Analysis
Science Corporation, the brain-computer interface startup founded by Neuralink co-founder Max Hodak, implanted its PRIMA vision-restoring chip in its first patient with Stargardt disease, TechCrunch reported from Hodak's announcement on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.
The 2mm-by-2mm chip acts as an artificial photoreceptor, replacing light-sensing cells that degenerate in Stargardt disease, an inherited condition that destroys central vision and is considered incurable; about 150,000 people worldwide have lost vision to it. The patient, implanted in May during an ongoing trial at Sydney Eye Hospital in Australia, wears camera-equipped glasses that feed a view of the world to the chip -- and read a word by his second rehabilitation session, after seeing just a single letter at the first.
“The company has not disclosed funding, investors or a valuation, leaving its capitalization an open question even as its clinical results generate headlines.”
Science Corporation, founded in 2021, diverges from Hodak's prior company in approach: its forthcoming brain-computer interface sensor will rest on the brain's surface rather than penetrate tissue the way Neuralink's implants do, a difference the company is betting makes for an easier regulatory and surgical path. PRIMA is already commercially available in Europe for geographic atrophy, a form of age-related macular degeneration, giving Science Corporation a revenue base ahead of chasing the Stargardt indication in the U.S., where the trial has not yet been run.
Hodak says a next-generation PRIMA device should reach human patients within a year and that the company expects to approach near-natural visual acuity within about five years -- an aggressive timeline against which investors and competitors including Neuralink, Synchron and Precision Neuroscience will measure Science Corporation's actual trial data as it accumulates. The company has not disclosed funding, investors or a valuation, leaving its capitalization an open question even as its clinical results generate headlines.
The broader bet Hodak is making extends past vision restoration: he has said the retina is part of the central nervous system, framing PRIMA as a stepping-stone toward a separate, skull-resting brain-computer interface the company is developing for an undisclosed neurodegenerative disease, with stroke recovery as another target. Hodak argues many people will eventually need some form of brain-computer interface by their 60s or 70s, though Science Corporation says it isn't designing for healthy younger adults today. That long horizon, paired with a product that already generates European revenue, is the combination the company is using to argue it can out-execute better-funded BCI rivals on regulatory pragmatism rather than raw capital.
