happen. What needs to happen is the identification of which muscle groups need support and have those turned on and programmed in intensity appropriately." "We were able to improve door sub selection and inversion in more than 90% of our participants." "There's nothing like getting an appreciation for a problem like the...
info_outlineNeural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
is the Head of Neurotechnology at which is a consultancy that helps neurotech companies create the next generation of medical devices. ***This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services Top 3 Takeaways: "I think consulting is really fantastic for the variety that it offers you. Not just in terms of seeing problems, but also working with different types of companies, different types of technologies, and having different day-to-day activities as well" "There have been cases where we've worked with very small companies where the company is composed...
info_outlineNeural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
is a clinical project manager at Boston Scientific which had acquired , a cardiac ablation medical device company she was working in. She runs clinical trials for medtech companies and had done so for neurotech companies as well. ***This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services Top 3 Takeaways: "One of the most difficult things that I've found while you're actually running the study, is making sure those devices are getting to the sites, which is depending on where your manufacturer is" Hiring a Contract Research Organization (CRO) or hiring...
info_outlineNeural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
Dan Brounstein is Chief Strategy Officer at Saluda Medical where he is using his 15 years of Spinal Chord Stimulator experience to help deliver closed-loop pain relief directly to the spinal cord. ***This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services Top 3 Takeaways: "We're stimulating with milliamps and we're trying to measure in microvolts, and we always use the analogy trying to listen to a pin drop next to a shotgun shot" "There's a lot of literature on loss of efficacy? It's just a therapy issue. When you deliver open-loop therapies blind...
info_outlineNeural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
is the founder and CEO of which is a leading global medical device outsource manufacturer (MDO) serving the neurostimulation market, based in Louisville, KY. ***This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services Top 3 Takeaways: "Our true competitors are actually not microfab but actually hand assembly, manual assembly" "I'm an accidental entrepreneur- the more I pitched, the more I thought about the business idea, the more I talked to actual customers the more I realized like, Hey, there's actually a need and we actually have a pretty good revenue...
info_outlineNeural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
is an in Neurosurgery and at where his lab works on electrophysiology studies, biophysics modeling, and applying machine learning models to decoding of neural activity. A major project in our lab is focused on developing a long-term brain-machine interface for the treatment of aphasia or locked-in syndrome. ***This podcast is sponsored by Ripple Neuro, check out their Neuroscience Research Tools Top 3 Takeaways: "Your job as the engineer is to create a high resolution map of a crowd's vocalization during some live event, the rules are, you only get the place, say 10 or 20 devices...
info_outlineNeural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at which has worked in directional Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) device leads for Parkinson's and other diseases. ***This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services Top 3 Takeaways: "We realized during that time that the intervention that could benefit the most from the miniaturization technologies was by far and away, deep brain stimulation." "MEMS allowed us to align every single electrode into its position, have it almost prewired and decrease the amount of touch time that an operator would...
info_outlineDr Angelique Johnson is the founder and CEO of MEMStim which is a leading global medical device outsource manufacturer (MDO) serving the neurostimulation market, based in Louisville, KY.
***This podcast is sponsored by Iris Biomedical, check out their Neurotech Startup Services here***
Top 3 Takeaways:
- "Our true competitors are actually not microfab but actually hand assembly, manual assembly"
- "I'm an accidental entrepreneur- the more I pitched, the more I thought about the business idea, the more I talked to actual customers the more I realized like, Hey, there's actually a need and we actually have a pretty good revenue model for meeting that need."
- "Kentucky actually matches investment and grant dollars depending on where your grants come from."
0:45 "Do you wanna introduce yourself better than I did?"
2:45 How did you make 3D cochlear device out of 2D microfabrication?
4:40 "Tell me about the founding of MEMStim"
8:00 Are you guys moving away from MEMS and towards 3D printing only?
9:00 Is the future 3D printed soft materials?
10:15 Iris Biomedical ad sponsorship
11:00 "Who are your customers right now?"
13:45 "What does the design process look like?"
16:15 "Have you helped companies get through ISO certifications and FDA approvals?"
18:30 "Do you guys do the implantable pulse generator or do you just do the electrodes?"
21:00 "Are you guys also prepared to ramp that up into actual production?"
22:45 "Do you have any advice for how you've survived for so long?
29:45 "What are the last five years that looked like and what are the next five years look like?"
31:00 "You're based in Kentucky, Louisville. Is there any reason for that?"
33:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"