The FDA recently approved a tiny device in the brain designed to treat severe depression. Motif Neurotech, a startup born out of research at Rice University, is moving forward with a clinical trial for its brain-computer interface (BCI).

Nearly 3 million people in the U.S. live with treatment-resistant depression, where traditional meds and talk therapy haven’t been enough.

A Brain Chip the Size of a Blueberry

The device is called DOT, which stands for Digitally programmable Over-brain Therapeutic. It’s about the size of a blueberry. Unlike some other brain implants you might have heard about, this one doesn’t touch the brain. Instead, the chip sits in the skull, just above the protective layer called the dura. From there, it uses wireless power to send electrical pulses to the specific brain circuits that regulate mood.

“The goal for this technology is that it would be the mental health equivalent of a continuous glucose monitor for diabetes,” explained Jacob Robinson, a professor at Rice and the CEO of Motif. “What has been really special for me personally on this journey is to be able to work all the way from a concept through the process of research and development funded by the federal government at Rice, and take that into a product that is going to affect people’s lives for the better.”

Preparing For the Future

Motif managed to get this FDA approval four years after starting the company. In the federal approval world, that is incredibly fast for this kind of medical tech. The upcoming study will involve adults who haven’t found relief through other treatments.

In the study, the team hopes to find out why it works for certain people, rather than how it works. Motif is part of a new initiative called EVIDENT, backed by ARPA-H, a program focusing on making mental health treatments more precise.

“The idea with this funding is to support a number of teams who have rapid-acting interventions for a mental health condition and to collect additional data to help determine with greater precision whether a treatment is working, how it is working and which patients are benefitting most from which course of treatment,” Robinson said.

By collecting this extra data, the team hopes to take the guesswork out of mental health care and get help to the people who need it most.